So my wife went to pick up her car today at the Newark Tow Yard. As I thought, it was stripped and damaged to the point of being undriveable. The steering wheel was damaged and airbag missing (they are apparently the hottest item on the car for thieves), the side skirts were ripped off, the rims were gone and replaced with spare tires/doughnuts, the front license plate damaged, the ignition ripped out with wiring exposed, shift and emergency brake knobs missing. No telling what damage was done under the hood, since I haven't gone home to check yet. The insurance appraiser should be checking it out today. Oddly enough the cat-back Tanabe exhaust was still there (probably too old and dented for the thieves to do anything with it). BTW- Again, I'm not using a real photo of the car here, just one I found to illustrate the point since I haven't seen the real car yet.

Did I mention I hate car thieves?

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Tags: theft, stolen, honda, civic, police, recover

Well it looks like they found my wife's car (they being the Newark City Police Dept). The car is currently in an impound lot in Newark and unfortunately their business hours have forced us to wait until Monday before we can find out how much is left of the car. It could be whole or stripped clean for parts, we just don't know (the photo to the right is from the 'net and not my wife's car... it does look just like that though... or it "did"). I'd also like to know the circumstances surrounding the discovery. Was it in a ditch, just parked abandoned on the side of the road, or in a chop shop they just busted? Hopefully it will all be clear on Monday.

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Tags: theft, stolen, honda, civic, police, recover

My wife's car was stolen yesterday. In her words, "Now I really do live in Jersey." It was a 1997 Red Honda Civic DX coupe 2dr with a nice set of rims, AEM intake and a Tanabe cat-back exhaust. No tint, no stickers (other than old Rutgers parking stickers), and no lowered suspension so it wasn't too ricey. She fondly called it "Mr. Lazer" (my Prius is "Mr. Car"). Just in case anyone in the NY/NJ/PA/Con area sees it, the NJ license plate # was JKC38J. Not holding out much hope though since it was stolen just a stone's throw from Newark, NJ... land of Chop Shops. Newark is just under Jersey City as one of the Car Theft Capitals of the world and the Honda Civic is one of the most stolen cars in the world. It was a good solid car too...very few problems, and my wife fully paid for it long ago.

She says that we shouldn't get another car for her because we can't afford it right now and we're trying to get out of debt/save for a house... we'll see. There are always good deals out there. In the meantime, we already filed a police report (called the Bloomfield "Boys in Blue" to the scene of the crime yesterday), filed a claim with our car insurance company, and cancelled the EZ-pass tag for that car. For now I'll be shuttling my wife to and from the train station for work.

Thieves are the dregs of humanity. Car Thieves don't even deserve to be called human. Sigh.

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Tags: theft, stolen, honda, civic, police, insurance