The Mercury News‘ police blotter reports that “Twenty-two new cars parked at a Honda dealership in Redwood City were keyed over the Christmas holiday.” The attack has the hallmarks of the previous assault on innocent Audis. “A similar case occurred earlier this month at an Audi dealership in Concord, where employees discovered Dec. 13 that nearly 100 cars had been keyed overnight, police said.” The anti-Ingolstadt vandalism racked-up a reported $800k worth of damage. The Honda assault will hit-up the Honda dealer’s insurance company for something between $20k and $30k. An anti-import backlash or just plain nasty? “Redwood City police Detective Cochran said he is not aware of any connection between the two cases.” [thanks to Herr Schmitt for the link]
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I thought CA’s population had already given up on the D3 back in the 80s. I could see this happening in OH or MI. But CA?
My guess would be a disgruntled employee or just a general hooligan.
Happened at a local Ford dealership here, a few years ago.
The Body Shop that the dealer used to touch up vehicles, etc, was attempting to get more business. Needless to say, the Ford dealer ended up owning the body shop and all it’s assets.
Didn’t some wacko enviro group lay claim to torching Hummers a few years back in Kalifornia?
i think this is the dealership that has a mechanics union actively picketing the business for the last few weeks – something about the dealership not using unionized mechanics.
Part 1: Sometimes creepy criminals are just that — cowardly idiots destroying someone else’s property for no gain other than the knowledge they hurt somebody else.
Part 2: If this had happened in Michigan, the blame heaped on the good people of Michigan for xenophobic destruction would be deafening.
Auto dealerships in general have next to no security. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods, and anybody can walk on the lot and do whatever they want.
Yes, some have high-mounted cameras to see what happened after the fact. Theft and vandalism run rampant.
Uncivil and inexcusable. I hope they are caught, convicted and prosecuted to fullest extent the law allows.Our dealership was also once victim’s(not to the same extreme extent) by a factory parts delivery driver. At night, if he deemed a car was parked in an area that made his drop off harder, the vehicle got punished.Once spotting a pattern, after several new car mutilations, we had local authorities stake out the area.Once caught in the act,the driver was released from his 20 plus year job, jailed, and had to make restitution. Everyone lost due to his vadalism. The dealership lost sales and suffered higher insurance rates. The driver lost his career and whatever (obviously none) self respect he must have possessed once he had been exposed. Everyone loses.
Totally stupid. The idiot(s) who did this think it does not cost them anything, they do not understand that we all pay for insurance.
If it is mechanics trying to unionize, this makes the union even more bad. At one time unions where something the gave the avg worker some dignity and protection from being abused. Now it seems like they represent selfish whinners. Very sad state
That account reminds me of time when a spoiled American kid went on a spree in Singapore. He trashed a bunch of new cars. He was caught and was canned. 60 minutes ran a story on him. I remember some one from the USA was trying to get a movement to let him off the hook. I can only imagine how many letters the Singapore officials received, from Americans praising them for canning the kid instead of pleas to let him go.
The average prison term for killing a person in the USA is only 7 to 8 years; less in many cases.
That is the price of a human life in America.
In the light of that, it’s hard to imagine how keying a car could be thought of as a serious offense.
Once again, we have gotten exactly what we want. By voting for the politicians and judges that are in place, we have given our consent. And not just once, but time and time again.
We’re obviously happy with it like it is!
KayakerNC :
Happened at a local Ford dealership here, a few years ago.
The Body Shop that the dealer used to touch up vehicles, etc, was attempting to get more business. Needless to say, the Ford dealer ended up owning the body shop and all it’s assets.
Reminds me of the old Far Side Cartoon:
A guy is reading the message just delivered via paper wrapped around a brick chucked through his window. It reads “Bricks thrown through your window call Al’s Glass 555-5555”
RealAutoGuy,
You are so right. And its so wrong.
Death penalty for vandalism. I’m not even kidding. I just can’t see how society benefits from the existence of those who are against it.
Auto dealerships in general have next to no security. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods, and anybody can walk on the lot and do whatever they want.
Terry, you are very right about that. I’ve left vehicles at dealerships late at night multiple times to be worked on the following day. Until recently, they didn’t even have locked gates to keep the inventory from being driven off.
rpn453> I would agree with that.
I have had my motorcycle knocked over twice, PARKED, and my car keyed twice, all within the first few months of ownership of each! For what reason???
I keep to myself & don’t bother anyone.
The police told me “file an insurance claim, we don’t have time to investigate it.”.
If they are not investigating crimes, why are my taxes paying their salary?
In each case, my deductible was $250 (out $1k for those incidents alone!) and my insurance went up and I almost got dropped by my insurance company.
I wonder if this would be newsworthy if this had happened to Hummers.
Unfortunately, property crimes in America go virtually unpunished. If the punishment was canning, as in Singapore, then this probably wouldn’t be happening in the first place. Instead, if the perpetrator is caught, he or she will go through maybe $10,000 worth of processing through a criminal justice system that essentially lets him or her get out of jail free, to deface or destroy yet again.
We have only ourselves to blame for this. We created this convoluted criminal justice system, and now we have to live with it.
Carmax deserves for proper credit for layout of display of inventory at the facilities I’ve seen here in the Atlanta area. The inventory usually faces a very heavy traffic count four lane road. Also, it’s gated and well light to the extreme at night. To access inventory, you must park away from the inventory and walk toward the facility.This works well for them for two reasons. First, unlike most dealerships, I’m sure it gives their security ample time to see anyone that’s coming at night. Secondly, when car buyer’s want to see inventory during normal operations they have to come thru the building to see the inventory.People must be greeted by one of the sales staff to gain access to vehicles.The layout forces people to greeted by staff, who start gathering information from the customer, to increase their odds of a sale.
It’s part of the unspoken contract of civilization here in America: “you don’t mess with a man’s car.”
There’s nothing more despicable, vile, or d-baggy than messing with a man’s automobile causing permanent harm whether mechanical or cosmetic. Vandalism, of most all kinds is cowardly, stupid, destructive (duh) and kids today are being warned against it because they’re getting killed when the owner comes out with a shotgun.
I can’t find the article I read about it, but yeah, you wanna burn the world down, start with your stuff and only your stuff.
Even though these cars were not yet sold to owners, it’s still disgusting and childish. No matter who does it, for whatever reasons, it’s completely unacceptable.
Install more cameras to help identify these miscreants. Then put the video on YouTube (and here) and RF can start a new thread on types of creative punishment to fit the crime.
$800k damage to 100 cars? Is $8000 per car some sort of inflated insurance claim? After all, I’m sure you could get a volume discount at the body shop.
After reading the headline, I thought the article was going to be about cars with Republican bumper stickers getting keyed.
Didn’t some wacko enviro group lay claim to torching Hummers a few years back in Kalifornia?…
I believe that was ELF, for Earth Liberation Front. A bunch of idiots that do so much to set back intelligent environmental work, and poison the term “environmentalist” in the eyes of the public. How releasing all those toxic fumes from burning vehicles is supposed to help with conservation is lost on me…
Why blog this? The article stated that the motives were a mystery. This is nothing more than simple vandalism.
@ Sunnyvale, CA:
The numbers set off the BS detector a bit, don’t they. Interesting that no one has raised the dealer as a possible culprit. Key your own cars, file inflated claims, score a much-needed cash infusion.