This sucks, I put a D3 in my wife's Tahoe for her birthday as a surprise gift. We went to a kids birthday party at John's Incredible Pizza in Roseville, CA. While we were in the joint, some punks jammed a screwdriver between the rear door glass and the door frame. They pried on the glass 'till it broke. Then they crawled in the car and stole the D3 and the head rest monitors in October. After a $7000+ insurance bill, I added a few more dollars and had my shop upgrade to the Avic Z2. Beautiful piece of equipment! My wife parked her car in her work lot which is at a very busy strip mall, Birdcage in Citrus Heights. She parks 4 spots off the main lane in front of the shops. Comes out to go home and the Z2 got jack the exact same method a the first time!! So pissed! Fortunately, they didn't trash the dash like they did last time so the insurance bill wasn't so high.

You know cops don't do much but take numbers in case they stumble upon it. There is obviously a good sized ring in this area. I would love some input on ideas on how to find the products stolen.

Sorry to here your story and sorry to say there's almost no way of catching the thieves or finding your equipment.

If I were you I would check your so called friends because it sounds like it's someone who knows what you have and where you go ! By your own admission the second break-in was almost identical to the first.

GOOD-LUCK !! I hope you do find your equipment.

i'm surprised your insurance co. paid the second time. you better hope it doesnt happen again. they're gonna tell you your beat, and investigate you

That just sucks! Perhaps your original theif now has upgraded his (your) equipment.

Did you not have an alarm on your vehicle? It may have at least attracted some attention or persuaded the thief to not hit your vehicle.

Did you not have an alarm on your vehicle? It may have at least attracted some attention or persuaded the thief to not hit your vehicle.

Seriously, if your gonna put that much money into your car, at least invest in an alarm to protect it (or at least try to protect it)

I have thought about the installers as part of the prob. But there is no way that they could have known where to find the car the first time around. Very unlikely that they would follow us from home.

There is an alarm and I know that the alarm is 80% install and 20% product. After the first time I upgraded the Clifford alarm and added a tilt sensor. Thought I was good, dumb mistake on my part. After the second time my wife had enough and wanted not to go through this again and I re-installed the factory radio. While doing this I found that the alarm install was not all that great. I decided to test it and it failed miserably. I could break the window, climb into the car, remove the bezel and pull out radio all before the alarm goes off.

Insurance, this part is difficult for us because both my wife and I are insurance agents. And she actively works with our current insurer. How great does that look?!

I work at Best Buy - we've had more than 2 instances where customers have called the store, and told us that when they got home, then went upstairs, came back in about 5 mins to take out the tv/comp and show off the install and their stuff was stolen. Kind of freaky if you think about it.

They recently busted two audio shops here, and two thieves that were friends of best buy employees. (they, being the cops). The audio shops were just basically taking customers info, and then watching them, and stealing their shit. Customers with alarms, the alarms were disabled, or the horn disconnected before they left the shops.

Pretty shady, but in your case, I'd think about going somewhere like circuit city, where thats ALOT less likely to happen. Also, at circuit city, you can give them a bogus address, etc, just to be safe.

YOU PEOPLE ARE FUCD IN THE HEAD IF YOU THINK INSTALLERS ARE TAKING YOUR EQUIPMENT. now past installers that have now become full time crack heads, they may be your culprit! ive had a person reach in my window while im eating brekfast in my truck and grab my collar and try to pull me out the window all while shouting that after he came up to my shop yesterday i followed him to work and stole his 6 year old pioneer screen. i laughed as hard as i could at him and told him i have no use for a cheap old piece of shi tv (that always makes people feel dumb, when u explain how NOT ballin they are)

car theifs are a sick breed, they steall your hard earned equipment and cut your wires then they either sell it for 50 bucks (for crack) or they put it on ebay never to be seen again.

but then again its easy to enter any car ever created all you need to do is break a window, if you dont want to make noise then u pop off the door handle and simply pull the rods that controll the locks. ooops this person has an alarm, hmmmm simply look under the dash for the only wires running out under the hood and snip snip. no more siren wire. on most cars that have factory alarms the horn is installed in a place that u can easily get to the wires for again, snip snip. voila im now in ur car. ur ipod, ur cds, ur purse, ur personal info thats in ur glove box, ur gucci shades hidden in ur console, ur pistol under ur seat, and of course all the stereo equipment u ever bought is now under my control mmmwwuhahahahahahaha- its all mine!!!!

the best security system for a car is a full coverage insurance plan.

My truck was broken into in my drive way. They simply broke the window, hit the unlock button and made off with my AVIC-N1 tuner. They didn't steal the brain or any other equipment in the vehicle. They also didn't get the face plate. I still have that as a reminder of my long lost N1. I am now thinking that the guy who installed the dudes system in California has found my house in Texas and ripped me off too. The same guys hit 5 of my neighbors the same night. It's amazing that none of us had an alarm system in our vehicles.

I had no alarm at the time but have a Cliffard now with glass break and shock sensors...turned up to maximum sensitivity. Maybe the next time I can shoot the sum bitches from my bedroom window.

pleeeeeeese stop with the installer shi!!! you fukin incriminating ass dummies. u got ur shi jacked!!!! thats it theres no huge conspiracy, you and all ur neighbors got jacked on a one night crime spree and you even said how the only thing that got tooken was ur tuner and no faceplate! doesnt sound like an installer to me! if i jacked ur shit i would plug the factory radio back in fer ya!!! lol

I agree, get an alarm that works, problem solved.

pleeeeeeese stop with the installer shi!!! you fukin incriminating ass dummies. u got ur shi jacked!!!! thats it theres no huge conspiracy, you and all ur neighbors got jacked on a one night crime spree and you even said how the only thing that got tooken was ur tuner and no faceplate! doesnt sound like an installer to me! if i jacked ur shit i would plug the factory radio back in fer ya!!! lol

Take the stick out, dill weed. My comment was a joke. Your a stereo installer...great...an honest one...great again. Now lighten up a bit.

In this situation, its obviously not random.

They broke into the guys car the same time, both instances, within days of having his shit installed.

The most likely culprit is the intallation shop.

What, are installers rich? I think not. In fact, the majority of them are low paid (less than 15 an hour), and would be the type to steal.

The installers on this board, probably dont fit that description, but unfortunately, a lot of them do.

So lighten up.

there alot of shady shops out there. i am an installer at best buy... before i started working here i was doing installs with my friend. we had a friend come to us to get a bunch stuff installed. Deck, speakers, subs, amps. we would usualy go into L.A. and get stuff for cheap from the wholesalers. But our friend thought all that was too much money. he was gonna get good quality stuff for cheap. so he went to a shop and got crap quality for even cheaper and he got an alarm. about a week later while at school (H.S) his car got jacked. all the audio stuff stripped and the car was found in the parking lot of a church. So watch out for some of those mom and pop shops that may seem shady.

an alarm is only as good as the install. I love those that have the alarm brains right under the drivers dash and not hidden. I remember a customer coming into our shop to have new equitment installed. he had been at a different shop and had a full system installed and an alarm. not only did his truck get stolen out of his driveway a short time after the work was done but to add insult to injury the thief ripped out the alarm brain and left IT on the driveway where the truck was. now thats pretty f***d up.

The best security system is a huge dog and a big gun.

Alarm...Before u waste more time and mony I would suggest a 791xv.I know its alot of money but your out alot more now that u have these problems,and jus think how much your wife will love u when she doesnt have to get into hot car...I have been installein for 11 years and see it over and over again.ALARM FIRST BEFORE DOIN ANYTHING AFTERMARKET.........

O yea and tell who ever does your alarm u want it behined the guage cluster theres room for everything there....

that sucks man hope it doesnt happen again

I had to go to that same pizza place in Roseville, CA for a DEI dealer training thing and was paranoid the whole time I was in there, I drove around for 30 minutes till I could get a close spot and watched my pager remote like a hawk. lol I've worked in shops for years and I've never seen shady stuff like installers jacking stuff but I've worked in higher end shops. I have heard of a few shops in the Sacramento area that have had some shady things happening like that, a couple in the south area.

junebug, where is this shop you had the work done at?

bottom line is if a thief wants your system, they will get it. it doesnt matter if you have the best alarm in the world. if youre not there to hear it or do anything to stop it, its useless...it just makes a loud noise, which would scare amatuers away, but not the ones who can make a living off doing this kind of thing. the best thing to do is to insure everything you buy.

as for the discussion about shops bein shady, YES SOME SHOPS WILL DO THAT, so for anyone on here whos defending installers and calling other members 'dummies', get your head out of your ass and realize that it does happen. theres a place not 5 minutes away from me that hands out complimentary license plate frames with their company name on them, and then look for those frames like targets, and steal back what they sold. and since most places ask for your information, give them a fake address.

but a helpful tip to make it harder, if not impossible for the thief to take your stuff:

its called a security screw. my father showed me it (hes a contractor) when i was installing my z1 a while back and i dreaded having to get them out...i needed to use a dremil to get them out. it uses a flathead tip and can only be turned clockwise. its near impossible to get the screw out once in because of the curves sides on the other side. get a box of them and change all your hardware to that screw.

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junebug, where is this shop you had the work done at?

I am extremely confident that it's not the shop. They are upstanding honest people that have been at the same place for a long time. Only one of them I thought about and he has since left the shop. hmmm, wonder if they fired him for stealing???

I'll even plug them, Auto Radio Stereo on Madison.

I have been going to Auto Radio on Madison for quite a while as well, who left recently?

I don't believe that any of them could or would be involved with anything like this, I think it was just dumb luck the first time and the area the second time. I have had 3 radios stolen in the last 8 years - all of them were at or near Birdcage (Target, Best Buy and the old Orchard Supply)...