Yeah Auto Radio Stereo is a great shop. I seriously doubt issues with them. I've been lucky over the years. I'm paranoid with my car, I go into the store for 5 mins and I pop the faceplate off my N1 and take it in the store with me. I park in the garage at night and at work (I work at a car audio shop in Elk Grove) It's at the front row parking with my 2-way pager alarm armed. I don't take my car to the movies, mall or anything like that, I use the wife's car (which has nothing of value in it). I'll tell you, I worked security at the Cinedome theatres on Greenback and I-80 back in 1994-95 and that place was a HOT SPOT for people jacking stuff. It was difficult keeping an eye on the parking lot, you would be on one end watching someone suspicious and they would be on the other side jacking stuff. You can't have anything nice these days without these haters trying to take your stuff. One time there was an instance where these hood rats tried breaking into my car off Madison and I-80 at 4am and I chased them all the way to Rancho Cordova after they pointed a gun at me. lol They went to jail for a bit.

Installers are people, some good, some bad. I've seen shops get busted for one bad seed. Fire the bad seed and move on. I think most installers do it for the love of the work, but I've fired guys for stealing from me. 18 years installing, I've seen a lot of installers come and go. If a thief finds a great spot to stake out, you'll get busted into over and over. The movies, malls, boat docks and restaurants. They see you park and walk in.... they know your not coming out for at least 30-60 min. It can take a good thief 3 to 4 min to rip out your plastic mounted $1200 Nav. Get a 2way paging alarm, and cover up your valuables. If they don't see it they are less likely to smash a window. A bright flashing light and nothing to see....move to the next car. A bright flashing light and a expensive DVD.... smash and grab. Even with a 2way pager, by the time you run out of the movies to see if it's just a false alarm (and you probably wont if its a good movie) they'll be long gone. Boat dock..truck with an empty trailer? Your goodies are as good as gone.

It's sad we can't have anything nice these days.

Think of where you park, up front, near the entrances, and hide your sh*t!

And oh ya, I can hook you up with a good alarm, Roseville, CA. Licensed and insured.

Damn Im glad i dont live near you guys. I have 10-12K in accessories in my truck. I can park my truck anywhere in my city and Im good. I sometimes leave my truck unlocked at night. Sounds like Mexicans are your culprit..

ill chime in and say.. you can have an alarm and it wont stop a theif...

subs, amp, avic screen & brain, two headrest Tv's stolen @ school night time. parked on the MAIN asile, under light right next to the parking pay meter.. alarm on the car, xv791

i was out of range from the pager, so i didnt get the beep when it was broken into..

time away from car: 30 mins..

so even with a good alarm (pro install everything hidden where it cant be reached including pain generators) anyone that wants your stuff will take it

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.

remember if they cant just pull it out they will break things alot of the times your 1200 / 1500 / 2000 dollar indash will be cheaper than relplacing ur whole dash , one tip for people with alarms, buy a backup- battery siren the battery is in the siren it dont matter how many cables they cut it will keep going off until the battery wears off usualy about 45 min only way to shut it off after set off is with a key like a safe has works very good almost every alarm that leaves my shop has one

Craziness. First, please don't ever use security screws like the one shown above as it will cost you money and or time and frustration. Remember, stereos need to be removed for service or upgrades from time to time.

Also, alarms do work most of the time. So some guy wants to steal your stereo and breaks the window and the alarms starts to go off. What's he gonna do? Wait for the cops to show up? Maybe have a donut?! If he really wants it, yes, he may go ahead and enter the vehicle while everyone around finally starts to look to see where the noise is coming from. If your alarm doesn't false all the time it will be something out of the ordinary and people will do something. Tips:

-Get a glass break sensor - thieves can use tiny busted up pieces of porcelain thrown at a window to shatter it w/out making a heavy impact or a loud BANG noise, but the sound of breaking glass will trigger a glass break sensor. Remember, thieves don't need to open a door if they can crawl in through an open window.

-Get your windows tinted as dark as legally possible. Makes it harder to see inside and takes more time to get a busted window out of the way and less glass to clean up.

-If your alarm goes off, run outside real quick. If it's night time, turn on outside lights. Most thieves will run away at this point.

-A tilt sensor will go off if someone tries to tow your car or jack it up to steal the wheels but won't protect what's inside.

-Paging alarms are great but lets you know somethings happening to your car while your far away.

shit bro i live right there just about my shit got stolen too citrus heights roseville antelope highlands areas are always gettin shit stolen it sucks..got my indash and head rests stolen bullshit

Craziness. First, please don't ever use security screws like the one shown above as it will cost you money and or time and frustration. Remember, stereos need to be removed for service or upgrades from time to time.

 

Also, alarms do work most of the time. So some guy wants to steal your stereo and breaks the window and the alarms starts to go off. What's he gonna do? Wait for the cops to show up? Maybe have a donut?! If he really wants it, yes, he may go ahead and enter the vehicle while everyone around finally starts to look to see where the noise is coming from. If your alarm doesn't false all the time it will be something out of the ordinary and people will do something. Tips:

 

-Get a glass break sensor - thieves can use tiny busted up pieces of porcelain thrown at a window to shatter it w/out making a heavy impact or a loud BANG noise, but the sound of breaking glass will trigger a glass break sensor. Remember, thieves don't need to open a door if they can crawl in through an open window.

 

-Get your windows tinted as dark as legally possible. Makes it harder to see inside and takes more time to get a busted window out of the way and less glass to clean up.

 

-If your alarm goes off, run outside real quick. If it's night time, turn on outside lights. Most thieves will run away at this point.

 

-A tilt sensor will go off if someone tries to tow your car or jack it up to steal the wheels but won't protect what's inside.

 

-Paging alarms are great but lets you know somethings happening to your car while your far away.

I can rip my avic f700 out of my dash in 45 seconds flat. Even with a blaring alarm, it won't matter. I'm sure a thief who's not being careful about the dash can do it in under 30 seconds and they're off.

Damn Im glad i dont live near you guys. I have 10-12K in accessories in my truck. I can park my truck anywhere in my city and Im good. I sometimes leave my truck unlocked at night. Sounds like Mexicans are your culprit..

Is there pictures of your set-up? It sounds awesome!