993 mirror thefts

RichardF · May 12, 2009

The scrotes that enjoy stealing 993 mirrors for later sale on Ebay seem to have targeted the Kensington area now. I have seen several recently demirrored cars locally, so anyone in the W8 or SW7 areas needs to beware.

jstatham · May 13, 2009

The mirrors (and rear lights!) were stolen off my 993 Targa last night (London - NW3). Same thing happened to a 964 parked on my road.

I spoke to the guy who looks after my car (Porchetech) and he says its pretty common. And the Police told me people are nicking whole bumpers off BMWs.

Anyone any ideas on how to prevent them being nicked? Porchetech are suggesting a chain to the inside of the door - but the thief might just decide to trash the car if he can't remove the mirror once he's got it off the door....

zwhitea · May 13, 2009

Many alarm systems have a ground circuit which can be used to trigger the alarm if it is broken, (commonly used to protect accessories like radios) This could also be connected to the mirrors so at least the alarm would sound.
However Im not sure if the pa1000 or 2000 come with this feature/option... maybe worth a call to H&P..?

Adam.

Mark Elder · May 13, 2009

ORIGINAL: jstatham

.... Porchetech are suggesting a chain to the inside of the door - but the thief might just decide to trash the car if he can't remove the mirror once he's got it off the door....

Agree with you - for people who know how to quickly remove the mirrors, they are just going to be irritated by a chain and probably use the door panel as leverage to (at least try) to break it - total damage much worse.

Best we can hope is that they seperate the connector rather than cut wires[&:].

Alarm idea (even if supplementary to the PA1000) seems better - at least they are only likely to get one, and probably won't come back to take the new ones if they remember you had an alarm last time.

Is this caused by eBay, or has it always been a problem?

jstatham · May 13, 2009

Thanks Mark. Worth a try - I did hear from another garage that you could use special screws too. If there is some way that you can't get them off the door in the first place that would be great.

I am not sure its a new thing, but it certainly seems to have been worse recently. The guy at Porchetech said that he had heard of a few in other areas of London - and one poor guy who got new mirrors and they were gone again in a couple of days.

I can't really see there is a massive market, unless someone is souping up their Saxo with them....

edelschmetterling · May 13, 2009

The unfortunate truth is that this is not a new thing and if there is activity in an Area it should be posted and blacklisted by way of ownership warning.
See an earlier plea"¦
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=374345&mpage=1&key=&#376556

& This is from the first incident:
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=307293&mpage=1&key=&#328156
You will note that they will and have come back to then steal the replaced mirrors. I now keep my car underground and never park in the same spots, especially in London. £500 for one wing mirror! The costs are mainly due to the hours it takes to spray them the new colour and put the stupid things together. (They come in parts which have to be put together by a technician "" all the action/ motors etc are in the casing).

I have actually attempted to speak to Porsche about possibly making retro, but removable wing mirrors which would be a God send. But alas to no avail. "" The mirrors are held on by a brittle bolt. Strengthen the bolt and it will rip a hole in your door when they attempt to remove it. Put a re-enforced plate behind it and you risk having dents in your door from thief attempts and no doubt kicks. It's a lose, lose situation and in these times of unemployment and hardship we are unfortunately the ones who suffer as they have a black market return of at least £300. Buy them from Indies or Porsche, not from second hand places"¦ this might slow the nonsense down.

Forgot to mention: My Alarm went off when the mirrors were stolen. Surround by a hundred or so people, no body did anything at all. They just stood there and watched. The Kid just ran away. I called the police, gave them the lamp post camera numbers and everything and the only thing they said was, 'you have to report it to your local police station'... My taxes pays for that foul quality of service, it's just wrong.

sebrussellsmith · May 14, 2009

What a surprise - my mirrors were stolen last night - aaaghhhh! SW6 area. If only I heard something I would love to teach these peasants a lesson they wont forget.

What to do now - as you say buy new ones and they will disappear immediately. Go for old style 964 mirrors?

I was going to ask about connecting the alarm but someone has already mentioned this. What about an electric shock!!! That'll teach the bug..rs!

What shall we do, how can we stop this? Is there anyone in the London area this has not happened to so we can arrange a set up?

Help.

LeoSayer · May 14, 2009

How about etching your reg number into the mirror glass, which just costs a few quid?

That might stop the buggers if they notice, or at least make the mirrors harder to sell on.

sebrussellsmith · May 14, 2009

ORIGINAL: LeoSayer

How about etching your reg number into the mirror glass, which just costs a few quid?

That might stop the buggers if they notice, or at least make the mirrors harder to sell on.

Yes I was thinking about this sometime ago. only problem is they still might take them if they havent noticed the etching. Also potentially they could take it all and just change the glass?

Have started a new thread in conjunction with this - all london 993 owners (not inteneded to sound selfish!) only that its London that seems to be heavily affected.

grogger · May 14, 2009

ORIGINAL: sebrussellsmith

What to do now - as you say buy new ones and they will disappear immediately. Go for old style 964 mirrors?

Here in W9 we had this problem a year or two ago. Maybe the scrotes have been serving time since then or have simply changed their patch?

At all events, at least one 993 round here seemed to have his replacements nicked too. There is though a 993 round here that had the earlier rectangular, elephants ear type of mirror fitted to his 993 and he seems to be fine. I guess these aren't attractive to the thieves. They look pretty ugly, but given the fact that having your mirrors ripped off seems in many cases to cause damage to the door panel, as well as leaving the car mirror less, it maybe is the only realistic option, until someone develops a quick demount for a 993 teardrop mirror.

sebrussellsmith · May 14, 2009

ORIGINAL: grogger

ORIGINAL: sebrussellsmith

What to do now - as you say buy new ones and they will disappear immediately. Go for old style 964 mirrors?

Click to expand...

Here in W9 we had this problem a year or two ago. Maybe the scrotes have been serving time since then or have simply changed their patch?

At all events, at least one 993 round here seemed to have his replacements nicked too. There is though a 993 round here that had the earlier rectangular, elephants ear type of mirror fitted to his 993 and he seems to be fine. I guess these aren't attractive to the thieves. They look pretty ugly, but given the fact that having your mirrors ripped off seems in many cases to cause damage to the door panel, as well as leaving the car mirror less, it maybe is the only realistic option, until someone develops a quick demount for a 993 teardrop mirror.