Attempted theft...

[FormulaReed]

Last night someone tried to steal my 91' zr1. Luckily for me, they suck at stealing cars and couldn't overcome the battery cutoff, so she's still mine.

However, they bashed the ignition in the attempt. It looks like they hit it with a hammer and tried to jam a screwdriver in the ignition.

I filed a police report, and I'm thinking that I will have to have a shop repair the damage. Is this the kind of thing that just any shop can do, or should I try to find a specialist? Any recommendations in the greater Seattle area?

Cheers,

Reed

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[Ccmano]

Sorry to hear. Glad there was no major damage. I’m surprised they would go after an old C4. I would certainly take it to a corvette specialist, but the ignition switch on the column is not ZR-1 specific that I am aware of. Check the National Shop listing sticky at the top of the “General” section. I believe there are two shops listed.
H
:cheer:

[FormulaReed]

I was a little surprised too.

They also tried to take my 91' z28 camaro. They failed twice. They smashed the door lock, but failed to punch it out so they broke the window. When they punched the door lock, it jammed the door and it wouldn't open.

Definitely not a group of pros. They also hit my neighbors airstream.

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[Paul Workman]

Brings me back to considering a secret disable switch installed somewhere...

Sorry 'bout the damage. Glad you kept the Z!

[viper107]

I had one on my 87 c4 back in the day(kill switch)

[WARP TEN]

Brings me back to considering a secret disable switch installed somewhere...

Sorry 'bout the damage. Glad you kept the Z!

Paul, as we discussed at lunch the other day, I too had a "kill" switch on a Corvette at one time, although it was a little different. In the early '70s I lived in Cambridge MA, near Boston, and owned a 1967 Corvette coupe. Since there were a lot of auto thefts in Boston in that era I installed a simple theft prevention device. It was a fuel line solenoid with an on/off rocker switch hidden under the carpet on the passenger side of the center console. If I turned it off, the only gas available for a thief was that in the carburetor float bowl.

About a year later, one Saturday night I was visiting a friend in downtown Boston and when I came out of his apartment around midnight my Corvette was gone. We called the police but then started looking around. Sure enough, we found it about 3 blocks away parked and only slightly damaged. When Boston's Finest finally showed up I asked them to write a stolen vehicle report. They said they were not going to waste their time doing that. One said, " Kid, there are about 100 Corvettes stolen in Boston each year. Yours is the only one that has ever been recovered. Be happy and go home." I went home.

Of course my approach wouldn't work so well on a ZR-1 without a carburetor float bowl. The reason we had been talking about it at lunch was we were talking about electric cutouts on ZR-1s. When I did mine on the '95, I used a very similar rocker switch hidden under the carpet on the passenger's side of the console. Invisible and easy to access. --Bob

[lfalzarano]

I believe the C4’s have a fuel pump at the gas tank. The trick that I used on my 427 Vette to save the car from damage was to place your cutoff switch to the fuel pump. If you have a locked garage, leave the car unlocked and keys on the console. The thief will be so excited. He’ll fire it up and back out of your driveway, but he’ll run out of fuel in the middle of the street, panic and run. Your car is safe.

It might sound crazy, but your car will be recovered without damage from them breaking into it.

Get yourself a wireless camera system. It’ll alert you on your phone of them breaking into your garage.


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[FormulaReed]

I put a battery cut off on any car I don't want to get stolen.

I had a sweet 87' Toyota 4x4 sr5. Extended cab, red and gold. It was dead mint. It was not worth much in 1998, but I loved it. Woke up one morning and it was gone. I got next to nothing from insurance.

Ever since than I just put a battery cut off in my cars. A pro would get past it, but will stop idiots.

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[WARP TEN]

I believe the C4’s have a fuel pump at the gas tank. The trick that I used on my 427 Vette to save the car from damage was to place your cutoff switch to the fuel pump. If you have a locked garage, leave the car unlocked and keys on the console. The thief will be so excited. He’ll fire it up and back out of your driveway, but he’ll run out of fuel in the middle of the street, panic and run. Your car is safe.

It might sound crazy, but your car will be recovered without damage from them breaking into it.

Get yourself a wireless camera system. It’ll alert you on your phone of them breaking into your garage.


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Good idea. I am sure you could use my cutoff switch for a fuel pump or a ZR-1. On the '67 I had to cut off the gas. --Bob