What you're saying is what I suspected - they knew it was there. Not the "order" part - that's scary.

Houston flooded pretty badly not too long ago. Tons of contractors in the area renovating homes and buildings for the past several weeks. To meet demand I assume those companies hired anyone (ex-cons). And I suspect that's where it all started since this area is not known from crime, and they obviously came prepared.

I not only live near several large office buildings and banks, there is an ATM at just about every street corner. I'm just not sure what I can do. Even if I talked someone into letting me watch security video - what then? I'm not a detective. I was hoping the police would do their fair share.

I'm guessing I'll be in the market for a C3 again soon (I was actually looking to ADD a C6 as my daily driver for a year or two before moving on to something more practical). But man, it's been so long, I'm not sure I even remember how to look for a good prospect.

Crappy day.

 

That's awful.

 

I hope they find the person that took your car and you get it back with no damage to it.

 

If your local PD is not normally busy as you alluded to then they have the time to give this theft some due attention.
You will not get any access to surveilance footage but if its suggested to investigating officer he may think he came up with the idea and check into it.
Talk to your neighbors, somebody may have heard some racket and looked outside. They may have thought it was AAA or a repo.
As I said most people don't recognize a crime a foot when it's right under their nose.
We just had a bank robbery w/ a bank full of people guy walked out w/ 7 grand.
Not one idiot knew it was a robbery and every wannabe witness gave completely diferent discriptions of the actor.
Somebody might remember seeing the truck after a lil prodding?
They'd be an idiot to sell it on Craigslist but as suggested better check on CL in surrounding venues as dumb and dumber are out there.
Any gangs local?
Somebody targeted this type of car.
Kids today as a generation are not interested in these old cars.
Try to sell a hot rod lately?
Keep us posted.
If I was closer, I'd shadow local PD and help ya out.
Marshal

 

Like Marshal said, ask around your complex and word will spread. When I was attending a military school in El Paso, I almost had one of my C4's stolen. Luckily for me, someone (stranger) walked up to the flatbed driver and asked what he was doing because he had just saw me park it for the night. The flatbed driver said he was going to check with dispatch to make sure it was the right car and then left the area. The driver even had another person with him posing as the car owner so the situation wouldn't look suspect. The next morning after finding out about the attempted theft, I asked people around the hotel who were checking out if they had seen anything. The one person I happened to ask that also witnessed it said they just thought the owner was having it towed so they didn't think to question it. Then he said that the person who they thought was the owner who was with the driver, obviously was not me.

Maybe if you tell the police that there are numerous cameras in the area, they will visit these places and order the footage to be reviewed and not treat it as just another "unrecoverable" stolen vehicle. I would move out quickly though as some of these csamera systems may record over the previous days/weeks recordings. Good luck with the hopeful recovery.

Terry

 

Sorry for your loss, Bastards! Karma is a bitch, and those thieves have it coming!

Tip for the next time, and for all members who keep their cars in a parking lot or car port

PULL the coil wire off the coil and distrbuter and keep it in the house. If you are only driving on the weekends, thieves rarely have one of those with them, they will need a flatbed if they want it that bad. Also it is always good to check things under hood anyway before you drive.

 

Any tips on where to start looking for a new one? The last one was found out of a newspaper ad...

What to look for (cosmetically sound vs mechanically sound), etc? A link or two to the right threads from a forum veteran should do the trick.

Thanks for the support.

 

Look in the C3 section for cars for sale

there is a nice '75 for sale in texas listed there

 

Put a local PARTS WANTED ad on CL.

red interior parts, wheels, tail lights etc.
"Willing to buy a whole parts car".

 

Not just the used car section, check the parts section too.

 

Man last year my buddy got his f250 stole out of his driveway in league city. Long story short we work all over the Houston area and happened to see a truck alot like his in a tire shop in 59 little York area and he found his own truck after cops looked for it for 6 months. The interior had been changed wheels and a loft kit installed, 40k miles put on it and the Vin was changed and the guy had a title and everything to it until they checked the hidden Vin..... it was a long drawn out process to get it back.

I'll keep an eye out and if I happen to see one I'll check it out but they may have already changed quite a bit on it. He found his because he built some custom brackets for his tool box and they were still there.

Be prepared if you do find it for nothing to happen to the guy that has it. The guy that had my buddies truck said his truck broke down and he had a wrecker tow it and they brought back the wrong truck.the cops let that dude walk away and nothing happened to him, 2 days later the tire shop was closed and all the vehicles in there were gone.

 

Jesus.

 

Looks like I am busted!

Hope you find her soon!

 

What about those of us with HEI ignitions? A kill switch is a good idea, or maybe even just unplugging the power wire from the HEI could be enough for someone who doesn't know these cars.

Another idea is to take the rotor out of the distributor. Little more of a PITA than pulling the coil wire in a non-HEI car. I really like the coil wire idea.

 

I am incredibly sickened by this and understand how you must feel,

Please do not take this in a bad mean spirited way,
But was there cars worth more parked near it?

This is an odd one to me, here in Orlando I know several c3's 74-82's less than trailer queen pristine but nice that are in plain sight and they do not even get vandalized,

I have to question the motives of the thief, this was a person who knew the car was there and went to a lot of hell and risk to get a car again no offense meant that didn't have the bang for the buck easier cars to rip would have had,

This on the other hand wasn't a total novice they knew what to do and when to do it to get in and get away like a Ninja,

I do not have the spidy sense of chop shop, perhaps a dirt bag parting it out themselves perhaps a con worker on his way south of the border,

I get a weird feeling this was targeted by someone you might know or know of,
Do you recall any odd fellows making remarks good or bad about the car lately?

I would post on all the texas and a few near by craigslist the picture and a warning the car was stolen,
Then in "ransom movie" style offer a reward for the arrest and conviction of the lowlife who stole it, might not take much $$$ to get a fellow lowlife buddy of the thief to rat out the brain behind the rip off,

In my way of thinking this will never be a "car" in the usa again unless you get her back.

 

Sorry to here about your C3. One of the members of our local club-Houston C3 Club posted this to our website and am sure we all will keep an eye out. Hopefully the A-hole will leave the A&M plate on the front so someone can identify it a little quicker.
When you are ready, we know where there are a couple of very nice C3s available, locally, a '73 in particuar so log into our site and make your introductions. Wish you the best.

 

Very sorry to hear of your misfortune. Hopefully the replacement makes you feel whole again.

 

Thanks for all of the help. I'll be checking out the C3 Club, I didn't know we had one but it sounds like my kind of club - ha.

So I'm not too clear on exactly what happened yet, but the police recovered the vehicle and supposedly it's still in good condition, just muddy (and I imagine wet inside since it's been raining and we all know t-tops leak).

I haven't seen it yet but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

From what I understand so far, the guy tried to outrun them in the car and all of it's 200HP glory (lol). But ditched it (maybe running?) in to some "woods".

Hopefully things look okay, so if you see the car around, please - don't call the cops, it's probably me.

 

Wow, glad to hear they recovered it! Hopefully it just needs to be cleaned up and isn't damaged. It would be interesting to see some pictures of its condition when you get it back.

 

Great it was recovered!

I figured it would be a joy rider. Pros won't bother with a C3. No high-dollar parts like airbags or xenon headlights that are easy to sell.

Once you get it back, be sure to install a hidden kill switch.