brokenCRX

Hey guys,

As you probably read in Dave_B's post, my 97r got stolen Monday night between 6PM and 8:47PM. Around 3AM Tuesday morning, a police helicopter spotted my R getting stripped in the woods. That particular helicopter obviously had more important things to do than follow the thieves, but they did send out patrol cars, K9 units, and more helicopters. The thieves were spooked, left a lot of stuff, and vanished. I am very fortunate.

The police processed my car for 2.5 days and I got it back Thursday night. It has been very hard emotionally to look at the car, but I had some family come over, clean off all the finger printing dust, and help me pull all the parts out of the interior of the car(police threw everything they could into the car). This helped give me a little kick to get my car work started. It is still early, but here is the damage.

All of these parts were removed from the car, but recovered on the scene and thrown inside my car by the police:

Front seats
Rear seats
Complete exhaust (headers on back)
Wing
Instrument gauge cluster
Front 5-lug suspension (everything between upper and lower control arms)
Front wheels
Spare tire
Koyo polished radiator
Power steering pump
Airbox
Right brake light
3 floor mats
Valentine 1 radar detector
Most of the interior trim
Most of my personal stuff
Car bra
Front sway bar

What is missing:

Hood
Fenders
Headlights
Front bumper
ECU
ABS ECU
Gear shift ****
1 rear floor mat
Battery
Car cover
A lot of nuts and bolts

What is damaged:

Roof liner
Plastic interior panels(both of the large ones that the go from the front seat belts all the way back to the brake lights)
Broken windshield (looks like they hit it from inside with the jack handle they used to break the ignition lock)
Factory CD player (looks like they took a crow bar to it when they couldn't get it to play the only CD in my car...CD player hasn't worked for years and I found a CD that was stored in my armrest jammed inside the CD player!)
Radiator and vacuum hoses cut
Wire harness cut in engine bay
Engine is almost out...another 10 minutes and it would probably have been gone
They keyed initials with a box cutter on the entire driver's door and drivers quarter

What was found in the car that does not belong to me:

Baby pacifier (hey, I guess they want to teach thier kids G.T.A. early)
Husky box cutting tool
Cheap sockets
Air impact socket
Cheap wrench (Popular Mechanics=Wal-Mart)

I took a bunch of pics from before I did anything, but my memory card is acting up and I can only get three of those now. Here are some pics. My brother is the professional photographer, so I will have him to do a little better job than my camera phone pics.

10 Days Before being stolen:


Leaving the impound lot:


On the way to a safe place:

Willard

best of luck with the repair!

JDMjukie

Happy to know she is now with you. Maybe a better alarm system with a couple of layers may prevent this happening in the future again.

berettagtz117

Sorry to hear about that man! Its fucked up that heli just dipped out so they couldnt be caught!! Glad you got it back, hopefully insurance helps you out a bit. Gl w/ project.

actionanh

man i'm so sorry bro

brokenCRX

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by berettagtz117 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hopefully insurance helps you out a bit. Gl w/ project.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks guys...there will be no insurance claim. I never plan on selling her and would rather pay the expenses out of pocket and keep a clean title than go down that road. On top of the possibility of a salvage title and a large deductible, my business insurance rates would probably go through the roof and it would cost me more time, money, and frustrations to claim than fix it myself out of pocket. Also, I got the car back a couple days after the theft verses batteling months with the insurance company to keep the car. It sucks, but I think it is the best route for me. I'm just praying I can find reasonibly priced parts and get this behind me.

As far as security...I probably need many, many, many more layers! While I have the interior and engine out, I will add several. I will never park my R in a public parking lot again...it will only be used for spirited weekend drives. When I bought this car, it was to be my daily driver that I would keep completely stock, drive it until she died, rebuild it, and store it. We made it to 143,681 miles and she was pulling stronger then ever! I hope to use this "opportunity" to freshen up some things and turn her into a garage queen.

Thanks for the support and any answers to questions. I am sure I will have plenty such as which ECU can I use in my 1997? Will a P73 out of a JDM ITR work or will I need a connecter to make it fit?
Thanks again,
Brett

itr1244

****. that's sucks

at least they didn't take the motor..

Ed 341

Sounds you have a good plan for the car, and a very optimistic outlook on things. Good luck with the rebuild...make it look better than ever.

Doespike

That's a sad sight, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Glad you got heR back and best of luck with the rebuild!

Dave_B

If you need ANY help bringing her back, you know how to get ahold of me.

attentionwhore

Glad you got her back. Fuggin thieves should die!

KYLE.

good luck on putting it back together

743power

damn man, that's horrifying to see, but comforting at the same time, knowing you have a much easier starting point that many others. Sucks they couldn't catch the ******* though.

I really hate to see posts like this for many reasons, but one that always sucks for me is that these posts make it oh so clear to me that I can't own an R until I have a garage. I already lost 2 hondas to thieves, no way would I let them take an R.

94rs-turbo

iTrader: (6)

damn your lucky

totsie7944

dam bro im really sorry, but your very fortunate to have the stuff left in the car that you do man....

Having the engine and most the interior is a huge money saver!

Screw theives

RRRRRRRR

daMN!!! im speechless!! just speechless seeing how the car was return and having to paid for all the missing parts n labors....just insane.Best of luck to you bro!!

Desired_Speeds

that really sucks that it was stolen, but you still have the motor the major pieces, thats what counts! props for putting it back together!

RagingAngel

From one '97 owner to another... I'm glad to see you haven't abandoned her....

and best of luck!

BTW, to the best of my memory, the JDM ecu will fit so long as it is not a JDM 98spec/small case ecu.

you are better off holding out for a USDM ecu with no speed limiter or just going with an OBD1 conversion altogether.

VTEC_Club

coolhandluke

iTrader: (2)

Im stuck in between feeling sorry but glad you have a strong standpoint for your build. I understand your concerns with insurance, and I'm sorry you will have to do this rebuilt out of pocket. Again, best wishes and I am very glad you have chosen to rebuild.

clayton bigsby

iTrader: (1)

its a 97 you HAVE to put it back together.

jarel

glad you got it back.....could've been worse. g'luck restoring it all

Boosted_JDM

Dam, good luck man. Get a GPS tracking system for it. Its a must, for Type-R Owners.

brokenCRX

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RagingAngel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">BTW, to the best of my memory, the JDM ecu will fit so long as it is not a JDM 98spec/small case ecu.

you are better off holding out for a USDM ecu with no speed limiter or just going with an OBD1 conversion altogether.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks RagingAngel...approximately what speed are the JDM ECUs limited at?

Here are some more pics right off the tow truck:

-Infinity-

Thats so sad... Best of luck.