So, this happened to my 997 Turbo... [NSFPH image]

[Whoozit]

Parked in an off street car park but open to the street. Seventeen years living here with a Boxster, Audi RS2, Audi A6, Golf GTI, and MX5, and this is the first vandal damage. Which doesn't get rid of the sick feeling in my stomach.



Do I

a) Bother filing a police report? Will anything happen?
b) Check the business where I park it for CCTV? Will it be worth anything?
c) Paint it and get over it?
d) Park somewhere else...but where.

[worsy]

Definitely report it as not doing so will fudge the figures and give your local PCC opportunity to reduce resources. As far as the car is concerned, gutted for you.

[hman]

That sucks - do all of what you suggest, you may also find that with wet 1200 grit paper you can scrub out the graffiti and then machine polish it back to a shine. The test is to lick a finger and drag it across the scratch, if the scratch disappears then you should be able to polish it out with grit paper and a machine polisher.

Happy to help I'm in bucks if you want to drop by and see what I can do?

[mini me]

Whoozit said:

Do I

a) Bother filing a police report? Will anything happen?
b) Check the business where I park it for CCTV? Will it be worth anything?
c) Paint it and get over it?
d) Park somewhere else...but where.

e) report them to the PH spelling Nazis

My recent experience with the missus car is
a) done. police didn't even ask for a statement, got a letter a few days later with a crime number saying they wouldn't investigate. It is good to record it though as mentioned. and who knows maybe you will find a sherlock?

b) do this but it wont help without Sherlock. We found CCTV footage but the BIB weren't interested.

c) unfortunately this is the most likely course of action. I would be worried about a repeat offence though. Its st isn't it. you will be forever paranoid now. On a brighter note though. If this is the first time in 17 yrs, assuming you haven't narked anybody off recently. There is a good chance its just a random attack and so may not be repeated. Are there any other nice cars in the car park? and were any others done?

[northwest monkey]

Have they written "Ka Fuuk Off" ?

I'd leave a note explaining how disappointed you are in the poor spelling

Sorry about the car though OP - horrible thing to happen. Someone did it to me once but the car was that st it took me about 3 weeks before I noticed.

[Adrian E]

At least it's limited to one panel, albeit it'll probably need blending in - chap I know had his lovely blue a8 gone round on every panel bar the roof while he was on hols car was outside his home at the time.....

That cost a few grand to sort :/

[Whoozit]

Cheers chaps. Not sure what in practice I can do more to protect the car! Short of buying next door's plot of land and constructing secure parking...which might cost more than the car is worth.

worsy said:

Definitely report it as not doing so will fudge the figures and give your local PCC opportunity to reduce resources. As far as the car is concerned, gutted for you.

Done. The lady on 101 was nicely sympathetic, at least I felt it wasn't just a statistic for her.

hman said:

That sucks - do all of what you suggest, you may also find that with wet 1200 grit paper you can scrub out the graffiti and then machine polish it back to a shine. The test is to lick a finger and drag it across the scratch, if the scratch disappears then you should be able to polish it out with grit paper and a machine polisher.

Happy to help I'm in bucks if you want to drop by and see what I can do?

Thanks for the offer. It's quite deep all round, sadly. Not to the base coat but won't just polish out!

mini me said:

If this is the first time in 17 yrs, assuming you haven't narked anybody off recently. There is a good chance its just a random attack and so may not be repeated. Are there any other nice cars in the car park? and were any others done?

Nope, I haven't annoyed the neighbours in any way. As the car spot I use is right next to the pavement, I'm guessing it was a late night post-pub scrote. No other cars damaged apparently. But the car park owner has already allowed me to park at the other end of the car park, so less prominent and may deter the idiots from walking right in front of the business with CCTV cameras up.

911 Virgin where I bought the car from offered to sell me hi res infrared CCTV, that could get recognisable footage from my house across the road. Seems a small price to pay in hindsight!

[Stevie_P]

I have nothing but utter contempt for people who do this.

Total scum.

[Whoozit]

I've been poking around and see that in-car cams can be set to surveillance mode, with motion detection. Has anyone go any experience with these? How tricky will it be to hardwire in with a battery protector?

[the_lone_wolf]

Whoozit said:

I've been poking around and see that in-car cams can be set to surveillance mode, with motion detection. Has anyone go any experience with these? How tricky will it be to hardwire in with a battery protector?

The moment I saw the location of the damage I thought of this

BlackVue do excellent dash cams that can be set to record when parked - mine is now several years old and still going strong - in the situation in the OP it would have provided a clear image of the scrote who did this unless there was something like low sun directly behind them.

They also sell a battery discharge prevention kit, can't remember the name of it of the top of my head, it's quite pricey for what it is but in the politest way possible if you can afford the cars in your original post it's probably not the end of the world

[seyre1972]

Whoozit said:

I've been poking around and see that in-car cams can be set to surveillance mode, with motion detection. Has anyone go any experience with these? How tricky will it be to hardwire in with a battery protector?

Hi - Firstly - what absolute tw@t5 for doing this !!! I feel gutted for you.

I've got BlackVue 650 - Front Back In both of our cars. This was wired into the Car electrics - but with a Magic Power Pro

This stops the battery going flat either if low voltage on battery - it turns off the camera, or say left in a airport car park while you are away on holiday for 2 weeks.

I had a mobile car electrician fit them after 1 too many close calls with the idiots whom seem to be on the roads these days. Other than the actual cameras, and a approx. 1-3 inch of cable - everything else is hidden behind the dash/roof liner (front camera is where the SD card is)

Comes with a IOS App (maybe android available) as well as wifi on the camera itself ) Which allows you to set different profiles for moving/stationary etc - also wether you want the LED's on the camera to show/blink etc.

Hope this helps - and hopefully karma comes and kicks the scrote(s) who did this in the b0ll0cks.


Cheers,


Steve

[popeyewhite]

I think you're very brave parking that car on the street anywhere. Someone wrote nearly the same on a car of mine once. It was a Fiesta. Still, it was my P+J at the time.

[Durzel]

OP says "off street car park", so assuming a multi-storey or something similar.

[Whoozit]

Durzel said:

OP says "off street car park", so assuming a multi-storey or something similar.

It isn't a multistorey. The plot is split in two, one part with an office building and the other part with a 20 space car park, all cars side by side. I parked in the space closest to the road. The only separation between my car and the pavement is a foot of verge and a chain, and the "gate" chain wasn't locked.

[MitchT]

Whoozit said:

Do I

a) Bother filing a police report? Will anything happen?
b) Check the business where I park it for CCTV? Will it be worth anything?
c) Paint it and get over it?
d) Park somewhere else...but where.

a) No, they won't be remotely interested. Well, not unless you tell them it's parked in a bus lane and then there'll be an armed response unit straight round to deal with you. They still won't care about the vandalism though. Also, it'll get recorded as a crime and added to local stats which your insurer will use as an excuse to push your premiums up.
b) Might as well, nothing lost.
c) Definitely.
d) Again, definitely, if possible. I started parking in a neighbour's drive (with their permission) after my BMW got trashed by vandals at a previous address which I'm gladly no longer at.

[hadleighhammer]

Feel sorry for you. Some proper wastes of oxygen out there.

If this is parked in an area where you live and declare for your insurance don't bother reporting it. The Police won't investigate and your car and home insurance will only get bumped up as the crime rate is seen as higher.

If it's a different, you could report it. Nothing will happen though. Police couldn't be bothered to visit and ask the neighbours some questions when I had a my car stolen so some vandalism won't be high up their list of things to bother with.

Might need a crime reference number if you're going through insurance though.

[anonymous-user]

Awful thing to happen. It'd be worth phoning the police as it can only increase the chance from 0 that they can do something.

hman said:

That sucks - do all of what you suggest, you may also find that with wet 1200 grit paper you can scrub out the graffiti and then machine polish it back to a shine. The test is to lick a finger and drag it across the scratch, if the scratch disappears then you should be able to polish it out with grit paper and a machine polisher.

I think it's gone a little deeper than the clear coat even from looking at it!

[g3org3y]

Stevie_P said:

I have nothing but utter contempt for people who do this.

Total scum.

Sorry to see this OP. Best of luck getting it sorted.

[HantsRat]

Yes report it!

There may not be much the police can do. Even if there was CCTV, officers do not know who every individual is on camera but you never know. You will need a crime number if you decide to go through insurance anyway.

Unfortunatly with crimes like this, you never usually find the perpetrator. It is very unlikely they would leave any prints but even if there were some, the police would still struggle to prove they actually caused the damage. And with all the budget cuts at the moment I doubt any SOCO officers would come out to take a look especially if the car is open to the elements.

[R8Steve]

I had exactly the same thing happen to my car. It said ‘wker prick’ right enough. I knew who done it, police did come out but ultimately weren’t interested unless there was an independant witness (not even a text/tweet admitting it helped).

Unfortunately i had to fork out for 2 cars. I’ve since moved house and hope the person responsible has moved ‘the mental’ onto some other poor soul.

Sorry to hear about your car, makes me mad again just seeing that picture.