Seattle has a car theft problem, and it's mostly kids joyriding or just
riding for free on someone else's gas.  When the gas is gone, the vehicle is
abandoned.

These old rigs are easy to steal.  My son's '96 Subaru was stolen Sunday
night, a real beater spare car he'd never have worried about.

The cops said these older Subaru models use only 20 different keys and are
regularly stolen and dropped near another one that's then stolen.  You've
got a 1 in 20 chance a key will work, and if you have 10 keys you may have a
50% chance. There are hundreds of these Subarus in Seattle.

They also mentioned a commuter that stole a car daily from park and rides
for his commute from home to the park and ride. It's that easy, and there is
no punishment for this crime.

Aftermarket alarms with ignition cut out are a good deterrent for this type
of opportunistic theft--these rigs are not stolen to be sold or parted out,
just to be driven for a while.  I have one on my '85 Westy.  Cost about $150
and took a few hours to install along with power door locks in front.

And now we have this:
http://www.king5.com/news/crime/Third-Uhaul-stolen-in-three-days-261020181.h
tml  My daughter knows one of the victims who lost everything.

All the four other stolen Seattle Vanagons in the past few months were found
within a couple of weeks, usually not too much the worse for wear.  This one
likely will be too.

At least I hope so.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Project Pat
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 4:54 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Stolen Syncro In Seattle

That's a pretty van.

It just baffles me that there are even thieves who know how to steal these
rare, quirky vehicles.

Hopefully it is recovered soon with no damage.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Loren Busch
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 7:39 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Stolen Syncro In Seattle

From FB:
<https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/4492106593.html>