Is car stereo system theft still a thing or prevalent in your area?

Is car stereo theft still a thing and still happening or not so much anymore? Our Tundras seem to be pretty easy to pull a HU unit out of in a short time. I rarely go to places where I am far from my truck and I usually park in secure pretty secure places too.

When I was 19 years old I had the entire dash ripped out of my Monte Carlo when they stole the single DIN pioneer HU. I remember some guys back then were brazing razor blades onto the back side of their HU frames to try and put the hurt on people who might try to grab them.

 

Not our OEM stereo systems LOL! Just kidding but, no, not in my neck of the woods.

 

Go be poor in another forum

 

I would be surprised if car stereos are still a target for thieves. It's so much easier to just walk into a store and grab an armful of resellable merchandise than it is to bust into a car and rip a radio out. Most retailers these days have either told their employees to stand down and let them go (since a shot/dead employee is a bigger issue than lost product) or they're paid so little they're not going to risk injury and step in to keep a minimum wage job. Police will only show up to take a report. Even if the police do catch you, the "justice" system has your back and you'll be free to steal again before dinner time. Plus, is there really that strong of a market for used stereo gear these days? I don't know. Perhaps if someone knows you have some real nice/expensive gear your system could be targeted, but as a whole I'd be surprised if random stereo theft is still a common concern.

 

I am thinking of having this image made into a window cling to put on my new HU screen when I park somewhere. Meh, it might fool them from looking at it in the window LOL

 

If you are insinuating that I have not replaced my OEM stereo with a new fancy schmancy stereo, you would be correct, Steve. My tired old 72 year-old ears don't pick up the subtleties anymore. On the positive side, I doubt anyone would break into my truck to steal my stereo. Not poor; rich in spirit.

 

This brings back memories...

My aftermarket HU was stolen out of my 1994 Chevy, in 1995.
The thugs waited until I replaced it and they stole it again.
You didn't even need tools to get it out, a pop up with the palm of your hand would remove it.
This happened in my employer's parking lot, the same lot where my cats were stolen in 11/2021.

 

I think things like hot wiring, stealing the stereo, wheels, or anything else of value on a vehicle is a lost art these days among criminal scum. These days, if a criminal wants anything attached to your vehicle, they'll just try to carjack you.

 

Aftermarket head unit market is dying. Probably can't get much for stolen ones for all that trouble anymore. Cars made in the last few years have huge screens integrated into the car functions. People wanting more sound are just starting with some sort of sound processor and working their way back from there, leaving the dash in tact. Each new generation of cars with nice factory screens cuts away the market for stolen aftermarket units. A lot of best buys around me don't do audio installs anymore and a lot of Mom and Pop stereo shops died. A small screen used to be a luxury and no screen used to be standard. Now on many models a gargantuan screen is the luxury and a small to normal size screen is standard.

Maybe people will still take subs and speakers but usually an aftermarket head unit was clue #1 the other stuff was there for the taking. If you conceal the rest of your equipment and run it off a factory HU a stereo thief is probably going to pass it up for the vehicle with stickers in the window and visible speaker grills.

This is assuming they want to risk getting shot by you, having to shoot you or being arrested by police smashing your car window to get your Alpine hotness when they can far more easily walk into retail stores during normal hours and push a cart of merch worth 100$ under the prosecution threshold out the front door.