Last weekend was gang initiation in New York and Newark, which means I’m sure it was other places as well. I think that’s the best guess yet, although that seems like a pretty weak initiation for a gang. (Go for it though, I’m all for weak gangs, and I’m pretty sure they are not perusing NPR affiliated comment boards.) The rest of you should try reading other comments before posting the exact same thing and expecting us all to think you’re a genius for posting it first! Read the posts before you, jeeze!
I haven’t got the slightest idea why anyone would steal an owner’s manual, but why
would anyone leave valuable items in the car? That only gives vandals or thieves a reason to break in a car in the first place.
My husband has a good theory. Used cars are worth more if they include the original owner?s manual. Someone, a person or a dealership, had a similar car to sell and wanted to maximize the resale value by including the owner?s manual. If someone else in town had a similar experience, this may point to an unscrupulous dealer.
The only thing similar was, when I was growing up, there was a rash of thefts of things like hubcaps and car antennas, which apparently were the local teenagers collecting trophies. I don’t know why anyone would target an owner’s manual unless they were going to use it, so maybe look for someone who owns the two types of vehicles stolen from.
To me it sounds like a type of scavenger hunt or initiation rite. Are there colleges in the nearby area?
Love your show and your friendship as brothers!
hugs,
Pamela
I agree with ormeskirk, that a possible reason that an owner’s manuel only would be stolen from a break-in would be to satisfy a requirement for gang membership.
At the very least I would check ID thief!!!
Even if it was one of the other things I would want to know that and/or just change every thing to be SURE the card is not use at some time. One day a year?
manual theft
the person stealing these owner’s manuals is
probably someone who is challenged by autism
and has a compulsion for these manuals and
also has a skill for getting them… ie a
“savant”
Most probably a male in his late teens or
early twenties. He is probably memorizing
them and could be a great resource for a
future car show where the host actually knows
what he is talking about.how do i know this… i just do,…ed
B & R,
Initiation for auto mechanic school.
Nasty reply to Amy calling the cops – need manual to change clock to daylight savings time.
Michael B.
You guys are all waaaaay off track. It’s not a gang initiation, it’s not a covert psychological plot to scare anyone, and it’s not a scavenger hunt. This poor Ford Focus and its owner are merely guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To explain, I have to share a fairly common occurence from my own childhood. We would be somewhere as a family, meaning my mom and dad, my brothers and sisters, and me. Suddenly, an urgent need would overcome my dad and we would have to find a public restroom very quickly. If he was driving at the time, he would run redlights, jump curbs and whatever else was necessary. If we were walking, the whole family would bolt flat out in a crazed frenzy to find the bathroom, which caused more than one Media-covered mass hysteria episode at the local Sears and Roebuck. At any rate, once a suitable facility was discovered, the next thing necessary was something… ANYTHING that Dad could read while visiting the facilities. I’ve seen him: grab a box of saltines so he could read the ingredients; snatch a comic book from a third grader; tackle a feeble little old lady and wrestle the “parade” section of the paper from her on the way to the john. So I can confidently suggest that this Focus was no doubt parked somewhere within the vicinity of a guy like my Dad and a public restroom. If she had left a Mad Magazine on the seat, her owner’s manual would have been left alone.
Yeah, I would have to agree that Prank or eventual car theft is the way to go.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet… she made the story up. While there are legitimate instances of “car owner’s manual theft”, it could very well be that Amy is an aspiring actress performing her own “initiation” activity. Some of the things she said in her call seem a bit contrived, independent of the fact that car owner’s manuals do get stolen. Okay, maybe not contrived, but the ancillary details of her situation are “curious” to say the least.
A different angle on the “fake” theory I propose… it could be that Amy is a “hyperfan” of Car Talk - in other words, a “Car Talk groupie” or a “Car Talk junkie”. Perhaps she’s been anxious to talk with Click and Clack and/or appear on the show for some time, so she made up a believable non-mechanical conundrum to call in with.
In either case, the key facet of my theory is that this break-in never took place. Amy made it up, for reasons We The People know not. Of course, it could be that her call was genuine. But since most people here have the “gang initiation” angle pretty well covered, I thought I’d share a “conspiracy theory” of mine.
If I remember correctly, this also happened to someone else that Amy knew. That made me think that perhaps it is some sort of strange (and destructive) scavenger hunt. Certainly doesn’t appear to be your usual car break in.
Bob
The same thing happened to my neighbors in Washington DC. Their new car was broken into, the thief didn’t take a brand new expensive GPS system, or cds or anything else, just the owner’s manual.
There is definitely an epidemic going on. This is not a contrived account- and it happened in a different city from Amy, so it’s not a local incident.
All sorts of initiations into clubs or even a scavanger hunt.
Being here in Detroit, the home of the Ford I do have one suspicion. Its possible that the engineer let slip through some small embarassing error in the manual. And that he/she is covertly obtaining these manuals, only to replace them at a later date with the corrected version.
Its possible.
I would let the police check the car for fingerprints and see if they can match it up with someone in the national fingerprint database. I would also check that expensive things normally hidden, such as an airbag, fuse, relay, or brake cylinder are still there. These things are not essential for driving the car normally. (Modern cars usually come with two brake cylinders. In case one fails, there is still another.) Look for anything weird under the dash around gas and brake pedal area.
I’d also be concerned about ID theft. Check your credit card records for any unusual or suspicious transactions.
My mom’s car (a 2007 Dodge Caliber) was broken into late Nov. 4th in a suburb of Chicago. Her OWNER’S MANUAL was stolen from the glovebox. Another vehicle 2 blocks away also was broken into and the owner’s manual removed. Unfortunately her CDs, registration, and insurance card were with the owners manual and were stolen too. The sunglasses and CD’s not located in the glovebox weren’t touched. When I heard Amy’s story I thought it seemed rather odd to be a random occurrence, now I definitely think this is a organized heist.
I have to wonder what is going on here?
Well, I used to live in Chicago; it’s a great city!! Maybe Amy lives in a part of town near a burgeoning automotive repair business. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve never related mechanics with theives but maybe these budding business owners/machanics are collecting owners manuals as a way to build their reference library?
i know what you’re saying, ‘That’s ridiculous! That informaion is available to the public WITHOUT having to STEAL IT!’ Well, YOU know that and I know that but maybe THESE GUYS don’t know that. But I could be wrong; that’s just my guess… But I do like the eBay idea… and scavenger hunt, but are there really that many people doing scavenger hunts these days??
We think that there was a Scavenger Hunt party in the area and one of the items on the list to bring back was a Ford Focus manaual, and if so, some “hunters” took it a little too serioulsy. Love your show. Sharon Johnson