Car vandalism

M

MarkDR

Member
Feb 18, 2016
264
9
18
How do you folks cope/deal with car vandalism in the DR?


My girlfriend has experienced numerous acts in the past couple of years; letting air out of tires, stealing mirror, attempted stealing of hub caps recently (with ensuing damage). It seems it is open hunting season year round. Any tips?
 
S

sanpedrogringo

I love infractions!
Sep 2, 2011
2,911
0
0
I personally haven't experienced any as I have a private driver, chofer. As well, I've never heard of anything in regards to this type of activity, as I believe the vast majority of vehicle owners have garages and/or enclosed driveways. The biggest crime regarding vehicles is the theft of pasolas and motos. That's a major business. Simple vandalism? I don't think that's such a big thing, but I may be wrong. It may depend on which province you live in. I haven't run into any in San Pedro de Macoris, nor San Juan de la Maguana.
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
Besides parking lot dings, we had a group of rollerbladers glide past and whack the tailgate of the SUV so hard with something there's a 12" dent in it. I thought a car ran into us, and by the time I got out to see what's what they had disappeared...
 
W

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
5,969
113
The main vandalism I have seen is the removal of plastic end covers on roof racks. I don't replace them.
 
D

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
never met with this issue. only once i had the plastic (or whatever it's made of) CAPA brand sign stolen from the back of my honda after i parked it, unintentionally, in front of PRD building during one of their annual meetings. that's why i don't trust the white party.

come to think of it in almost 11 years here and having had numerous cars (both miesposo's and mine) i did not experience this problem. granted, at home the cars are parked inside our property but outside of the house i park like stevie wonder. and miesposo drove around entire DR for years and no issue.

in any case, what car does she drive? if it's something super duper popular it's possible that some small elements are nicked with intention to sell because there is a huge demand. or it may be that she really p*sses someone of parking badly or scratching and denting someone's ride on regular.
 
malko

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,560
1,344
113
rule #127, regarding living in the dr

For no reason, what so ever, do you leave your car outside, on the roadside. Always park in your garage/ closed off driveway.
Its not like back home, where you can curb-park and go off to work, or leave your car in front of your house at night. 

When out and about :
- I try not leave my car out of sight. Like at the beach, restaurant, colmado.....
Or
- Go from buisness parkings to buisness parkings. Like ochoa, lasirena, DGM...... they have guards in the parkings or some sort of surveillance.

All this is only valid for a " normal" car. If you have a 20 year old bashed-up, rusty corolla, by all means park it anywhere :D



Small anecdote from way back, when I was new to the dr :
My wife had wrecked the side mirror protection thingy on the drivers side. A mirror vs mirror accident.
We stopped off on Duarte in santiago.
Apparently thats THE cheap place to go. But they only had cheap copies and not " originals ".
Anyway the guy didnt have the Hilux model we needed.  But no fear !!!
He sends off a kid/teenager with a screwdriver and a couple of tools........
Tells us to go have a coffee next door, that it wont be long......
And 15 mn or so later, the kid comes back with the side mirror:ermm::ermm:  freshly subtalised from an unexpected Hilux owner.....lol.
And I quote the curb-side pseudo-garage owner, that is why you do not leave your jeepeta roadside in the dr !!!!!!!
 
Z

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
8,367
842
113
They got my hi intensity burn your eyeballs driving lights.  I was king of the night for a little while. Now I know better than to drive at night. They did look cool..
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,549
5,961
113
dr1.com
malko said:
rule #127, regarding living in the dr

For no reason, what so ever, do you leave your car outside, on the roadside. Always park in your garage/ closed off driveway.
Its not like back home, where you can curb-park and go off to work, or leave your car in front of your house at night. 

When out and about :
- I try not leave my car out of sight. Like at the beach, restaurant, colmado.....
Or
- Go from buisness parkings to buisness parkings. Like ochoa, lasirena, DGM...... they have guards in the parkings or some sort of surveillance.

All this is only valid for a " normal" car. If you have a 20 year old bashed-up, rusty corolla, by all means park it anywhere :D



Small anecdote from way back, when I was new to the dr :
My wife had wrecked the side mirror protection thingy on the drivers side. A mirror vs mirror accident.
We stopped off on Duarte in santiago.
Apparently thats THE cheap place to go. But they only had cheap copies and not " originals ".
Anyway the guy didnt have the Hilux model we needed.  But no fear !!!
He sends off a kid/teenager with a screwdriver and a couple of tools........
Tells us to go have a coffee next door, that it wont be long......
And 15 mn or so later, the kid comes back with the side mirror:ermm::ermm:  freshly subtalised from an unexpected Hilux owner.....lol.
And I quote the curb-side pseudo-garage owner, that is why you do not leave your jeepeta roadside in the dr !!!!!!!
Click to expand...

On my short street, which is very busy there are probably six or seven jeepetas parked on the street any given night. None have been vandalized or stolen as far as I know. The camera on my house covers two of them and the school cameras cover about half the street which has good lighting when there is power.
your advice however is good.
 
M

MarkDR

Member
Feb 18, 2016
264
9
18
dv8 said:
...

in any case, what car does she drive? if it's something super duper popular it's possible that some small elements are nicked with intention to sell because there is a huge demand. or it may be that she really p*sses someone of parking badly or scratching and denting someone's ride on regular.
Click to expand...



She was driving a regular used Ford sedan for quite a number of years and just traded it for a 2010 Jeep Patriot. So nothing to write home about. It seems vandals are not that fussy in the DR. The car is parked inside a guarded gate at night. It's daytime parking out on the road etc. that is the main problem.
She also feels reporting it to the police would be a waste of time.
 
I

irishpaddy

Bronze
Sep 3, 2013
1,171
468
83
I have had`the wing mirror stolen a few times from my rental car while staying in the colonial zone ......it was parked on the street at night
now I have my own apt with parking ...hasn't happened `since
 
B

Blueceo

Member
Nov 1, 2015
192
22
18
I have had two side mirrors stolen in the colonial zone. Also, about a year ago I was parked at the McDonalds on Churchill using the internet before heading to the airport and had the back drivers window broken out and my luggage stolen. Luggage was no big deal but the big problem was getting the window fixed before leaving. McDonalds had a watchie man out side and it still happened. That's it in all my years here since 2007.
 
T

Timotero

Bronze
Feb 25, 2011
689
29
48
zoomzx11 said:
They got my hi intensity burn your eyeballs driving lights.  I was king of the night for a little while. Now I know better than to drive at night. They did look cool..
Click to expand...



"Looked cool"?
Maybe? But a hazard to those of us driving in the opposite direction if you forget to go to "low beam" (many drivers here seem prone to neglect this!) 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom