Do People Still Steal Car Radios?

Factual Questions
1

Because of some very cold weather a few weeks ago, I had to jump-start the battery on the Honda CRV. Afterwards, the radio and clock stopped working. Apparently, it was part of an anti-theft device and I needed to enter a code to get it working again.

I got me to wondering: how would making the radio stop working deter anyone from stealing my car? Then I realized the anti-theft measure was in place to keep people from stealing the radio! The radio that is solidly built in to the dashboard. Unlike the good old ‘smash the window, grab the radio’ days of yore, anyone intent on stealing this radio would need: lots of time; an array of special tools; and a very particular set of skills.

Anyway, that’s the reason for my question: when is the last time you’ve heard of a car radio being stolen? 1987, maybe? 1990? Does this really still happen?

2

I think the heyday for stealing them was when cars first started having cassette players as standard option, and it became a big deal to have one.

Yes, I know that there was such a thing as 8-track players for cars, but they were never very popular, probably for 2 reasons: 8 tracks are bulky, and cassettes were so popular because you could make your own copies of albums, or you could make mix tapes for playing straight through in the car. People didn’t like having to buy an album for the house and an 8-track just for the car, but having as 8-track alone didn’t give them the quality sound of a vinyl album.

When CD players came out, very soon, the technology for the diskman and the car player came around about the same time, and so did the CD-to-cassette adapter, and so people used diskman players in their cars, and were happy with those until writable drives came out, then the demand for car CD players shot up, and those became the goals of thieves.

Now MP3 readers are the go-to technology. I have never personally installed one, but car manufacturers put the receptacles all over the place-- anywhere but the face of the players (which is where it is on after-market players). So if you do steal an MP3 player from a car, unless it’s an after-market player, it won’t do much good, because if you try to put it into a car not built for MP3, there’s no way to hook it up. The only customers for radio/MP3 players stolen as original equipment are people whose original equipment malfunctioned-- and that rarely happens. Without the moving parts of cassette players of CD players, radio/MP3 players last forever.

And what everyone wants is MP3 players. There’s little market for stolen CD players and none for cassette players, hence, no more stealing.

What was so bad about the stealing, and the reason radios have flashing lights, or removable face plates, or other ways to advertise their steal-lessness is that people sometimes broke windows to get them. Replacing the radio wasn’t such a big deal, but replacing the window was.

So that heyday was about 1980-2005 (maybe a little longer-- I’m going strictly on memory). You are right that it is over.

3

My MIL bought a used car with a dream a/v setup- high-end everything, right down to twin monitors in the headrests. The subwoofer took up most of the space in her cubby-hole sized “trunk” (Scion xb). The previous owner had advertised his/her investment in sound with LARGE rear window stickers reading “MB Quart” and “enormis”. I always thought this was a theft in the making. Sure enough, in about 2013, someone broke a window and stole some of the equipment, leaving the head unit in place.

4

I have a friend who got the stock radio stolen out of her early 2000’s Civic a few months ago, so it still definitely does happen. I think these days the cheap-o aftermarket CD players aren’t worth stealing, but the OEM head units are still pretty expensive and there’s always some sort of market for them, assuming the car prowler has a shady used parts place to fence them.

5

I think in terms of theft, car radios got (briefly) replaced by GPS units, back when GPS was new and consisted largely of stand-alone dashboard mounted units rather than integrated with the car’s sound system (or just on the phone).

6

It used to be that factory car radios were crap, the first thing to do when buying a new car was to replace the radio. These were stolen.

Then the auto manufacturers figured out people wanted good quality stereos - started installing them. But a lot of these would only physically fit in the specific vehicle they were designed for - no sense in stealing one.

And these days radios are a “computer hub” with many functions. Like they will receive a computer network signal from the local area network and produce ANY sound needed for the car. Like chiming for a seat belt not fastened, lights on when car off and door open, about to back into something, etc. Needless to say, each of these is highly specific to each model/year vehicle and would not work in anything else.

In the case of Volvos and serial number security, various electronic devices will not even work in the same year/model vehicle! (Because the serial numbers of each device are not what should be there!) So no resale value whatsoever.

The thieves have gone to stealing Honda air bags these days…

7

You don’t need lots of time or an array of special tools to do it. I pulled the radio out of my Honda Insight (touch screen). With step by step instructions it took me about 20 minutes and, I think, one screw driver, maybe two.

If you were in a hurry, knew what you were doing and didn’t mind cracking the dash board, you could probably do it in 5 minutes by cracking the trim around it. There’s only one screw holding the radio to the car. Most of my time was spent carefully removing dash/trim to get to that one screw. (Maybe two). Also, I was careful to keep the radio off the dash while I reached around the back to remove harnesses. Again, if you’re in a hurry, just yank on it or cut the wires.

In fact, in just about any car, that’s the case. The time it takes to remove the radio is all about removing the trim/dash to get to a few screws or a clip. If it’s not your car, you can pry all that off.

So, having said all that, I bet I could watch some youtube videos to learn how to take out my radio and use all that knowledge to be able to rip one out of another car very quickly. As for the radio code, I’ve lost radio codes (for older cars) and found universal ones online and unlocked them that way. It wouldn’t surprise me if that didn’t work for a newer Honda radio the way it worked for a 20 year old Ford radio.

8

I was going to mention that stealing airbags is nothing new but that article is 4 years old. An airbag going off can total a car in some cases.

Another thing that people rip off is rear seats (the removable ones).

9

The suction cup mounts for the dashboard GPS systems would leave a telltale circle on the windshield that, supposedly, the thieves knew to look for, because it meant that there was probably a GPS system in the glove compartment or under the seat.

10

Back in my day…it meant you had a fuzz buster. Actually, back in my day, the tell tale sign of having a fuzz buster was the little clip in the window.

11

My 2002 has that anti-theft feature for the radio/CD player where you have to enter a PIN to reset it after the power has been cut. You have to have the PIN or go to a dealer who can/should be able to unlock it. And there is a whole series of steps to take for entering the PIN that you really need the owner manual for.

The idea was to make it worthless to steal the radio. There is even a blinking LED on the unit to let the bad guys know that 'this radio is locked!’ As if a thoughtful meth head who has just bashed out your window to steal your music is going to see the little blinking light and say, "Whoa, we better leave this one alone!"

There is also another blinking LED on the top of the dash to let the informed window basher know that the GM VATS key lock system is enabled. And I have an aftermarket dash cam with a blinking blue LED to let them know that they are being recorded. This alerts them to the fact that stealing the camera and just throwing away the SD card is a better idea. If they are thinking, which they are not. I can turn that light off and probably should.

It is comforting to feel the protection that these little blinking LEDs offer. :wink: Which is none.

Of course if I have to reset the radio I can always stop at my local Pontiac dealer and have them reset it for a nominal fee.

What? They don’t exist anymore? If it weren’t a favorite car, and I lived in a different area, I would just leave the doors unlocked.

An aside note. One time I was visiting my ex-wife to spend an evening with the children. I had a different car with a player that you could pull the main unit out of the dash and take it inside for safe keeping. I put it on the counter and her roommate stole it, sold it for drugs.

Got it back eventually. There are no safe places for your stuff. The blinking LEDs are comforting though.

12

I’ve had two auto CD players with a jack for a flash drive with MP3.

13

Saw a photo joke once…

My ideal car stereo, 2000 - a fancy front with lit control knobs and buttons, CD, backlit equalizer, etc.
My ideal car stereo, 2014 - blank faceplate with “audio in” jack.

There was a market for car stereos when the typical factory basic radio was AM/FM and nothing else; but people wanted surround sound CD or tape and all sorts of other features. And IIRC the government leaned on car makers to ensure that stereo slots in cars were standard sizes, so aftermarket makers couldn’t be frozen out of the market. Once it got to the point where a stereo without the code was a dead weight, there was no point in stealing it. Once your cellphone can carry more music than you could possibly listen to while doing a road trip through all 50 states and Guam, and produced sound quality to rival the best stereos - who needed a separate unit for your car that you had to update with some awkward procedure?

14

Slightly counterproductively, the integrated/complicated head unit has led to my not fixing the CD changer for over two years, since it would mean leaving the car at a shop to do the whole dash dissasembly thing. But technology to the rescue, plugging in the iPhone or iPod through the AUX means I have a 100-CD changer

That last leg between Kauai and Agana is not as bad as the one from Dutch Harbor to Hilo in winter, but you still want to have more than one driver.

15

In my neighborhood the kids are looking for your iPod or something more expensive, like your laptop. They enter cars that are unlocked, after checking a few hundred door latches you will find some that open. The ones that they do open and enter, on the way out they don’t shut the door. That wakes up the owner.

In the morning you call AAA for a jump because the battery is dead from the door light being on all night.

16

What’s your point? were they factory original with the receptacle on the face plate? I suppose some early once might have been, before manufacturers hit on hiding the MP3 plug in the glove box, or the center console, or under the dashboard. Or is your point that you had CD with aux jack? If I sounded like I said no radio ever had both, I didn’t mean to. FWIW, there was even a time when, if you wanted to pay for it, you could find a player that played both cassettes and CDs. It was from before writable CDs were available.

17

What, and have a cable dangling out the front? What’s wrong with Bluetooth? :stuck_out_tongue:

18

I don’t think your second reason holds water. Home 8-track tape recorders were not terribly uncommon. I used to produce 8-track mix tapes myself for use in the car.

19

A USB connector and a miniature phone jack for auxiliary input.

20

Stealing car stereos was “a thing” back when there was a thriving market for standard DIN sized head units, which could be easily installed in the OEM space of most major automakers (GM & Chrysler being the main exceptions, IIRC). Stealing my current car stereo would mean stealing a large chunk of my dashboard and, if you really wanted everything, my steering wheel. Basically, yesterdays car stereo thieves are today’s ipod/iphone thieves.