Stolen Amber Pearl XJ

J

jidaran

NAXJA Forum User
Location
DC
Hope it's kosher to post this here.

My girl's 2001 Amber Pearl XJ was stolen this morning from in front of our house in DC. It's a very rare color, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to post here in case anyone on the forum came across it.

E1g6vX1.jpg


Funny, I went out this morning to get some pics of the shocks - I was going to post here for advice on how to upgrade from the sh*tty budget lift the PO installed while. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll have a reason to do that later.
 
That's awful! I hope that you get it back...
 
We did!!! Just got the call from the cops an hour ago. It was parked a few miles from our house. Minimal damage (all things considered). Need to replace the steering wheel (they cut it to get around the club), looks like we need to locks etc, and they broke the tail light. The door is a bit bent up near the lock, but I'm hoping we can get that looking right without a body shop. Possibly the worst thing is they stole the full size spare out the back - I just dropped about $325 on that.

So once we get all that taken care of, I can get back to getting some bilsteins on this thing.
 
Glad you got it back.

That is a rare happy ending.
 
Damnit. That thing is beautiful.

I've had a car stolen and returned so there is hope. Make sure to check with neighbors, post on FB, check craigslist, etc.

Best of luck!
 
Yeah. Definitely looking into alarms. Might do a kill switch, or at the very least, pull a relay or fuse before leaving it over night. It's not our DD so the extra effort isn't an issue.
 
Follow up: I ended up getting the base model Viper alarm installed for 380. Super happy so far - keyless entry is a nice plus and we have much greater peace of mind leaving it on the street. Not going to bother installing a kill switch, but I'll be pulling the relays any time its left for an extended period for extra security.

From talking to the cops and the alarm folks, it seems like XJs are mostly targeted due to how easy they are to steal. Unless they're stocked with big aftermarket upgrades, they're not particularly valuable to a thief - which is why ours was ditched after <12 hrs. After seeing how the thieves did it and putting everything back together (locks, ignition cyl, etc) I can't imagine it'd take me more than 5 minutes to steal one myself.

I won't ever bother with the club again, it probably took them a minute to cut through the steering wheel and that just ended up being one more part that needed to be replaced.

To get the car back and running had to swap out the upper part of the steering column with one I pulled from a junkyard for about 40 bucks. It sucks that the ignition cylinder housing (which the thieves broke) is integrated into the column, otherwise that would have been an easier fix. Also got the taillight there for $10. I got the lock cylinders off ebay for 60. So about $110 and a day's work, not bad all things considered. In the end, the biggest bummer was the stolen spare.
 
For the spare, chances are they tossed the spare, rolled it off the road some place between your house and the location the XJ was found at. Id be taking a stroll down that route, looking for the spare tire maybe stashed in the vegetation or in a ditch. I bet it is not far from where the XJ was found or along the way the crooks took.

glad you got the xj back, now go find your spare.

If you find the crooks, run them over for me.
 
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