July 11, 2002

11:09 PM

A tale of two dumb-dumbs.This car enthusiast forum story really has me wondering who the dumb one is in this situation: the guy who got his car stolen, or the guy who stole the car.

Guy befriends another guy on the forum, starts talking, gives out his VIN, information on when he drives his car to work, and his address only to have the other forum-goer steal his car. Then, the brilliant car thief posts up parts from said stolen car on the EXACT SAME forum under a new name, then makes the mistake of logging in under his old name and posting a message in his sale thread.

An amusing read to say the least.
posted by PWA_BadBoy (10 comments total)

OK, I'm the dumb dumb. I messed up the link. Sorry :(

Matt, oh might MeFi g0d, please fix the link. Thanks!
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:10 PM on July 11, 2002

Even with the munged link that's still pretty amusing.

When I was in the eighth grade I had a brand-new BMX bicycle that I put together myself with money I had earned at swap meets and mowing lawns. I had about three hundred in this bike, a handsome sum in 1981. The first time I rode it to school it was stolen out of the rack. Less than a week later I recognized my wheels on another bike in the rack. I let the principal know, he called the police, and they showed up and had the secretary make an announcement that all bikes had to be moved from the rack because the grounds crew needed to water the lawn.

Lo and behold, who should come out and take the bike with my wheels on it but my new "best friend". When he was busted he tried to make amends with me by saying "If I'd known it was your bike I never would have stolen it."

Nowhere near the $25K this guy was taken for, but I can relate to the feeling of betrayal. Absolutely.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:31 PM on July 11, 2002

That was approximately worth the 20 minutes it took to download all the pics (the only one that needed to be that big was the top one) and the carpal tunnel I got scrolling back and forth. :rolleyes:

I think the assessment of one poster later on the page that the guy was in deep doo-doo on several fronts and was looking for a way out, i.e. the cry-for-help theory, is more accurate.
posted by dhartung at 2:14 AM on July 12, 2002

Awesome that the guy got busted.

Today's Lesson : Don't put your VIN on the Internet!
posted by LinemanBear at 4:53 AM on July 12, 2002

Ripping off your friends calls for a Bible quote:

Ps.35:6,8
Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. Let destruction come upon him at unawares.
posted by planetkyoto at 5:55 AM on July 12, 2002

My favorite gearhead-gone-wrong story is How to get Herculiner off your hootus. Our story begins with a guy in Dallas, spraying his truck bed with Herculiner, who takes a break to relieve himself. Some of the Herculiner on his hands is transferred to a place that does not need all-weather anti-scratch protection. When it won't come off, he logs on to his favorite truck board and posts a plea for help ...
posted by rcade at 5:55 AM on July 12, 2002

When I was a kid I too had a nice BMX bike stolen.

Fortunately a couple days later I saw it leaning agains the porch of a house a couple blocks down the street. Went and told my mom.

She didn't call the police, she just walked over there, walked right up to the porch and brought the bike home.

About a week later it suddenly dawned on me: "Hey, my bike doesn't have mag wheels." Man, was my mom mad when I told her.


It is amazing that this thief thought he could get away with selling the car in the same forum; but then as a general rule, the smart ones don't go around stealing cars.
posted by obfusciatrist at 8:05 AM on July 12, 2002

The 'hootus' post reminded me of a thread in a forum about videogames. A desperate kid wanted to know how the hell could he fix his Sega that got 'damaged' when he was fooling around with his 'hootus' in front of the console and forgot the CD deck open and somehow ended his playing around with the CD player lens dirty of you-know-what...

Unfortunately, it was a thread in portuguese and it's long gone. Funny reading, though...
posted by rexgregbr at 8:18 AM on July 12, 2002

Sweet. I love it when I'm reading a forum at work and the little pictures by the usernames are near-pornographic. Really get the heart going. Although my neck hurts from the "spin around to see who might have seen that" effect.
posted by fnirt at 12:02 PM on July 12, 2002

I had a BMX bike that I used on my paper route. The chain would fall off a lot, but it was quite simple to put back on. As I was rolling to a stop it fell off again so I just went inside to deliver the paper and then came out to put the chain back on and continue on my way. My bike wasn't where I had left it when I came back out. I looked around and saw it being rolled down the street by two teenagers. I ran after them and told them to give it back.

One of the guys said he thought it was abandoned because the chain had fallen off. In retrospect, I'm surprised that I wasn't more ticked off at them for stealing my bike. I was just happy to get it back.
posted by jaden at 6:02 PM on July 12, 2002