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Someone stole my car and now I own hundreds of vinyl records

629 points by mkaic 4y ago

dghughes 4y ago
The story reminds me of this old joke. A man left a set of bagpipes in his car he parked and went into a bank. He then realized he had forgotten to lock his car. He rushed back but it was too late. To his horror he saw that someone left another set of bagpipes in his car. Oh and my Dad's friend had a great idea for anyone having their car broken into. Place mousetraps in console, glove box, under the seat, on the seat and turn off the dome/interior light.
kolleykibber 4y ago
There was a Solar Powered Vinyl Tent touring the festivals in the UK last summer. A bunch of records to flick through, a player and a few deckchairs. It really was a wonderful thing.
keraf 4y ago
Some decades ago, my dad's best friend's car got stolen in Geneva. They found it a few days later 50km away in France. The police returned the car to him and said it was used in a jewelry store robbery in Geneva. Not sure how or why, but they returned it to him with its contents it was found with; two Mont Blanc pens (worth 700$ each) and a few high quality tools that were probably used to break into the car. We got a fancy pen in the family since... On the topic of car theft, my dad used to have a BMW E30 325iX back in the days. The car was very sought after by thieves, so his cousin (who's a mechanic) installed a switch under the seat to cut-off the gas between the tank and the engine. The car was broken into a few times but never disappeared.
- acomjean 4y ago
  I had a used late 80s VW GTI with a starter disable switch. It was actually a circular key that would pop out under the steering wheel. The lock did a couple of things I eventually figured out… The engine would turn if it was Locked but it wouldn’t start. And it oddly locked the hood (which was a relief to discover the latch wasn’t in fact broken) My car too was never stolen but it was broken into as well.
- Bayart 4y ago
  Always use 2FA !
jacquesm 4y ago
This is quite funny. I once bought a car at auction, it turned out to be a former undercover police car, it had a large binder with open case files under the passenger seat as well as a really nice finger printing set. Both dutifully returned to the local police. I wonder what else they leave in their vehicles, if those case files had made it to a reporter there definitely would have been a scandal.
- Hendrikto 4y ago
  > if those case files had made it to a reporter there definitely would have been a scandal. It really should have been. Missed opportunity. I cannot believe how irresponsibly they sold their cars…
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Agreed, but given the fact that it was pretty easy to miss and that I had the car for a few weeks before I noticed I figured they really did look it over just missed it.
rsynnott 4y ago
This is definitely an unproduced Seinfeld episode.
nerdchum 4y ago
Somebody stole my car and the cops recovered it and the thieves left a nice Makita skill saw in the back. I told the cop on the scene that it wasn't mine and he said he was going to "confiscate it for evidence" and he put it in the trunk of his car. I dont think he used it for evidence.
smokymount 4y ago
Isn't the guy worried that the thief will be after him once he is out from jail?
skizm 4y ago
> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. He discovered Nightcore for hipsters :P
darepublic 4y ago
Can rewrite this into a modern take on the elves and the shoemaker
puffoflogic 4y ago
Instead of "now I own..." it would be more accurate to say that the author has been tricked by the police into maintaining custody of the records, without having any ownership claim to them, and being unable to sell them or give them away because they're obviously stolen property, and being unable to dispose of them because they're obviously evidence of a crime (theft).
michaelcampbell 4y ago
> blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do? Capitalism would say of course not, that's the best you were willing to pay for. As a mid-50's, the "I think they're called singles?" made me chortle.
icedistilled 4y ago
Name and shame the car company - this must have been a hyundai or kia (KN). Those companies have been in the news for having easy to steal cars due to leaving out cheap and completely standard on all other brands anti theft stuff just to save a few bucks.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) It was indeed a Hyundai, and I'm guessing its vulnerability is what motivated the thief to steal my cheap car instead of any of my neighbors' six-figure cars parked next to it.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - faefox 4y ago
    From the second I read the headline I knew that it was going to involve a Kia or Hyundai. It is utterly reprehensible that these companies were selling new cars without immobilizers as recently as last year! No layperson buying a new car would have any reason to suspect that this was the case especially when you consider that my Honda Fit (hardly a luxury ride) was equipped with one way back in 2010. Their choice to save pennies during manufacture has directly led to a staggering amount of damages to people whose only mistake was trusting a car manufacturer to do the right thing. I hope they get sued and I hope that they get taken to the cleaners.
  - actually_a_dog 4y ago
    IMO, the best anti-theft device is a clutch. Almost nobody knows how to drive stick anymore.
    - olabyne 4y ago
      european enters the chat
      - 71bw 4y ago
Kon-Peki 4y ago
Any Credence? The Dude would abide.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) Not sure, I still haven't finished cataloguing everything yet! I might make an addendum to the post once I've finished that process with a more detailed breakdown of what's included in the collection.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    That was a Big Lebowski joke - Los Angeles, stolen car, missing music. Good luck with your collection, though I hope that somehow those records can be reunited with their rightful owner. Maybe someone wrote something on a sleeve or left some price stickers on some of them, etc. that can be used to identify it from all the other potential claimants that just want to get the music from you for free.
    - mkaic 4y ago
      Oh haha, I still haven't seen The Big Lebowski yet! I suppose I should give it a try sometime. Re: returning to the rightful owner — I certainly plan to look through them, but so far I'm thinking that most of them came from a record shop (many have little generic price stickers still on them), of which there are dozens in LA. Additionally, since they're vintage they've probably changed hands many times, and it's also unclear how long ago they were stolen. All that said, if by happenstance I do get an opportunity to return them to their rightful owner, I'd be happy to.
      - billiam 4y ago
        Not from a record shop, a real one anyway. Maybe a flea market, or someone's house. Those crates really tie the room together :)
        mkaic 4y ago
bwestergard 4y ago
Are the police officer's legal claims true? Surely, if the records are themselves stolen, the original owners would be entitled to have them back. If they weren't stolen, does the thief forfeit ownership of them through the mere act of putting them in a car they stole?
- baby 4y ago
  Wild guess: there's just too much stuff that they get back that they don't have the time nor the storage to handle them while original owners might never show up to get them back.
- elihu 4y ago
  Presumably they could ask the car thief where the records came from if they caught him, but it seems likely that the police found the car but have no idea who stole it. In which case, the records are just random objects with no identifiable owner.
  - mkaic 4y ago
    (author) They actually arrested the record-dealer out of the car, so they do know who was selling them. Still possible that the seller got them from a middleman or a chain of middlemen though.
    - valleyer 4y ago
      Have you considered posting on Craigslist (or Facebook or similar) to see if anyone in the area just had a bunch of records stolen -- and could name some of the ones not obviously pictured in your blog post? Sure, they might objectively be junk, but they also might be somebody's junk, and returning it to them may make them very happy.
  - Turing_Machine 4y ago
    > Presumably they could ask the car thief where the records came from if they caught him Well, they could, but I don't think his lawyer would advise him to answer that question.
kube-system 4y ago
> blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do? It’s not. Ignition interlocks have been very common for at least 20 years. But there’s apparently a lot of money to be made cutting a few corners and under pricing competition by a couple hundred dollars.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) Yeah, as I understand it my car (a 2016 Hyundai) represents the low end of security. My original statement in the post was more intended to mean "why isn't this better regulated in 2016"
  - silisili 4y ago
    Hyundais and Kias are notorious for how easy they are to steal, even as recently as last year. Unsure if they've finally done anything about it now that they're well known for it.
    - kube-system 4y ago
      Yes, they’ve finally made immobilizers standard like most other automakers.
      - silisili 4y ago
        That's good. I really also hope they shook up their designs at the same time. I probably still wouldn't buy a new one for a few years. I'd imagine thieves either don't know this, or do but can't tell model years apart clearly. Meaning there's a good chance your car may be broken into still, just not driven off with.
        kube-system 4y ago
        I wouldn’t worry about this situation in particular. Most thieves still just want to steal stuff out of your car which is still easy no matter what you drive.
WalterBright 4y ago
I bought a lot of used vinyl. Turns out there's a lot of stuff that never made it to CD. I clean them with a drop of dish soap. It works miracles.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) I think most of the records in this collection will need some dish soap and love! Some of them are pretty grimy.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Many vinyl aficionados are horrified that I use dish soap. They'll recommend some super-expensive formulation. The dish soap and a few seconds rubbing with your fingertips will take the grease, dog hair, mold, and other nasty stuff right off. (I mean liquid dish detergent, meant for handwashing dishes. The powder stuff will scratch.) You'll still need to pick the fuzz off of your needle now and then. I make a little brush for that by tearing the corner off a sheet of paper.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      It's like that Special Magic VHS Head Cleaner Fluid. I sniffed it, and it smelled just like isopropyl alcohol. I've been refilling it with iso alky ever since, and it works great. I use iso alky on a cotton ball to clean the scanner all the time, too.
      - trynewideas 4y ago
        It absolutely is IPA. The pro stuff is usually especially high-purity (99.8%+) but nothing all that special. The only special thing worth getting for tape heads, capstans, transports, and CD/DVD laser lenses is a lint-free swab with a more square head than a q-tip. Dish soap is fine on vinyl records, but use distilled water. The "residue" is more likely to come from unfiltered tap water than soap. And let them air dry completely before re-sleeving them because they can and will grow moldy, especially if the records are put away wet with paper sleeves. You don't need a fancy brush for cleaning the stylus, but a polyurethane gel pot is even easier to use (just dip the stylus tip in it), more thorough, and trivial to clean. The only "fancy" vinyl accessories that've really provided a lot of value for me are a grounded anti-static brush: https://www.turntableneedles.com/grounded_carbon_fiber_lp_brush https://www.turntableneedles.com/grounded_carbon_fiber_lp_br... And a cartridge/stylus upgrade, which for this setup probably doesn't need to be anything more than an $80 Ortofon Red and could easily be less. AFAICT this Pioneer has a replaceable cartridge.
dhosek 4y ago
I remember in college, my roommate would play Springsteen at 45rpm and he sounded exactly like Dolly Parton.
- rgmerk 4y ago
  Here's Dolly Parton's "Joeene" at 33rpm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA Sounds pretty good, though not exactly like Springsteen :)
- _whiteCaps_ 4y ago
  Random Springsteen fact: Hungry Heart was sped up slightly so he sounds higher-pitched. I've heard a bunch of different reasons why it was done, not sure if there's a confirmation anywhere. Not to Dolly Parton range though!
- trynewideas 4y ago
  When Third Man reissued The White Stripes' self-titled album, they etched "though no one noticed"/"we sped it up" in the runout: https://www.discogs.com/release/14465211-The-White-Stripes-The-White-Stripes https://www.discogs.com/release/14465211-The-White-Stripes-T...
maartn 4y ago
I see you got some “eight tracks” as well. Thief must’ve robbed someone’s grandpa
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) Yeah! I didn't know what those were, but my mom was able to identify them when I FaceTimed her to show her the collection. I might eventually try to find a way to play them.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
  Well, now I feel old
galgot 4y ago
At least no one p.. on your rug.
asaph 4y ago
Judging by the condition of the records shown in the picture, and by the description of the records as "late-70's to mid-80's", a not particularly collectible vinyl era that produced mass amounts of low-grade (thin) vinyl, I would bet these records are not worth much. You would be lucky to find any gems in those crates.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) Most of them are in pretty rough shape, too. Covers disintegrating, warping, dust, etc. A couple are even cracked. That's why my current plan is to hang on to them, catalogue them, maybe give a few away to friends and family as birthday presents — and of course, if the rightful owners are ever found, return them. Selling them just seems like a really big hassle, honestly they'd have to be worth a few bucks apiece for me to consider dealing with all the logistics of it.
  - echelon 4y ago
    Really cool story. Thank you for sharing it with us! I'm really glad you got your car back, too. Hope the repair costs aren't a big drain.
    - mkaic 4y ago
      Wound up being ~1200 bucks because they had to fully replace the lock, the ignition, and the battery. Also because they charged me 120/hour for labor, but what can I say—LA repairs for LA prices! I also didn't spend time getting competing quotes from different shops, so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate, but at the end of the day I have my car back and I am fortunate enough to still be able to pay my bills so it all worked out in the end.
      - mikestew 4y ago
        so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate At $120? Any software dev in LA with any experience is probably at $75/hour, and they don't have to outfit an entire shop with compressors, lifts, and pricey alignment racks. At $120 in Southern California, you ought to be crowing about the deal you got. It reminds me when I was a pro mechanic years ago, and the biggest whiners about the hourly rate were doctors and lawyers. Excuuuuse me, Mr. Bills-at-Twice-the-Rate-I-Do?
odysseus 4y ago
So there is no info or post-it notes on any of the record sleeves that indicate the original owner? No markings or perhaps labels indicating where the records were purchased? I'm guessing maybe the police didn't want to deal with storing all these boxes, taking up space while waiting for someone to claim them.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) I think your guess is probably correct. So far I haven't found any traceable ownership markers, but if I do, I will make an effort to return them. I suspect that the records may have been stolen from multiple sources given the high variation in preservation. I also feel it's probable they've been stolen for some time now because of how poorly they appear to have been treated — disintegrating covers, melted records, cracks, etc.
scrumper 4y ago
Assuming you've made a good-faith effort to find the owners of the records, congrats on the haul! Takes a bit of the sting of the theft out I hope. Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand. Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) I've only tried out a few records so far, and that was last night when I set it all up for the first time. I didn't think to re-calibrate the turntable because the seller told me that it had been serviced by the previous owner, but it's probably a good idea to double check anyways.
  - mixmastamyk 4y ago
    You can get a record cleaning kit on amzn for $15-20 bucks. I got the Big Fudge for xmas and it is pretty good.
MrVandemar 4y ago
What are the glyphs/runes/ideograms on the paper taped to the wall?
- mkaic 4y ago
  They're from a short film [0] I made a while ago — I made up an alternative alphabet to use in part of a scene and had it taped to the wall in another, and then I just never took it down! [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_D_RJHHho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_D_RJHHho
greggman3 4y ago
I had my car stolen from an apartment complex garage in like 1991. Sure it sucks to have my car stolen but the only irreplaceable thing was 36 mix tapes that were in the car. Guess that's an issue that no longer exists :P
dokem 4y ago
Don't let these guys bully you into thinking you need to play Shirlock and solve the case of missing junk you didn't steal. No good deed goes unpunished and all that. Enjoy the tunes.
CompleteWalker 4y ago
I used to buy/sell junk stuffs in nyc. I would doubt this is a stolen collection from the pics posted. Looks like a classic dump of the non-valuable lps from a larger collection. Maybe a dealer already bought the good stuff and the relatives of a deceased family put it on the curb, maybe a record store dumped it on the curb, maybe someone even drove by skid row and offered it for free because it was discarded. Wash Your Hands! And clean the records and sleeves thoroughly. The ripped and torn sleeves look like they've been chewed by mice... (in the biz we called it "rodentia scarring" or something equally fanciful)
- xsmasher 4y ago
  The condition and general vibe looks like the vinyl stacks at a Goodwill thrift store.
  - rhizome 4y ago
    The 8-tracks make me think it's a flea market setup.
acd 4y ago
Interesting story. This reminds me of "the dude" in The big lebowski movie. The stolen car and The Creedance tape.
Symbiote 4y ago
If you haven't owned speakers like that before, you should also try connecting a computer or phone to the Tape1/CD input. An RCA to 3.5mm jack cable shouldn't cost more than $5. There are also devices to connect to that input which you can stream to, with Bluetooth or Wifi or similar. I have two Chromecast Audio things, but Google discontinued them.
- mkaic 4y ago
  Ooh, will have to give this a whirl. The guy who sold them to me was very enthusiastic about how well they'd served him over the years so I'm excited to get them wired up once my wire arrives tomorrow.
  - nluken 4y ago
    Another thing to consider: head over to your local Goodwill and snag a cheap-ass CD player and a few CDs. I don't know your experience with audio but I used a similar set of speakers for years to stream music through Spotify, and the difference in audio quality between streaming and a CD blew me away. HQ audio files that you have locally will work just as well. Either way, enjoy the new setup!
  - globular-toast 4y ago
    Have you flipped the right speaker the right way up yet?
    - mkaic 4y ago
      Yes, I flipped it a few hours after taking the photo in the article.
zanchey 4y ago
Now that's how you write a headline.
AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. I discovered this playing with old records in the basement well before you were born and I'm pretty sure I drove my mother insane with it. Also, the person on your substack who suggested Cat Stevens is very correct. If you are curious to catalog them, or see value of them, discogs.com is a great site.
- pugworthy 4y ago
  Me? I want a hula hoop.
  - hackernj 4y ago
    Alvin!!!
- cirrus3 4y ago
  hah, nice... "endlessly" is a stretch tho
  - AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
    For 10-year-old me it felt endless, i'm sure it sounded endless to my mom.
jakedata 4y ago
Another upvote for Discogs - just be aware that there are many pressings of the same record so you will want to actually look at the matrix and runout codes in the "dead wax" which is the innermost smooth part of the vinyl. Anything that you want to salvage can be deep cleaned with a "spin clean" or like I do, with an ultrasonic tank cleaner. A warning - this can actually become a hobby. Don't get wrapped up in high dollar modern pressings unless there is something you absolutely have to have. The world is still bursting at the seams with old records that are new to you and can be had for $1-$5 each. If you decide to get a cleaner you can bring many of them back to life and you'll be surprised how good they can sound. Mostly just have some cheap fun!
- m463 4y ago
  but can you still get an original discwasher with a squeeze bottle of de-ionized water?
- mkaic 4y ago
  Don't worry, there's only one pricy modern record I can think of that I "have to have" — John Powell's How To Train Your Dragon score — and I've just ordered it secondhand, so I should be good for a while :) Thanks for the advice and the tip about cleaning!
  - beckler 4y ago
    Not gonna lie, did not expect to see someone looking for this soundtrack, but it's straight up amazing. "Romantic Flight" and "Test Flight" on that album are some of my all-time favorite soundtrack pieces, and the Jonsi track is also excellent.
    - mkaic 4y ago
      Agreed! Powell is my favorite modern composer mostly for his work on the trilogy. I've listened to the soundtrack for years and remembered an Instagram post he made about it being pressed to vinyl a while back, so it was the first thing that came to mind when I realized I have a fully-functional record playing set up now! Romantic Flight and Test Flight are indeed spectacular, though I think my personal favorite is probably Forbidden Friendship! Also, yes! The Jonsi track is great. I'm also a fan of the songs he made for the second and third movies. Really cool that they got him to collaborate on the whole trilogy.
chrischen 4y ago
My friend’s house key used to open the door to my family’s Honda sedan.
dheera 4y ago
I'd honestly just hold onto them for at least a few months and periodically post on various forums and Reddit to see if the rightful owner can be found. If anyone tries to claim them it should be fairly easy to verify if they are the rightful owner by asking them the names of at least 10-15 of them. Also contact the police of nearby counties as well, your own county's police is probably too lazy to see if there is a theft case elsewhwere in the state. Also dig through them to see if there are any notes, in case any of them might have been gifts, there might be some clues as to who the rightful owner is.
- schrijver 4y ago
  That sounds exaggerated to my ears; The shape these records are in suggests they were dumped on the street after having spent years in an attic… Having OP discover them and discovering vinyl in the process is surely the best thing that could have happened to them.
irrational 4y ago
What I want to know is how did they steal the car out of a gated parking garage?
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) I suspect they tailgated in behind someone, waited for the garage to be empty, hijacked the car, then idled until someone left so they could tailgate out.
at-fates-hands 4y ago
I used to work at a music shop buying and selling used CD's, vinyl music and DVD's. It was pretty common for us to deal with stuff that was obviously stolen. We had a couple (man and woman) who would come in the day of releases with like a dozen DVD's of high selling releases. It was so obvious so if we thought or knew stuff was stolen, we'd completely low ball them in effort to dissuade them from coming back. After a while, my manager said he wouldn't take this couples stuff any more - which lead to a heated conversation before my manager told them he wasn't an idiot, he knew they were stealing shit for their drug habit and they should stop coming here to sell their stuff. Anyways. . . One day some teenagers come in with two huge CD carriers of CD's. All very eclectic stuff. My manager was spotted some really rare stuff like Pearl Jam bootlegs, and some other stuff. He was looking through it and it was clear we were both seeing the same thing. He told me to tell these kids we'll go through it and come back in like 20 minutes because it will take a bit to go through it all. My manager pulls me into the back and is like, "Clearly this shit is stolen. This isn't just a random box of CD's either man, this is someone's collection. Some of the stuff in there is ultra rare, some of the stuff I would love to have in my collection. We have to do the right thing here man." Kids come back and he he gives them like $30 for the collection, it was like pennies on the dollar for everything. These kids, they don't care, they got $30 to blow on whatever. My boss tells me he's going to put an ad in the local alternative paper about the collection to see if he can get it back to the rightful owner and to set aside in the meantime, its not even going into our inventory. Two days later, gets a call. My manager tells him to come in. Says if he can identify the case and five of the CD's in the collection, he'll give it back. Dude not only told him the five, he listed the entirety of one of the cases. It was pretty obvious it was his. We did this a few other times and were successful, so it kind of made up for some of the other stuff we were expected to do. So many stories working there, it was as close to working at a pawn shop as you can probably imagine.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) This is a great story. Thank you for sharing! Others have suggested I should put up a post on Facebook/Craigslist/community forums to see if I could find the owner (presuming they are stolen, which I still don't know yet). I might give it a go, but my gut tells me the odds of it working are low living in such a densely populated city where there are probably records getting stolen from people and stores on a daily basis. Still might be worth a shot though.
dylan604 4y ago
A long time ago in a history far far away (early 2000s), friends of mine stopped into a used record store on the off chance that maybe there might be something they like. They go digging and come across a trove of a specific type of sound in what looks to be a fairly well curated collection. A few were well known and out of print. They divvied up between them and went to check out. That's when they learned that some girl had come in to sell the whole lot of vinyl for $1. Everyone agreed that it was a pissed off girlfriend/ex of some DJ. For a moment, there was almost a shared "is this bad karma" before that quickly dissipated. Vinyl collections all have stories around them. Some of the stories of how they were lost, some are how they were collected, and some are intertwined!
- fakedang 4y ago
  Wouldn't that come under theft?
  - dylan604 4y ago
    you must not have known many DJs. they're kind of like drummers. what do you call a DJ without a girlfriend? homeless. some girl probably got tired of taking care of the guy, kicked him out, and in lieu of being paid back for all of the food, utilities, gas, etc she had shelled out for him over the course of the relationship and then on top of not coming to collect the damn crates after 3 months, would not qualify as theft by anybody's definition. the fact the transaction was for $1 just makes it worse. this whole back story is 100% made up and is just supposition on our parts, but it is 100% believable. it also just adds to the legend of one's own collection. "oh that one, yeah, let me tell how i got that one..." if you've ever lived with someone with a vinyl addiction, you know exactly how much space crates of records can take up. you also know how heavy they are. if you've never known anyone with this affliction, count your blessings.
    - mkaic 4y ago
      I don't have the affliction (yet) but between the new cabinet and the 9 crates of records, my studio apartment is already feeling a bit on the cramped side ;-)
JasonFruit 4y ago
It's the opposite of my life: someone stole my hundreds of vinyl records, and now I own a car. (The two are not related except insofar as my priorities have grown more responsible over the years.)
swivelmaster 4y ago
Something similar happened to me - I had a car stolen (a block from the Fremont, CA police department, no less), and when it was found a month later it was full of stolen goods. I found bolt cutters, several garage door/gate openers, an LA sheriff gun holster, a gold ring, gloves, a car jack... lots of supplies that one would use to steal things with. And the police told me to keep it all and do whatever I wanted with it!
- kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  I recently dealt with a car theft and they took my jack. The dealer said >$600 for a new one (lol) so between that and the ring, you got quite the haul
  - dicknuckle 4y ago
    It's $600 because they likely don't keep it in stock anywhere nearby, and they only had a few in existence. For those you're better off going to a junk yard and getting one from the same brand vehicle.
- cwkoss 4y ago
  I would expect they'd at least want the holster!
  - swivelmaster 4y ago
    Nope! I called and asked!
Aeolun 4y ago
> I was born in 2002 First thoughts: How does that work? You live by yourself right? I was born in 1988 and I barely live by myself. Nope, they’re 20-21 and I’m just getting old.
LinuxBender 4y ago
This just sounds like lazy cops that did not wish to check all the items back into evidence after itemizing and tagging everything. I suggest this as I am also lazy.
- stevenwoo 4y ago
  One of my housemate's car was stolen and used in a bank robbery and when they recovered it there was a screwdriver in the ignition lock and there were a bunch of cigarettes and music CDs in it that belonged to the thieves. It's possible forensics for a property crime do not matter much to most police departments unless it's a much higher dollar amount involved or murder/assault.
S_A_P 4y ago
Maybe its me, but if the thief already knew the building the car was located it would be trivial to find out the unit the author lives in and could show up looking for his missing wax.
- mkaic 4y ago
  True, but I don't think the thief knows that the police gave them to me! Additionally, the DA said this person has a criminal history and may end up going to prison for this offense. In any case, if they did show up, they'd do so whether I have the records still or not!
nimbius 4y ago
"blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do?" Buddy, the same could be said for your insurance coverage. Carrying "liability only" in the second largest city in the USA is an infantile decision.
- cirrus3 4y ago
  It blows our minds that you `figured` out a way to conflate these things.
danielodievich 4y ago
My crappy 10 year old Civic got stolen from in front of my apartment on the day of my wedding reception. My wife freaked out but I wasn't phased too much - she still praises me for it - and called the police for the report, and a friend for a ride. We had a great party that day and a fun topic to discuss at it. Anyhow, the car was found few days later in a really bad part of town, but police didn't call us that quick like they did this lucky recipient of vinyl, so it was re-stolen from the place it was dropped off. About 40 days later after my insurance written it off and the police called and said come pick it up from a junkyard. It had someone else's license places, and was severely damaged after a full-front hit on the telephone pole after apparently a high-speed police chase. Who runs away from the police in a Honda Civic?! Anyhow, even though it was hit hard in front, the airbag never engaged, so I guess I am glad it wasn't me. There was blood inside everywhere, clearly the two people who were inside were quite hurt. Anyhow, I opened the trunk to get my jumper cables and lo and behold - tools! in pretty good toolbags, too! Decent looking respirators! Strange chemicals! Lots of ammonia in large jugs! A wallet with lots of stolen checks in it. A small bag with some dude's underwear. But my old set of jumper cables is, alas, gone... I brought everything home, including (perhaps stupidly? certainly my wife thought so) ammonia and powdered chemicals. As I discovered the powder stuff lye and clearly this was all meth-making equipment. The undies had to go, but I kept some of the tools and respirators. I freecycled ammonia. We made some soap out of lye, so that was helpful. The people who stole it were put in jail for various offences for a couple of years, including stealing my car. The court asked me if I had any claims and I said naah, I don't want to add to someone's bad life choices... Then , except for the $500 insurance deductible, which they deducted from his jail wages for next 3 years, and kept sending me small checks for like $19.28 or $8.78 every few months. The checks followed me to another house even though I completely forgot to update the address with the court (nice) and stopped right at $500.
- leke 4y ago
  My god, you're like the chillest person. I wish I could let go of things as easily as you.
  - AllegedAlec 4y ago
manicennui 4y ago
What if the thief stole the car, filled it with vinyl, and left it where it could be found to enrich the life of the owner?
- mkaic 4y ago
  My secret criminal fairy godmother! I always knew deep down I had one of those!
  - actually_a_dog 4y ago
    I'm sorry. Netflix pre-emptively cancelled that show. Now you'll never know how it all ends up!
tomcam 4y ago
I had about 30 nice guitars stolen out from under me when I moved into what I thought was a semi-remote farmhouse. I would like to think that this happened to my thief.
moris_borris 4y ago
I have that couch. Looks nice but man, no back support.
gnicholas 4y ago
Funny thing, this could technically constitute receipt of stolen property. [1] There is an exception for "innocent intent" if you are planning to bring it to either the owner or the police, but I wonder what happens if you lack that intent, but you got it from the police! 1: https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/ https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  Yeah, I was actually confused when I read that in the article...
- exodust 4y ago
  Not technically because your link says "...that you know to have been obtained through theft or extortion". But the records could have been taken from the trash. If nobody reported stolen records then they can't be considered stolen.
  - gnicholas 4y ago
    The examples under 1.3 [1] indicate that the standard isn't 'actual knowledge', but also include situations where the recipient 'should have known' that the property was stolen. 1: https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/#1.3 https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/#1.3
    - exodust 4y ago
      The old records may have belonged to the car thief. Given their low value, it's unlikely to be loot. What if you found a jar of peanut butter in the car? Would you try to find out if it was stolen and hunt down the rightful owner?
- tjrDL6MjB2Zwwa 4y ago
  [dead]
shepherdjerred 4y ago
My landlords truck was stolen out of his driveway last year. The police found it a few weeks later, and there was a very expensive looking arc welder in it that he got to keep.
awbraunstein 4y ago
My van was stolen outside my apartment in Oakland a few years ago. I called in to report it had been stolen and got a call back less than 5 minutes later by an officer who was with my van in another part of town about to have it towed. It was just parked in the middle of the road. When I got there to pick it up, I found other people's stolen mail, hundreds of feet of speaker wire, a car stereo, and a lunchbox full of hundreds of house keys among other items. It was as if they used it as a heistmobile. Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff was stolen like a camera and some clothing, but they didn't touch the thousands of dollars worth of climbing and snowboarding gear. It was almost as if they didn't even know what it was.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  They probably didn’t, as you are most likely aware. I remember distinctly as a kid my older brother’s car getting broken into in North Texas. The thieves broke a window and stole my CD case from his truck. Circa 2004-2006, they did $400 USD worth of damage and got probably $40 worth of Rush, Styx, Rich Mullins and Blink 182 cd’s, mixture of original and burned. I am pretty sure given the questionable taste and definitely questionable mix that they didn’t get their money’s worth. Tl;dr thieves often have no idea how much stuff is actually worth and will happily do 10x worth of damage for a perceived 10% gain
  - ornornor 4y ago
    It’s like thieves who would rather steal a bicycle and abandon it at destination than wait for the bus/buy a bus ticket. Saves them 2$ and 10 mins, costs someone else a new bike and being on foot for a couple weeks.
    - gernb 4y ago
      reminds me of tagging. easy to do property destruction costs 100x to fix
      - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
ykovalenko 4y ago
Welcome to vinyl club!
8bitsrule 4y ago
There's a lot of old vinyl out there in the world. Twenty years ago, a DJ friend bought out the vinyls at a record shop for $4-500. We filled my Dodge Caravan with them, with the back seats removed ... bottoming out the suspension ... twice. Slowly driving them to his home as the van complained. So I'd guess at most about 40-50 cents a pound for that ... at-least half-ton? of vinyl. Recognizable artist names in that heap? Not many. There's a lot of vinyl out there. The world's been hard on shellac 78s. But vinyl?
- tragomaskhalos 4y ago
  Ah yes the sheer weight of the stuff - I remember helping a mate move house, he had a couple of tea chests into which he'd packed his records - trying to get them downstairs they might just as well have been filled with concrete
- klodolph 4y ago
  Yes, exactly. If you factor in the cost of listing records on eBay, organizing them, and shipping them, the idea of selling a bunch of used records ends up being a losing proposition. There’s too much vinyl out there and people only want the stuff they recognize, for the most part. You get the same feeling when you make a typo in your Spotify search. There’s a ton of music out there. There has been for a long time.
- virgulino 4y ago
  There is a Brazilian guy who did a lot of that, buying entire stores. He amassed the largest collection of vinyls in the world. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bu... https://thevinylfactory.com/features/inside-the-worlds-biggest-record-collection-an-interview-with-zero-freitas/ https://thevinylfactory.com/features/inside-the-worlds-bigge...
  - 8bitsrule 4y ago
    Funny. "By age 30, he had about 30,000 records. About 10 years later, his bus company expanded, making him rich. Not long after that, he split up with his wife, and the pace of his buying exploded." That's what reactors do when the control-rods are pulled out!
ecpottinger 4y ago
You sound like the woman who got her car stolen. When the police recovered it, she found it had new shocks, new covers on the seats, a CD added and the engine tuned up.
dusted 4y ago
I don't get it.. If the records belong to the car thief, shouldn't they get them ? If the records didn't belong to the car thief, shouldn't they be confiscated and it be announced somewhere so the rightful owner could come pick them up ?
- ornornor 4y ago
  I think it could happen if they’re not the thief’s and the thief never admitted to stealing them, and there aren’t any open missing property report for them. Then the police can’t really confiscate them because there is no basis to do so.
  - dusted 4y ago
    Well the car owner just told they weren't his, at least they should go in some "lost items" storage.
ornornor 4y ago
Back when I was a kid, some 20–30 years ago, my aunt used to get her car regularly “stolen” overnight. The car was parked in the street, locked, but it was an entry model (or whatever you call the smaller cars a company makes) and was easy to open and start without the keys. Every so often, someone would “steal” the car overnight, and then bring it back with a full tank. This went on for years. We never found out who was doing it or where they were going. My aunt never reported it because a full tank was quite a bit of money for her at the time and the car wasn’t so fancy that she cared so much about it.
- Edd314159 4y ago
  It would be so cool if this was just a case of someone regularly mistaking your aunt’s car for their own. “Huh, my key’s not working, oh well, I know a trick to get ‘er started”
  - mhh__ 4y ago
    Some old cars can basically be opened with a spoon so it could even be that the key did work
    - cheese_van 4y ago
      Happened to me. The key for one car worked on another car of the same model. Nice elderly lady at work asks us to take out her car at lunch to diagnose a noise. We found her '73 Buick Skylark in the multi-story car-park and went to lunch. Ran great. Afterwards I asked, "I thought you were Baptist? Why did you have a St Chris statue on the dash?" Of course she didn't. We had found the "wrong" car on a lower deck of the car-park but when we got back from lunch parked it on the uppermost deck, unaware it belonged to someone else. When we discovered our error, we imagined what the owner might go through when the car was discovered missing but we kept our mouths shut, fearing some sort of liability. I bought that old lady's Skylark. Ran like a dang tank.
  - freemanofthewan 4y ago
    Plot twist: Someone posts in this thread how THEIR uncle who worked nights' car was "borrowed" regularly through the daytime and always returned empty. (waiting for that free fill-up of course)
theyknowitsxmas 4y ago
Send something to the best vinyl ripper on the internet, PBTHAL. https://tonepoet.fans/albums-i-would-like-to-borrow-record/ https://tonepoet.fans/albums-i-would-like-to-borrow-record/
poulsbohemian 4y ago
Bet they took the Credence too.
junon 4y ago
Cute, and not the first time I've heard of this happening (car being stolen and then found with extra weird stuff inside). > I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. Thanks for unlocking a weird childhood memory I had forgotten about! I was born on the dawn of tape cassettes, so vinyl had just started phasing out. Didn't stop me from using my grandparents' vinyl setup to play Splish Splash way too fast.
culebron21 4y ago
"I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks." We had 33 and 45 RPM buttons, and turning knob to fine-tune RPMs to be correct. (There was a little orange impulse light that shone on the edge of the disk which had small markings, and when they were "standing" in the impulse light, this meant the RPMs were exactly as needed.) So I played with both, unil at my age of 7, dad just unsoldered both the buttons and the knob. :D I still could play disks in reverse though. xD
kiriz 4y ago
Hey man, I‘ll buy those Would you mind sending a few pictures of random records to gaspard+hn@autosense.ch?
noduerme 4y ago
I'd like to point out the possibility that the thief used the car to steal these records from someone else... I can think of one person in LA who has such an eclectic and ratty ass record collection, who goes by "northern crates" on twitch and is a good old friend of mine; he's spent years scouring record stores for rare and unheard Motown. Probably not his stuff but you might want to try to figure out who just lost an entire record collection... it's probably not the thief's own.
grishka 4y ago
> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. At some point I worked a lot with digital audio on low level (I built a VoIP library from scratch, among other things). You get the same effect when you play something at higher sample rate than one at which it was recorded.
- Finnucane 4y ago
  When I was a kid we had a record player with a 16 rpm setting. That was fun too.
amiga-workbench 4y ago
I'm confused, shouldn't a car from 2016 be immobilized? And the ignition switch needs to respond to the ECU with a payload from the RFID chip in the proper ignition key?
dncornholio 4y ago
Police in USA lost almost all integrity.. They just do what they feel like
karol 4y ago
The Univere is very giving!

629 points by mkaic 4y ago

The story reminds me of this old joke. A man left a set of bagpipes in his car he parked and went into a bank. He then realized he had forgotten to lock his car. He rushed back but it was too late. To his horror he saw that someone left another set of bagpipes in his car. Oh and my Dad's friend had a great idea for anyone having their car broken into. Place mousetraps in console, glove box, under the seat, on the seat and turn off the dome/interior light.

kolleykibber 4y ago

There was a Solar Powered Vinyl Tent touring the festivals in the UK last summer. A bunch of records to flick through, a player and a few deckchairs. It really was a wonderful thing.

keraf 4y ago

Some decades ago, my dad's best friend's car got stolen in Geneva. They found it a few days later 50km away in France. The police returned the car to him and said it was used in a jewelry store robbery in Geneva. Not sure how or why, but they returned it to him with its contents it was found with; two Mont Blanc pens (worth 700$ each) and a few high quality tools that were probably used to break into the car. We got a fancy pen in the family since... On the topic of car theft, my dad used to have a BMW E30 325iX back in the days. The car was very sought after by thieves, so his cousin (who's a mechanic) installed a switch under the seat to cut-off the gas between the tank and the engine. The car was broken into a few times but never disappeared.

acomjean 4y ago
I had a used late 80s VW GTI with a starter disable switch. It was actually a circular key that would pop out under the steering wheel. The lock did a couple of things I eventually figured out… The engine would turn if it was Locked but it wouldn’t start. And it oddly locked the hood (which was a relief to discover the latch wasn’t in fact broken) My car too was never stolen but it was broken into as well.
Bayart 4y ago
Always use 2FA !

jacquesm 4y ago

This is quite funny. I once bought a car at auction, it turned out to be a former undercover police car, it had a large binder with open case files under the passenger seat as well as a really nice finger printing set. Both dutifully returned to the local police. I wonder what else they leave in their vehicles, if those case files had made it to a reporter there definitely would have been a scandal.

Hendrikto 4y ago
> if those case files had made it to a reporter there definitely would have been a scandal. It really should have been. Missed opportunity. I cannot believe how irresponsibly they sold their cars…
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Agreed, but given the fact that it was pretty easy to miss and that I had the car for a few weeks before I noticed I figured they really did look it over just missed it.

rsynnott 4y ago

This is definitely an unproduced Seinfeld episode.

nerdchum 4y ago

Somebody stole my car and the cops recovered it and the thieves left a nice Makita skill saw in the back. I told the cop on the scene that it wasn't mine and he said he was going to "confiscate it for evidence" and he put it in the trunk of his car. I dont think he used it for evidence.

smokymount 4y ago

Isn't the guy worried that the thief will be after him once he is out from jail?

skizm 4y ago

> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. He discovered Nightcore for hipsters :P

darepublic 4y ago

Can rewrite this into a modern take on the elves and the shoemaker

puffoflogic 4y ago

Instead of "now I own..." it would be more accurate to say that the author has been tricked by the police into maintaining custody of the records, without having any ownership claim to them, and being unable to sell them or give them away because they're obviously stolen property, and being unable to dispose of them because they're obviously evidence of a crime (theft).

michaelcampbell 4y ago

> blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do? Capitalism would say of course not, that's the best you were willing to pay for. As a mid-50's, the "I think they're called singles?" made me chortle.

icedistilled 4y ago

Name and shame the car company - this must have been a hyundai or kia (KN). Those companies have been in the news for having easy to steal cars due to leaving out cheap and completely standard on all other brands anti theft stuff just to save a few bucks.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) It was indeed a Hyundai, and I'm guessing its vulnerability is what motivated the thief to steal my cheap car instead of any of my neighbors' six-figure cars parked next to it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- faefox 4y ago
  From the second I read the headline I knew that it was going to involve a Kia or Hyundai. It is utterly reprehensible that these companies were selling new cars without immobilizers as recently as last year! No layperson buying a new car would have any reason to suspect that this was the case especially when you consider that my Honda Fit (hardly a luxury ride) was equipped with one way back in 2010. Their choice to save pennies during manufacture has directly led to a staggering amount of damages to people whose only mistake was trusting a car manufacturer to do the right thing. I hope they get sued and I hope that they get taken to the cleaners.
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  IMO, the best anti-theft device is a clutch. Almost nobody knows how to drive stick anymore.
  - olabyne 4y ago
    european enters the chat
    - 71bw 4y ago

Kon-Peki 4y ago

Any Credence? The Dude would abide.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) Not sure, I still haven't finished cataloguing everything yet! I might make an addendum to the post once I've finished that process with a more detailed breakdown of what's included in the collection.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  That was a Big Lebowski joke - Los Angeles, stolen car, missing music. Good luck with your collection, though I hope that somehow those records can be reunited with their rightful owner. Maybe someone wrote something on a sleeve or left some price stickers on some of them, etc. that can be used to identify it from all the other potential claimants that just want to get the music from you for free.
  - mkaic 4y ago
    Oh haha, I still haven't seen The Big Lebowski yet! I suppose I should give it a try sometime. Re: returning to the rightful owner — I certainly plan to look through them, but so far I'm thinking that most of them came from a record shop (many have little generic price stickers still on them), of which there are dozens in LA. Additionally, since they're vintage they've probably changed hands many times, and it's also unclear how long ago they were stolen. All that said, if by happenstance I do get an opportunity to return them to their rightful owner, I'd be happy to.
    - billiam 4y ago
      Not from a record shop, a real one anyway. Maybe a flea market, or someone's house. Those crates really tie the room together :)
      - mkaic 4y ago

bwestergard 4y ago

Are the police officer's legal claims true? Surely, if the records are themselves stolen, the original owners would be entitled to have them back. If they weren't stolen, does the thief forfeit ownership of them through the mere act of putting them in a car they stole?

baby 4y ago
Wild guess: there's just too much stuff that they get back that they don't have the time nor the storage to handle them while original owners might never show up to get them back.
elihu 4y ago
Presumably they could ask the car thief where the records came from if they caught him, but it seems likely that the police found the car but have no idea who stole it. In which case, the records are just random objects with no identifiable owner.
- mkaic 4y ago
  (author) They actually arrested the record-dealer out of the car, so they do know who was selling them. Still possible that the seller got them from a middleman or a chain of middlemen though.
  - valleyer 4y ago
    Have you considered posting on Craigslist (or Facebook or similar) to see if anyone in the area just had a bunch of records stolen -- and could name some of the ones not obviously pictured in your blog post? Sure, they might objectively be junk, but they also might be somebody's junk, and returning it to them may make them very happy.
- Turing_Machine 4y ago
  > Presumably they could ask the car thief where the records came from if they caught him Well, they could, but I don't think his lawyer would advise him to answer that question.

kube-system 4y ago

> blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do? It’s not. Ignition interlocks have been very common for at least 20 years. But there’s apparently a lot of money to be made cutting a few corners and under pricing competition by a couple hundred dollars.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) Yeah, as I understand it my car (a 2016 Hyundai) represents the low end of security. My original statement in the post was more intended to mean "why isn't this better regulated in 2016"
- silisili 4y ago
  Hyundais and Kias are notorious for how easy they are to steal, even as recently as last year. Unsure if they've finally done anything about it now that they're well known for it.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Yes, they’ve finally made immobilizers standard like most other automakers.
    - silisili 4y ago
      That's good. I really also hope they shook up their designs at the same time. I probably still wouldn't buy a new one for a few years. I'd imagine thieves either don't know this, or do but can't tell model years apart clearly. Meaning there's a good chance your car may be broken into still, just not driven off with.
      - kube-system 4y ago
        I wouldn’t worry about this situation in particular. Most thieves still just want to steal stuff out of your car which is still easy no matter what you drive.

WalterBright 4y ago

I bought a lot of used vinyl. Turns out there's a lot of stuff that never made it to CD. I clean them with a drop of dish soap. It works miracles.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) I think most of the records in this collection will need some dish soap and love! Some of them are pretty grimy.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Many vinyl aficionados are horrified that I use dish soap. They'll recommend some super-expensive formulation. The dish soap and a few seconds rubbing with your fingertips will take the grease, dog hair, mold, and other nasty stuff right off. (I mean liquid dish detergent, meant for handwashing dishes. The powder stuff will scratch.) You'll still need to pick the fuzz off of your needle now and then. I make a little brush for that by tearing the corner off a sheet of paper.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    It's like that Special Magic VHS Head Cleaner Fluid. I sniffed it, and it smelled just like isopropyl alcohol. I've been refilling it with iso alky ever since, and it works great. I use iso alky on a cotton ball to clean the scanner all the time, too.
    - trynewideas 4y ago
      It absolutely is IPA. The pro stuff is usually especially high-purity (99.8%+) but nothing all that special. The only special thing worth getting for tape heads, capstans, transports, and CD/DVD laser lenses is a lint-free swab with a more square head than a q-tip. Dish soap is fine on vinyl records, but use distilled water. The "residue" is more likely to come from unfiltered tap water than soap. And let them air dry completely before re-sleeving them because they can and will grow moldy, especially if the records are put away wet with paper sleeves. You don't need a fancy brush for cleaning the stylus, but a polyurethane gel pot is even easier to use (just dip the stylus tip in it), more thorough, and trivial to clean. The only "fancy" vinyl accessories that've really provided a lot of value for me are a grounded anti-static brush: https://www.turntableneedles.com/grounded_carbon_fiber_lp_brush https://www.turntableneedles.com/grounded_carbon_fiber_lp_br... And a cartridge/stylus upgrade, which for this setup probably doesn't need to be anything more than an $80 Ortofon Red and could easily be less. AFAICT this Pioneer has a replaceable cartridge.

dhosek 4y ago

I remember in college, my roommate would play Springsteen at 45rpm and he sounded exactly like Dolly Parton.

rgmerk 4y ago
Here's Dolly Parton's "Joeene" at 33rpm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA Sounds pretty good, though not exactly like Springsteen :)
_whiteCaps_ 4y ago
Random Springsteen fact: Hungry Heart was sped up slightly so he sounds higher-pitched. I've heard a bunch of different reasons why it was done, not sure if there's a confirmation anywhere. Not to Dolly Parton range though!
trynewideas 4y ago
When Third Man reissued The White Stripes' self-titled album, they etched "though no one noticed"/"we sped it up" in the runout: https://www.discogs.com/release/14465211-The-White-Stripes-The-White-Stripes https://www.discogs.com/release/14465211-The-White-Stripes-T...

maartn 4y ago

I see you got some “eight tracks” as well. Thief must’ve robbed someone’s grandpa

mkaic 4y ago
(author) Yeah! I didn't know what those were, but my mom was able to identify them when I FaceTimed her to show her the collection. I might eventually try to find a way to play them.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
Well, now I feel old

galgot 4y ago

At least no one p.. on your rug.

asaph 4y ago

Judging by the condition of the records shown in the picture, and by the description of the records as "late-70's to mid-80's", a not particularly collectible vinyl era that produced mass amounts of low-grade (thin) vinyl, I would bet these records are not worth much. You would be lucky to find any gems in those crates.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) Most of them are in pretty rough shape, too. Covers disintegrating, warping, dust, etc. A couple are even cracked. That's why my current plan is to hang on to them, catalogue them, maybe give a few away to friends and family as birthday presents — and of course, if the rightful owners are ever found, return them. Selling them just seems like a really big hassle, honestly they'd have to be worth a few bucks apiece for me to consider dealing with all the logistics of it.
- echelon 4y ago
  Really cool story. Thank you for sharing it with us! I'm really glad you got your car back, too. Hope the repair costs aren't a big drain.
  - mkaic 4y ago
    Wound up being ~1200 bucks because they had to fully replace the lock, the ignition, and the battery. Also because they charged me 120/hour for labor, but what can I say—LA repairs for LA prices! I also didn't spend time getting competing quotes from different shops, so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate, but at the end of the day I have my car back and I am fortunate enough to still be able to pay my bills so it all worked out in the end.
    - mikestew 4y ago
      so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate At $120? Any software dev in LA with any experience is probably at $75/hour, and they don't have to outfit an entire shop with compressors, lifts, and pricey alignment racks. At $120 in Southern California, you ought to be crowing about the deal you got. It reminds me when I was a pro mechanic years ago, and the biggest whiners about the hourly rate were doctors and lawyers. Excuuuuse me, Mr. Bills-at-Twice-the-Rate-I-Do?

odysseus 4y ago

So there is no info or post-it notes on any of the record sleeves that indicate the original owner? No markings or perhaps labels indicating where the records were purchased? I'm guessing maybe the police didn't want to deal with storing all these boxes, taking up space while waiting for someone to claim them.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) I think your guess is probably correct. So far I haven't found any traceable ownership markers, but if I do, I will make an effort to return them. I suspect that the records may have been stolen from multiple sources given the high variation in preservation. I also feel it's probable they've been stolen for some time now because of how poorly they appear to have been treated — disintegrating covers, melted records, cracks, etc.

scrumper 4y ago

Assuming you've made a good-faith effort to find the owners of the records, congrats on the haul! Takes a bit of the sting of the theft out I hope. Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand. Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) I've only tried out a few records so far, and that was last night when I set it all up for the first time. I didn't think to re-calibrate the turntable because the seller told me that it had been serviced by the previous owner, but it's probably a good idea to double check anyways.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  You can get a record cleaning kit on amzn for $15-20 bucks. I got the Big Fudge for xmas and it is pretty good.

MrVandemar 4y ago

What are the glyphs/runes/ideograms on the paper taped to the wall?

mkaic 4y ago
They're from a short film [0] I made a while ago — I made up an alternative alphabet to use in part of a scene and had it taped to the wall in another, and then I just never took it down! [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_D_RJHHho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_D_RJHHho

greggman3 4y ago

I had my car stolen from an apartment complex garage in like 1991. Sure it sucks to have my car stolen but the only irreplaceable thing was 36 mix tapes that were in the car. Guess that's an issue that no longer exists :P

dokem 4y ago

Don't let these guys bully you into thinking you need to play Shirlock and solve the case of missing junk you didn't steal. No good deed goes unpunished and all that. Enjoy the tunes.

CompleteWalker 4y ago

I used to buy/sell junk stuffs in nyc. I would doubt this is a stolen collection from the pics posted. Looks like a classic dump of the non-valuable lps from a larger collection. Maybe a dealer already bought the good stuff and the relatives of a deceased family put it on the curb, maybe a record store dumped it on the curb, maybe someone even drove by skid row and offered it for free because it was discarded. Wash Your Hands! And clean the records and sleeves thoroughly. The ripped and torn sleeves look like they've been chewed by mice... (in the biz we called it "rodentia scarring" or something equally fanciful)

xsmasher 4y ago
The condition and general vibe looks like the vinyl stacks at a Goodwill thrift store.
- rhizome 4y ago
  The 8-tracks make me think it's a flea market setup.

acd 4y ago

Interesting story. This reminds me of "the dude" in The big lebowski movie. The stolen car and The Creedance tape.

Symbiote 4y ago

If you haven't owned speakers like that before, you should also try connecting a computer or phone to the Tape1/CD input. An RCA to 3.5mm jack cable shouldn't cost more than $5. There are also devices to connect to that input which you can stream to, with Bluetooth or Wifi or similar. I have two Chromecast Audio things, but Google discontinued them.

mkaic 4y ago
Ooh, will have to give this a whirl. The guy who sold them to me was very enthusiastic about how well they'd served him over the years so I'm excited to get them wired up once my wire arrives tomorrow.
- nluken 4y ago
  Another thing to consider: head over to your local Goodwill and snag a cheap-ass CD player and a few CDs. I don't know your experience with audio but I used a similar set of speakers for years to stream music through Spotify, and the difference in audio quality between streaming and a CD blew me away. HQ audio files that you have locally will work just as well. Either way, enjoy the new setup!
- globular-toast 4y ago
  Have you flipped the right speaker the right way up yet?
  - mkaic 4y ago
    Yes, I flipped it a few hours after taking the photo in the article.

zanchey 4y ago

Now that's how you write a headline.

AdamJacobMuller 4y ago

> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. I discovered this playing with old records in the basement well before you were born and I'm pretty sure I drove my mother insane with it. Also, the person on your substack who suggested Cat Stevens is very correct. If you are curious to catalog them, or see value of them, discogs.com is a great site.

pugworthy 4y ago
Me? I want a hula hoop.
- hackernj 4y ago
  Alvin!!!
cirrus3 4y ago
hah, nice... "endlessly" is a stretch tho
- AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
  For 10-year-old me it felt endless, i'm sure it sounded endless to my mom.

jakedata 4y ago

Another upvote for Discogs - just be aware that there are many pressings of the same record so you will want to actually look at the matrix and runout codes in the "dead wax" which is the innermost smooth part of the vinyl. Anything that you want to salvage can be deep cleaned with a "spin clean" or like I do, with an ultrasonic tank cleaner. A warning - this can actually become a hobby. Don't get wrapped up in high dollar modern pressings unless there is something you absolutely have to have. The world is still bursting at the seams with old records that are new to you and can be had for $1-$5 each. If you decide to get a cleaner you can bring many of them back to life and you'll be surprised how good they can sound. Mostly just have some cheap fun!

m463 4y ago
but can you still get an original discwasher with a squeeze bottle of de-ionized water?
mkaic 4y ago
Don't worry, there's only one pricy modern record I can think of that I "have to have" — John Powell's How To Train Your Dragon score — and I've just ordered it secondhand, so I should be good for a while :) Thanks for the advice and the tip about cleaning!
- beckler 4y ago
  Not gonna lie, did not expect to see someone looking for this soundtrack, but it's straight up amazing. "Romantic Flight" and "Test Flight" on that album are some of my all-time favorite soundtrack pieces, and the Jonsi track is also excellent.
  - mkaic 4y ago
    Agreed! Powell is my favorite modern composer mostly for his work on the trilogy. I've listened to the soundtrack for years and remembered an Instagram post he made about it being pressed to vinyl a while back, so it was the first thing that came to mind when I realized I have a fully-functional record playing set up now! Romantic Flight and Test Flight are indeed spectacular, though I think my personal favorite is probably Forbidden Friendship! Also, yes! The Jonsi track is great. I'm also a fan of the songs he made for the second and third movies. Really cool that they got him to collaborate on the whole trilogy.

chrischen 4y ago

My friend’s house key used to open the door to my family’s Honda sedan.

dheera 4y ago

I'd honestly just hold onto them for at least a few months and periodically post on various forums and Reddit to see if the rightful owner can be found. If anyone tries to claim them it should be fairly easy to verify if they are the rightful owner by asking them the names of at least 10-15 of them. Also contact the police of nearby counties as well, your own county's police is probably too lazy to see if there is a theft case elsewhwere in the state. Also dig through them to see if there are any notes, in case any of them might have been gifts, there might be some clues as to who the rightful owner is.

schrijver 4y ago
That sounds exaggerated to my ears; The shape these records are in suggests they were dumped on the street after having spent years in an attic… Having OP discover them and discovering vinyl in the process is surely the best thing that could have happened to them.

irrational 4y ago

What I want to know is how did they steal the car out of a gated parking garage?

mkaic 4y ago
(author) I suspect they tailgated in behind someone, waited for the garage to be empty, hijacked the car, then idled until someone left so they could tailgate out.

at-fates-hands 4y ago

I used to work at a music shop buying and selling used CD's, vinyl music and DVD's. It was pretty common for us to deal with stuff that was obviously stolen. We had a couple (man and woman) who would come in the day of releases with like a dozen DVD's of high selling releases. It was so obvious so if we thought or knew stuff was stolen, we'd completely low ball them in effort to dissuade them from coming back. After a while, my manager said he wouldn't take this couples stuff any more - which lead to a heated conversation before my manager told them he wasn't an idiot, he knew they were stealing shit for their drug habit and they should stop coming here to sell their stuff. Anyways. . . One day some teenagers come in with two huge CD carriers of CD's. All very eclectic stuff. My manager was spotted some really rare stuff like Pearl Jam bootlegs, and some other stuff. He was looking through it and it was clear we were both seeing the same thing. He told me to tell these kids we'll go through it and come back in like 20 minutes because it will take a bit to go through it all. My manager pulls me into the back and is like, "Clearly this shit is stolen. This isn't just a random box of CD's either man, this is someone's collection. Some of the stuff in there is ultra rare, some of the stuff I would love to have in my collection. We have to do the right thing here man." Kids come back and he he gives them like $30 for the collection, it was like pennies on the dollar for everything. These kids, they don't care, they got $30 to blow on whatever. My boss tells me he's going to put an ad in the local alternative paper about the collection to see if he can get it back to the rightful owner and to set aside in the meantime, its not even going into our inventory. Two days later, gets a call. My manager tells him to come in. Says if he can identify the case and five of the CD's in the collection, he'll give it back. Dude not only told him the five, he listed the entirety of one of the cases. It was pretty obvious it was his. We did this a few other times and were successful, so it kind of made up for some of the other stuff we were expected to do. So many stories working there, it was as close to working at a pawn shop as you can probably imagine.

mkaic 4y ago
(author) This is a great story. Thank you for sharing! Others have suggested I should put up a post on Facebook/Craigslist/community forums to see if I could find the owner (presuming they are stolen, which I still don't know yet). I might give it a go, but my gut tells me the odds of it working are low living in such a densely populated city where there are probably records getting stolen from people and stores on a daily basis. Still might be worth a shot though.

dylan604 4y ago

A long time ago in a history far far away (early 2000s), friends of mine stopped into a used record store on the off chance that maybe there might be something they like. They go digging and come across a trove of a specific type of sound in what looks to be a fairly well curated collection. A few were well known and out of print. They divvied up between them and went to check out. That's when they learned that some girl had come in to sell the whole lot of vinyl for $1. Everyone agreed that it was a pissed off girlfriend/ex of some DJ. For a moment, there was almost a shared "is this bad karma" before that quickly dissipated. Vinyl collections all have stories around them. Some of the stories of how they were lost, some are how they were collected, and some are intertwined!

fakedang 4y ago
Wouldn't that come under theft?
- dylan604 4y ago
  you must not have known many DJs. they're kind of like drummers. what do you call a DJ without a girlfriend? homeless. some girl probably got tired of taking care of the guy, kicked him out, and in lieu of being paid back for all of the food, utilities, gas, etc she had shelled out for him over the course of the relationship and then on top of not coming to collect the damn crates after 3 months, would not qualify as theft by anybody's definition. the fact the transaction was for $1 just makes it worse. this whole back story is 100% made up and is just supposition on our parts, but it is 100% believable. it also just adds to the legend of one's own collection. "oh that one, yeah, let me tell how i got that one..." if you've ever lived with someone with a vinyl addiction, you know exactly how much space crates of records can take up. you also know how heavy they are. if you've never known anyone with this affliction, count your blessings.
  - mkaic 4y ago
    I don't have the affliction (yet) but between the new cabinet and the 9 crates of records, my studio apartment is already feeling a bit on the cramped side ;-)

JasonFruit 4y ago

It's the opposite of my life: someone stole my hundreds of vinyl records, and now I own a car. (The two are not related except insofar as my priorities have grown more responsible over the years.)

swivelmaster 4y ago

Something similar happened to me - I had a car stolen (a block from the Fremont, CA police department, no less), and when it was found a month later it was full of stolen goods. I found bolt cutters, several garage door/gate openers, an LA sheriff gun holster, a gold ring, gloves, a car jack... lots of supplies that one would use to steal things with. And the police told me to keep it all and do whatever I wanted with it!

kylehotchkiss 4y ago
I recently dealt with a car theft and they took my jack. The dealer said >$600 for a new one (lol) so between that and the ring, you got quite the haul
- dicknuckle 4y ago
  It's $600 because they likely don't keep it in stock anywhere nearby, and they only had a few in existence. For those you're better off going to a junk yard and getting one from the same brand vehicle.
cwkoss 4y ago
I would expect they'd at least want the holster!
- swivelmaster 4y ago
  Nope! I called and asked!

Aeolun 4y ago

> I was born in 2002 First thoughts: How does that work? You live by yourself right? I was born in 1988 and I barely live by myself. Nope, they’re 20-21 and I’m just getting old.

LinuxBender 4y ago

This just sounds like lazy cops that did not wish to check all the items back into evidence after itemizing and tagging everything. I suggest this as I am also lazy.

stevenwoo 4y ago
One of my housemate's car was stolen and used in a bank robbery and when they recovered it there was a screwdriver in the ignition lock and there were a bunch of cigarettes and music CDs in it that belonged to the thieves. It's possible forensics for a property crime do not matter much to most police departments unless it's a much higher dollar amount involved or murder/assault.

S_A_P 4y ago

Maybe its me, but if the thief already knew the building the car was located it would be trivial to find out the unit the author lives in and could show up looking for his missing wax.

mkaic 4y ago
True, but I don't think the thief knows that the police gave them to me! Additionally, the DA said this person has a criminal history and may end up going to prison for this offense. In any case, if they did show up, they'd do so whether I have the records still or not!

nimbius 4y ago

"blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do?" Buddy, the same could be said for your insurance coverage. Carrying "liability only" in the second largest city in the USA is an infantile decision.

cirrus3 4y ago
It blows our minds that you `figured` out a way to conflate these things.

danielodievich 4y ago

My crappy 10 year old Civic got stolen from in front of my apartment on the day of my wedding reception. My wife freaked out but I wasn't phased too much - she still praises me for it - and called the police for the report, and a friend for a ride. We had a great party that day and a fun topic to discuss at it. Anyhow, the car was found few days later in a really bad part of town, but police didn't call us that quick like they did this lucky recipient of vinyl, so it was re-stolen from the place it was dropped off. About 40 days later after my insurance written it off and the police called and said come pick it up from a junkyard. It had someone else's license places, and was severely damaged after a full-front hit on the telephone pole after apparently a high-speed police chase. Who runs away from the police in a Honda Civic?! Anyhow, even though it was hit hard in front, the airbag never engaged, so I guess I am glad it wasn't me. There was blood inside everywhere, clearly the two people who were inside were quite hurt. Anyhow, I opened the trunk to get my jumper cables and lo and behold - tools! in pretty good toolbags, too! Decent looking respirators! Strange chemicals! Lots of ammonia in large jugs! A wallet with lots of stolen checks in it. A small bag with some dude's underwear. But my old set of jumper cables is, alas, gone... I brought everything home, including (perhaps stupidly? certainly my wife thought so) ammonia and powdered chemicals. As I discovered the powder stuff lye and clearly this was all meth-making equipment. The undies had to go, but I kept some of the tools and respirators. I freecycled ammonia. We made some soap out of lye, so that was helpful. The people who stole it were put in jail for various offences for a couple of years, including stealing my car. The court asked me if I had any claims and I said naah, I don't want to add to someone's bad life choices... Then , except for the $500 insurance deductible, which they deducted from his jail wages for next 3 years, and kept sending me small checks for like $19.28 or $8.78 every few months. The checks followed me to another house even though I completely forgot to update the address with the court (nice) and stopped right at $500.

leke 4y ago
My god, you're like the chillest person. I wish I could let go of things as easily as you.
- AllegedAlec 4y ago

manicennui 4y ago

What if the thief stole the car, filled it with vinyl, and left it where it could be found to enrich the life of the owner?

mkaic 4y ago
My secret criminal fairy godmother! I always knew deep down I had one of those!
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  I'm sorry. Netflix pre-emptively cancelled that show. Now you'll never know how it all ends up!

tomcam 4y ago

I had about 30 nice guitars stolen out from under me when I moved into what I thought was a semi-remote farmhouse. I would like to think that this happened to my thief.

moris_borris 4y ago

I have that couch. Looks nice but man, no back support.

gnicholas 4y ago

Funny thing, this could technically constitute receipt of stolen property. [1] There is an exception for "innocent intent" if you are planning to bring it to either the owner or the police, but I wonder what happens if you lack that intent, but you got it from the police! 1: https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/ https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
Yeah, I was actually confused when I read that in the article...
exodust 4y ago
Not technically because your link says "...that you know to have been obtained through theft or extortion". But the records could have been taken from the trash. If nobody reported stolen records then they can't be considered stolen.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  The examples under 1.3 [1] indicate that the standard isn't 'actual knowledge', but also include situations where the recipient 'should have known' that the property was stolen. 1: https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/#1.3 https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/496/#1.3
  - exodust 4y ago
    The old records may have belonged to the car thief. Given their low value, it's unlikely to be loot. What if you found a jar of peanut butter in the car? Would you try to find out if it was stolen and hunt down the rightful owner?
tjrDL6MjB2Zwwa 4y ago
[dead]

shepherdjerred 4y ago

My landlords truck was stolen out of his driveway last year. The police found it a few weeks later, and there was a very expensive looking arc welder in it that he got to keep.

awbraunstein 4y ago

My van was stolen outside my apartment in Oakland a few years ago. I called in to report it had been stolen and got a call back less than 5 minutes later by an officer who was with my van in another part of town about to have it towed. It was just parked in the middle of the road. When I got there to pick it up, I found other people's stolen mail, hundreds of feet of speaker wire, a car stereo, and a lunchbox full of hundreds of house keys among other items. It was as if they used it as a heistmobile. Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff was stolen like a camera and some clothing, but they didn't touch the thousands of dollars worth of climbing and snowboarding gear. It was almost as if they didn't even know what it was.

SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
They probably didn’t, as you are most likely aware. I remember distinctly as a kid my older brother’s car getting broken into in North Texas. The thieves broke a window and stole my CD case from his truck. Circa 2004-2006, they did $400 USD worth of damage and got probably $40 worth of Rush, Styx, Rich Mullins and Blink 182 cd’s, mixture of original and burned. I am pretty sure given the questionable taste and definitely questionable mix that they didn’t get their money’s worth. Tl;dr thieves often have no idea how much stuff is actually worth and will happily do 10x worth of damage for a perceived 10% gain
- ornornor 4y ago
  It’s like thieves who would rather steal a bicycle and abandon it at destination than wait for the bus/buy a bus ticket. Saves them 2$ and 10 mins, costs someone else a new bike and being on foot for a couple weeks.
  - gernb 4y ago
    reminds me of tagging. easy to do property destruction costs 100x to fix
    - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago

ykovalenko 4y ago

Welcome to vinyl club!

8bitsrule 4y ago

There's a lot of old vinyl out there in the world. Twenty years ago, a DJ friend bought out the vinyls at a record shop for $4-500. We filled my Dodge Caravan with them, with the back seats removed ... bottoming out the suspension ... twice. Slowly driving them to his home as the van complained. So I'd guess at most about 40-50 cents a pound for that ... at-least half-ton? of vinyl. Recognizable artist names in that heap? Not many. There's a lot of vinyl out there. The world's been hard on shellac 78s. But vinyl?

tragomaskhalos 4y ago
Ah yes the sheer weight of the stuff - I remember helping a mate move house, he had a couple of tea chests into which he'd packed his records - trying to get them downstairs they might just as well have been filled with concrete
klodolph 4y ago
Yes, exactly. If you factor in the cost of listing records on eBay, organizing them, and shipping them, the idea of selling a bunch of used records ends up being a losing proposition. There’s too much vinyl out there and people only want the stuff they recognize, for the most part. You get the same feeling when you make a typo in your Spotify search. There’s a ton of music out there. There has been for a long time.
virgulino 4y ago
There is a Brazilian guy who did a lot of that, buying entire stores. He amassed the largest collection of vinyls in the world. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bu... https://thevinylfactory.com/features/inside-the-worlds-biggest-record-collection-an-interview-with-zero-freitas/ https://thevinylfactory.com/features/inside-the-worlds-bigge...
- 8bitsrule 4y ago
  Funny. "By age 30, he had about 30,000 records. About 10 years later, his bus company expanded, making him rich. Not long after that, he split up with his wife, and the pace of his buying exploded." That's what reactors do when the control-rods are pulled out!

ecpottinger 4y ago

You sound like the woman who got her car stolen. When the police recovered it, she found it had new shocks, new covers on the seats, a CD added and the engine tuned up.

dusted 4y ago

I don't get it.. If the records belong to the car thief, shouldn't they get them ? If the records didn't belong to the car thief, shouldn't they be confiscated and it be announced somewhere so the rightful owner could come pick them up ?

ornornor 4y ago
I think it could happen if they’re not the thief’s and the thief never admitted to stealing them, and there aren’t any open missing property report for them. Then the police can’t really confiscate them because there is no basis to do so.
- dusted 4y ago
  Well the car owner just told they weren't his, at least they should go in some "lost items" storage.

ornornor 4y ago

Back when I was a kid, some 20–30 years ago, my aunt used to get her car regularly “stolen” overnight. The car was parked in the street, locked, but it was an entry model (or whatever you call the smaller cars a company makes) and was easy to open and start without the keys. Every so often, someone would “steal” the car overnight, and then bring it back with a full tank. This went on for years. We never found out who was doing it or where they were going. My aunt never reported it because a full tank was quite a bit of money for her at the time and the car wasn’t so fancy that she cared so much about it.

Edd314159 4y ago
It would be so cool if this was just a case of someone regularly mistaking your aunt’s car for their own. “Huh, my key’s not working, oh well, I know a trick to get ‘er started”
- mhh__ 4y ago
  Some old cars can basically be opened with a spoon so it could even be that the key did work
  - cheese_van 4y ago
    Happened to me. The key for one car worked on another car of the same model. Nice elderly lady at work asks us to take out her car at lunch to diagnose a noise. We found her '73 Buick Skylark in the multi-story car-park and went to lunch. Ran great. Afterwards I asked, "I thought you were Baptist? Why did you have a St Chris statue on the dash?" Of course she didn't. We had found the "wrong" car on a lower deck of the car-park but when we got back from lunch parked it on the uppermost deck, unaware it belonged to someone else. When we discovered our error, we imagined what the owner might go through when the car was discovered missing but we kept our mouths shut, fearing some sort of liability. I bought that old lady's Skylark. Ran like a dang tank.
- freemanofthewan 4y ago
  Plot twist: Someone posts in this thread how THEIR uncle who worked nights' car was "borrowed" regularly through the daytime and always returned empty. (waiting for that free fill-up of course)

theyknowitsxmas 4y ago

Send something to the best vinyl ripper on the internet, PBTHAL. https://tonepoet.fans/albums-i-would-like-to-borrow-record/ https://tonepoet.fans/albums-i-would-like-to-borrow-record/

poulsbohemian 4y ago

Bet they took the Credence too.

junon 4y ago

Cute, and not the first time I've heard of this happening (car being stolen and then found with extra weird stuff inside). > I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. Thanks for unlocking a weird childhood memory I had forgotten about! I was born on the dawn of tape cassettes, so vinyl had just started phasing out. Didn't stop me from using my grandparents' vinyl setup to play Splish Splash way too fast.

culebron21 4y ago

"I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks." We had 33 and 45 RPM buttons, and turning knob to fine-tune RPMs to be correct. (There was a little orange impulse light that shone on the edge of the disk which had small markings, and when they were "standing" in the impulse light, this meant the RPMs were exactly as needed.) So I played with both, unil at my age of 7, dad just unsoldered both the buttons and the knob. :D I still could play disks in reverse though. xD

kiriz 4y ago

Hey man, I‘ll buy those Would you mind sending a few pictures of random records to gaspard+hn@autosense.ch?

noduerme 4y ago

I'd like to point out the possibility that the thief used the car to steal these records from someone else... I can think of one person in LA who has such an eclectic and ratty ass record collection, who goes by "northern crates" on twitch and is a good old friend of mine; he's spent years scouring record stores for rare and unheard Motown. Probably not his stuff but you might want to try to figure out who just lost an entire record collection... it's probably not the thief's own.

grishka 4y ago

> I’ve also discovered it’s endlessly entertaining to take 33 RPM records and play them at 45 RPM, causing everyone to sound like chipmunks. At some point I worked a lot with digital audio on low level (I built a VoIP library from scratch, among other things). You get the same effect when you play something at higher sample rate than one at which it was recorded.

Finnucane 4y ago
When I was a kid we had a record player with a 16 rpm setting. That was fun too.

amiga-workbench 4y ago

I'm confused, shouldn't a car from 2016 be immobilized? And the ignition switch needs to respond to the ECU with a payload from the RFID chip in the proper ignition key?

dncornholio 4y ago

Police in USA lost almost all integrity.. They just do what they feel like

karol 4y ago

The Univere is very giving!