Where's my car?

K

KiwiRover

Active Member
Sometime in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning, some lowlife slimeball decided to steal my beloved red 2000TC from my front lawn. :x I can't quite fathom what kind of idiot would think to steal such a distinctive vehicle. I know it was a relatively easy target but really, it's not exactly fast or exciting to drive and you would be nuts to think that selling it for parts would be easy or profitable.
Seeing as the Police haven't found it yet, I'm assuming that its not been crashed or dumped somewhere illegal. I'm hoping that it is still intact and parked legally somewhere and no-one has noticed.

If any forum members out there are from the Auckland region and get offered a '68 TC or any of it's unusual options, please let me or the Police know. The car is quite tidy, Venetian Red with a black leather interior and is fitted with the following options:
Wire wheels, Touring kit, Thin chrome strips running the full length of the sides, Cibie fog lights, badge bar, early (laminated) heated rear window, wooden gear knob, 'woodrim' steering wheel, (this has a unique centre badge that says 'Rover S') ET front headrests, rear headrests, hazard lights, front and rear mudflaps, towbar, Radiomobile radio, Roof aerial, full tool kit and tyre pump, stainless exhaust and personalised plates R0V3R (thats with a zero instead of O)

As you can imagine, some of these items are extremely rare in NZ and should raise some eyebrows among Rover afficionados.
Still, i'm hopeful that she is fine and just waiting to be found. Fingers crossed. Not much else I can do.
 
Heartbreaking...

Given the distinctiveness - personally I doubt it would be a pro so you may be looking at opportunists or local kids?

If it is just joyriders, getting the word out ASAP would be best so hitting this list was a smart move of course. Personally I'd start with posting local fliers with some sort of reward. We all could use some extra cash so put a little incentive into the local area & use their eyes & ears - hopefully someone has seen it or heard something/someone talking about it being taken. If you have no joy there, then checking ads, local postings etc may help turn it up.

Best of luck & I hope you get her back quickly & in one undamaged piece!

Paul
 
Well it's been 5 days and still no sign of the car. Hopefully no news is good news? I have printed up some flyers which I will distribute in key locations and I have had an ad running on Trade me. In the meantime, I have had to drive my beloved's 3500S which is not used very often so consequently is bl**dy unreliable. Main issues seem to be with the fuel pump. The mechanical pump gave up a year or so back and I fitted a good electric pump which came with another car. This failed on the way home from work on Thursday so was hastily replaced with a stray found in my workshop. (No idea where it came from) This one seemed to work fine until I had to pass someone on a hill at which point the car sputtered and died at the lights. Much cursing and waiting for the pump to catch up saw me limping home gently. I've ordered a new pump but this won't be in 'til Monday so I just have to get to work tomorrow. Fingers crossed. :D
Now my backup plan, should my red baby not turn up will be a hasty restoration of the Sage green '70 TC with the AC and Sundym. I spent a bit of time fiddling with it today and it seems to run quite well but will of course need the rear brakes doing, and has blown a small hole in the middle of the exhaust. I will pickup a spare sage bonnet and rr wing from my lockup tomorrow as these two panels are so full of filler that they are beyond saving but the rest of the panels aren't too bad. Can't hurt to make a start on it anyway and it keeps me occupied and out of a morbid pit of hopelessness. :LOL:
 
Hiya from good old blighty.

I have informed my mum and step dad in Waipu,Northland,they know of a couple of local classic car enthusiasts,whom I met when I was over in 07.
I will ask them to put the word out for you!
Would you have a pic and a few details I can give to them.
Very best of luck,I hope the scummy, kai a te kurī , low lifes are caught and they get whats coming to them Maori style! :wink: :twisted:

Dave
 
With a fleet like that,I am pretty sure he will have that covered! :wink:
I know I would!!
But whatever the insurance agreement,no amount of money can replace a car you own,you can NEVER replace what you have sweat over,know intimately,its history,its soul,its very being is lost forever!! :cry: :cry:
 
Thanks Pilkie, it's amazing how many Brits have connections down here! (I love Waipu btw, go camping there every year)
Yes the car is insured but as you say, a lot of aspects (and parts) are irreplaceable. I know of only 4 other cars in NZ with wire wheels and a lot of the options were imported by me because they just aren't available here. Here are a couple of recent (2 weeks old) photos.
Image018-1.jpg

PA220185.jpg

The Cibie fog lights had only been on the car about a month and the personalized plates were a birthday gift from my partner. I was preparing to replace some of the rear seats with better examples so the new parts were in the boot. The NOS front mudflaps were under the passenger seat waiting to be fitted and I had just fitted a new radio so the old one (2 yr old Sanyo cd player) was in the glovebox. Also my 80gb ipod lived in the car. :cry:
My new radio, which I was about to post details of on here is pictured below.
PA220188.jpg

I had just had this modified to take an ipod input, next job was going to be hiding the ipod in the ashtray. Oh well...
 
What a beautiful looking P6.

I hope you get her back with no (or little) damage.

Best regards,

Colin
Northern Ireland
 
I can never understand why scum steal cars that are worthless to them, if it's been taken for an A to B scenario you would expect it to be left somewhere noticable, however as is often the case the low lifes leave them burnt out somewhere out of the public eye, river bed and out of the way places etc. I feel truely sorry for your loss esp as it is an exceptional car. You can but hope for the best.

Graeme
 
I'm hopeful Graeme. I figure if it had been torched and left at a beach or something, someone would have reported it straight away. If it still looks respectable and is legally parked, then no-one has any reason to report it. I just have to hope that someone sees one of my ads or wait 'til it's been sitting there long enough for somebody to get concerned. Again, that depends on the neighbourhood it's in. A good neighbourhood is more likely to report a suspicious vehicle than a crappy one, unfortunately, scumbag opportunist car theives don't tend to live in good areas.
 
True, the worst case scenario may be a some one looking for a donar car to get there crapped out P6 mobile again, maybe a cruise of the streets of Sth AK might be in order.

Graeme
 
Graeme, there's a LOT of streets in south Auckland, most of them dodgy! I wouldn't know where to start, and the problem with that is you never know if it's just down the side street you passed or up that driveway. It would be annoying to spend hours driving around only to have it found on one of the streets you missed! Plus, not ALL car thieves live down south. I'm out west and just about everyone I know is out west so I think that's fairly covered. But I will be visiting some towies tomorrow and they do get around and they know where all the stolen stuff gets dumped.
 
Hi Kiwirover,
I really wish you all the luck in the world in finding your lovely car, I've had a few classic bikes go missing in times gone past and I know that horrible heart in your mouth moment too well unfortunately. I can't really suggest anything more than what has been already said apart from maybe trying to place an advert looking for the unique parts for the model of the car that you have lost, it may bring the thieving scum out of their holes, it may mean an incognito visit posing as a buyer to ascertain the identity of the vehicle, but if it does turn anything up you can get the police involved then. once again all the best.
 
That's my feeling Dave. So i'm hoping it's still intact. If it was taken by a Rover enthusiast (seems unlikely) they wouldn't be able to show anyone their shiny new bits without raising a lot of suspicions.
 
Can't offer anything but heartfelt sympathy. My car looks nothing like as good as yours, but I'd be gutted to lose it. As Pilkie says, your heart and soul goes into these cars.

Good Luck mate,

Cheers,
 
Hello KiwiRover,

It is dreadful when living scum come and steal your possessions, so I am truly sorry for your loss. I really hope that this sad affair has a happy ending for you.

I know of an instance some years ago where a VW beetle was stolen from outside of a house not far from where I was living at the time. A week or so later, the owner came out in the morning and to his astonishment there sitting back where it had been before was his VW beetle.... :shock: There was a note inside....."Thanks for the lend of your car"

All the very best to you!
Ron.
 
Hi Ron, that's an ideal scenario! :LOL: I would be quite happy with that kind of outcome but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Today is a good day! My car has been found in the garage of a vacant house a couple of streets from my home. It is almost totally undamaged and nearly in the condition it left me.
They managed to get in and start it without doing any damage. They then decided to have a look in the boot but tried to access it by ripping out the back seats. Obviously this didn't work so they pried the boot lock out, doing a wee bit of damage to the paint. The lock is nowhere to be seen unfortunately and for some reason, they have nicked all the tools :!: I don't know how much use anyone will get from a hub spanner, Rover jack, tool roll and tyre pump but who am I to judge? Obviously the ipod, CD player and my multimeter are gone and the fuel was siphoned but they clearly had no idea what they were looking at because all the rare and unique bits are still there. The car started straight up and ran as well as ever so as soon as the Police have been round tomorrow to fingerprint her, I will tidy her up and put her all back together.

I AM SO HAPPY! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top