Sorry to hear of the troubles there. Kind of shocking what the world is coming to in many areas.

I had a kind of related event a couple of months ago in the SF Bay Area. My son was driving my wife's Prius over in Fremont, parked in the Nordstrom parking lot mid-afternoon on a Sunday. Safe, you'd think, right? Security cams, etc. But not in CA where many are on a mission to decriminalize crimes.

The car is a Prius, super high target for cat theft. So I had already made my own home-brew modified theft solution involving a purchased cat cover plate, welding on some blockers to key bolts, and muffler clamps to make it a PITA to remove.

What the bad guys apparently did was to see what I had done, not even try, and threw a rock through the back window. Other witnesses saw it happen, while my son was inside the store. Police came, took the report, talked to the nice witnesses who stayed to report things, security footage exists, but nothing actually got done. As an example, the store would not release the security footage.

So depending on where you live, you might want to consider the risk for punitive vandalism if you do what I did and make it extra difficult for the cat entrepreneurs to get their jobs done.

Insurance company (USAA) paid for the new Genuine Toyota rear window, very nicely, with the $100 Comprehensive deductible. Comprehensive would have covered the cat if needed ($3k+, weeks delay in getting the part since theft rate is so high, perhaps requiring a tow if the coolant line was cut, etc.).

I talked with the USAA claims agent, while getting the Genuine part approved. He agreed with my theory. Confirmed the Prius cats are being stolen left and right - he had already handled 5 that day so far.

Said he had never seen any of my other cars (Porsches, Honda minivan, and the 2001 X5 3.0i) get their cats stolen. I don't know if he specifically meant the 3.0i vs. the V8s. The cats on the 3.0i's are in a very difficult spot for removal, vs. on the V8s, so maybe that keeps us safer.

Not that I'd do anything differently, but that's my story.

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2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014