Airbags stolen!

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Frank Patrick

Upon return to Ontario(California) airport parking last night I was in for quite a surprise.
First, I never take my Boxster to park at the aiport, but this was a quick trip, leaving directly from work, and had no chance to swap out cars. It was about 10:00PM when I got to my car and noticed the passenger side door was ajar. After opening it and noticing a rather large hole where my passenger side air bag USED to BE, and another in the middle of my steering wheel, I yelled out a curse virtually everyone around me herd. BOTH MY AIRBAGS HAVE BEEN STOLEN!!!!

Sadly, this is a common happening.

The airbags are a very expensive part and thieves can move them.

[Peer]

Initially when I was looking to buy a Boxster, I came across a used one that was priced very humanely -- but had a missing driver's side air-bag. I walked away. Although I like to fix & mod my toys, to work on something that might blow up in your face isn't too fun.

-- peer

[Perfectlap]

Whenever your airbags are swiped, immediately check Ebay or add the feature that will email you an alert when one shows up on Ebay.
I would email the seller questions like how much is shipping? where are you shipping from? is a local pick up available? How old are the airbags?
Then with that information call the local authorities and email them the correspondence.

Anyone with enough knowledge to believe that Boxster or 996 airbags are worth the risk of getting caught for a possible felony, is smart enough to know about Ebay as a place to fence the stolen items. This isn't some car radio theif looking for a hit of crack or meth.

[Frank Patrick]

Never thought about checking e-bay, but your suggestions are good.
In fact the Sheriff's department told me there are law enforcement agencies working this issue, trying to find both sellers AND buyers. He told me of a recent Ford Motor car case where Ford was sued as a result of a fatal car crash where the drivers bag did not deploy. The vehicle in question was throughly examined, and found to have a "black market" relacement airbag This was done by a body shop that used a stolen bag for the repair. Although virtually anyone handy with tools can put the bag in; on newer model cars, the rate of bag deployment is keyed to the cars main computer, and special equipment; pretty much (dealer only) makes the appropriate connection. This determines, amongst other info- speed of car, weight of passengar etc. The new "Smart Bags", make adjustments in inflation rate, based on the size of the occupant it trying to protect.In this case Ford sucessfully proved, that although it was a Ford airbag, the vin numbers and inflator part number did NOT match. The body shop on a plea agreement coorporated with Police investigators to reduce their penalties.

[Perfectlap]

that sucks, makes me wonder if my airbag was ever replaced!

as far as law enforcement, the operation is only as good as its people and some guys really don't give a crap. I had vehicle stolen once, called the local PD every day. Nada.... Decided to do some leg work of my own (interesting story) and found my vehicle in another jurisdiction (minus wheels). Been sitting there all week with my registration in the car! No one bothered to call anybody else. Another time I had another vehicle stolen and the local PD did nothing to find the loser. I did some asking around and found out who it was as he was spotted. Forwaded the info but the guy takes off after he had plenty of time to pack his bags.
When I spoke to the local PD about all this it was clear they couldn't be bothered with small time stuff. Don't ever count on the law enforcement to catch anybody.
This applies to local, state and federal. Have dealt with them all. Not enough people, not enough pay, and the criminals are one step ahead. Most of the guys caught for anything really are the dumbest, slowest and most drug addicted. Which doesn't sound like the Porsche air bag ring.

[Frank Patrick]

You hit the nail on the head-My sense was -this guy' got a Porsche, so his airbags are missing-get over it-