News:

The ORG - No back-slapping boys club!

Main Menu

Badge Thieves

Started by Peter Anderson, 24 January 2006, 05:20 AM

Peter Anderson

Thursday night last week, some little so-and-so decided to harvest the bonnet stars from both my W116s! Very annoying, particularly as one of them was for sale at the time in an ebay auction! Luckily they are readily available as spares, but at GBP27.50 a time this could get quite expensive to keep replacing them.

So has anyone got any ideas how to stop the badges going walkies? Can you wire them up to the battery, sharpen the edges? Any ideas, no matter how injurious gratefully received!

Denis

Hi Peter

Yes, I have also lost two stars over the last few years...anything you do to the star to annoy the "so-an-so" may make them angry enough that they will clobber your headlamps or winshield out of frustration.

The best "defense" is to have a "removable" star. Alternately, one could have "fake stars" made of wood or plastic. I have never heard of any other way to deter the "encul?s" that do this !

>>>>>Please understand that you may be offended should you learn the meaning of the french word but it is appropriate to these bl**** bast**** !


Denis

Paris, France (very sunny and quite cold)

Paris, France

Peter Anderson

Denis,

I know you're right, you just get so angry at the stupidity. A removable star would be great - I may have to investigate that, as I'm sure as soon as I put another one it'll walk again, with all the risk of damage to the grill as they remove it.

I do speak a bit of french (I spent a year in Geneva and my sister lives near N?mes) and agree completely with the description - but don't worry all swearing in "foreign" is funny rather than offensive!

Pete

oscar

I've seen ads for removable stars for later models but not 116's.  Has anybody seen if they're available?

I can't help but agree with Peter's thinking, in theory at least.  Perhaps a whopping, huge capacity, high powered capacitor be attached to the whole body of the vehicle to knock any so and so on their backside for a few minutes.

In practice though, it'd be yours truly that would inadvertently be the first guinea pig. :o
1973 350SE, my first & fave

GSK11740

I know I've seen them for W123's but I don't know if they would fit the W116 grill. They look like they would but I can't tell without actually trying it. I just had to replace mine too (it was missing when I got the car).

Denis

Peter and MB350

"Knocking" them down is no good since they will get back up and smash your car.  >:
If you still want to "knock" them down, I suggest an electronic trigger pulling a relay that presses the trigger of an Uzi whose barrel is neatly inserted in the grille  ;)

Denis

Paris, France

Mforcer

There have been a few failed attempts at people souveniring my badge. If I caught the person they would be feeling a whole world of hurt >:(

My only solution is that I no longer park my car in the areas where previous attacks have occurred. A ride on public transport is much cheaper and much less stressful than having to deal with damage to my car.
Michael
1977 450SE [Brilliant Red]
2006 B200

OzBenzHead

Quote from: mb350 on 25 January 2006, 05:11 AMPerhaps a whopping, huge capacity, high powered capacitor be attached to the whole body of the vehicle

Exactly what my old man did, many decades ago, to discourage the farm dogs from peeing on his car's wheels (I think he used a spare ignition coil). Worked like a charm!

Ever seen a dog, doing crazy circles and yelping its head off, wondering what bit its doodle?

20,000 volts up the tube ensured that no dog that had experienced it once  could ever be encouraged to approach the wheel of any car again.

It was also top amusement for an 8-year-old kid who liked torching spiders with a flame thrower.   ;D
[img width=340 height=138][url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png"]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png[/url][/img]

GSK11740

Quote from: OzBenzHead on 26 January 2006, 08:53 PM
Quote from: mb350 on 25 January 2006, 05:11 AMPerhaps a whopping, huge capacity, high powered capacitor be attached to the whole body of the vehicle

Exactly what my old man did, many decades ago, to discourage the farm dogs from peeing on his car's wheels (I think he used a spare ignition coil). Worked like a charm!

Ever seen a dog, doing crazy circles and yelping its head off, wondering what bit its doodle?

20,000 volts up the tube ensured that no dog that had experienced it once  could ever be encouraged to approach the wheel of any car again.

It was also top amusement for an 8-year-old kid who liked torching spiders with a flame thrower.   ;D

Oh, does this bring back some memories! We had a dog that used to "salute" my Mom's Azalea bushes. One day, my Dad got the idea to wire them up using one of these electric fence gizmos. I never heard such a noise! It really sounded like someone was killing the dog, slow torture style! Anyway, the plan backfired though because the dog refused to go out in the backyard after that and my Dad got stuck walking him on a leash twice a day. The dog never went on any bushes after that though! :D

John Hubertz

#9
Hey all,

With an initial understanding that I am politically left of the Kennedy family (somewhere in the vicinity of Lenin) I'd like to vote for courtesy to the frustrated youth who stole your badges.

J C Whitney used to sell a very simple badge alarm that sounded an intermittent blast of the horn whenever the hood ornament was molested with the engine off.  Easy enough to make one for the Red Green's among us, I'd say use a string-pull lamp switch, a flasher, and one strand of wire.  And duct tape.  Always duct tape.

They can have my badge, as long as they keep their keys or other sharp object in their pocket.  One price of conspicous consumption is resentment from those less fortunate. 

I've discovered that vandalism and theft insurance is quite reasonably priced in the USA - and I believe that the only line of thinking that offers any value is to protect your investment and thus create more peace, not less.  In this case, peace of mind.  Hurt my car, I get paid and salve my wound with a generous insurance check, and probably a salvage title and a $50 mercedes in my garage.

I carry strong "named-value theft/vandalism rider" insurance on my 1992 Dodge Caravan AWD that to me is irreplaceable -every option, maintained like a Benz and not a vehicle that you would want to buy again without knowing its history and provenance - they break in very pricey ways.  Now when I park it "out" I kind of fantasize about the fat check it will eventually generate - because an insurance company is always a generous buyer, and sooner or later the law of averages will catch up with it.  The factory Infinity radio will eventually draw the wrong kind of attention.



I'm not saying I like damage - it is an incredible annoyance.  A bullet fell through the windshield of my 90 year-old Mother's 1998 Century parked right next to the 450 SEL 6.9 new year's eve....


Thank God it didn't hit the Benz.  Forgive the poor fools - for it is likely they are not just fools, but also truly poor.

John
John Hubertz
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
(Hunter S. Thompson) 

1977 450SEL (Max Headroom)
[img width=68 height=73][url="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f248/fullhappyfish/max.jpg"]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f248/fullhappyfish/max.jpg[/url][/img]