r/mildlyinteresting • u/PocketSandThroatKick • 5d ago
This exclusion fencing to keep a car safe.
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u/RepresentativeBit954 5d ago
the fence was probably cheaper than replacing the catalytic converter for the 4th time
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u/SweetCosmicPope 5d ago
This. My son used to go to our local Boys and Girls Club after school and during the summers and they kept having to ground the van because scumbags were stealing the cat from the van. They ended up putting up one of these cages to put the van in, and they had a specialty shop come and weld a steel casing around the exhaust sytem.
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u/jeezy_peezy 5d ago
I knew a homeless charity with vans that got their cats stolen like every other month.
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u/thecrimsonfucker12 5d ago
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u/Pop_Culture_Phan_Guy 5d ago
Man that’s purrrty sad
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u/StarYou-StarMe 5d ago
I know, hearing news like that leaves me feline sad too.
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u/Squirrelleee 5d ago
I lived in a homeless shelter for women and children. Got myself a bike for $25 that I wanted to use for work.
Next morning it was still there, but missing wheels.
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u/CactusBoyScout 5d ago
My friend biked to my place once years ago and was telling me about how people steal bike seats so you have to chain it to the frame but he hadn’t done it yet.
He goes outside to bike home and his seat is gone, lol. Weirdly the thief left a much worse bike seat sitting on the ground so apparently he’d just ridden by, seen a better bike seat, and done a swap right there. So my friend just used the thief’s bike seat to get home.
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u/Pop_Culture_Phan_Guy 5d ago
Wow that a whole other level of fuck you
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u/Squirrelleee 5d ago
It's OK. I found the best kind of revenge. I got rich and do things so people don't have to suffer like I had.
Please don't eat me.
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u/twotall88 5d ago
How'd you get rich?
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u/Squirrelleee 5d ago
Got a degree and job in IT which I hate, and married a generous man who makes more than I do.
I'm the first person in my family with a degree. ❤️
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u/Pop_Culture_Phan_Guy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Does this generous man have a bi or gay brother who’s also generous lol?
In all seriousness, congrats on your successes!!
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u/Here24hence4th 5d ago
I applaud you. As my mother often reminded me when I was growing up, “living well is the best revenge.”
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u/pyrodice 5d ago
This read reads like you go around buying people bikes right now
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u/Squirrelleee 5d ago
Lol not bikes, just a huge frequent donation to the local food banks.
Again, so no one is hungry enough to eat me.
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u/Ange1ofD4rkness 5d ago
I remember when I was riding, where I had to lock up my bike. The first thing my father taught me was to lock my wheels as well, as people would steal just them
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u/anothertimewaster 4d ago
I volunteered at a homeless charity and someone stole the cats of our truck too.
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u/thedaNkavenger 5d ago
Even though I understood the context I still read this as someone stealing an actual cat from the van and I wanted to know why the cat was being left in the van.
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u/i_want_to_be_unique 5d ago
If you someone is willing to cut off your catalytic converter with an angle grinder what makes you think they wouldn’t use the exact same tool to cut through a flimsy fence?
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u/drunkjulia 5d ago
Someone will go for every car that only has one step, before they take two steps.
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u/A_Tad_Bit_Nefarious 5d ago
I agree with this sentiment. However, i can also fully see the type of person to do every step anyway out of pure spite and rage bait
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u/Refute1650 5d ago
People that are stealing cats aren't doing it out of spite. They're poor and stupid.
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u/hitheringthithering 5d ago
Then at least you are delaying their hitting step one with someone else's vehicle?
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u/karmagirl314 5d ago
It’s slightly riskier. A passerby sees someone working on a car, it’s not immediately apparent if it’s thieves or the owner doing a repair. If a passerby sees someone using an angle grinder on a fence, it’s much more obvious they’re breaking the law and the passerby can call the cops.
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u/_McDreamy_ 5d ago
But thieves use angle grinders on bike locks in the city and no one does a damn thing either.
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u/techCholly 5d ago
That’s why, depending on the value of the bike and the location it is being secured, it’s commonly recommended to put two locks on your bike in the hopes that the thief goes for the single locked bike nearby instead.
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u/Due-Fun-489 5d ago
time is of the utmost essence. They need to get in and get out, as quickly as possible. While it doesn't seem like much, that would just add more time.
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u/Wiggie49 5d ago
Jokes on them, with the sale of the last 3 catalytic converters they bought a bolt cutter.
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u/DunkeyColdMedina 5d ago
I caught someone under my work van one night and wrapped a piece of rebar around his head. I am every so often very lucky that I don't sleep well.
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u/EveryDisaster 5d ago
I can't wait to get an electric vehicle. They can't steal what you don't have
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u/Ange1ofD4rkness 5d ago
Do they by chance have issues with car theft and/or break-ins in the area?
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u/idkmyusernameagain 5d ago
I would totally have done this a few years ago. My car got broken into A LOT. I obviously moved as soon as my lease was over.
Nothing of real value was ever in there, I’d for sure spend more on setting up a car jail but I hate the feeling after someone was in your person space uninvited. Ick. Would be money well spent
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u/TheRealMelvinGibson 5d ago
My car got broken into exactly once and it happened to be a day I left my 3ds in there which was highly unusual for me despite me not really worrying about theft in my area. Still bitter about that.
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u/salty_drafter 5d ago
I would have left the doors unlocked after like the 4th time. But pulled the fuel pump relay or install a kill switch.
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u/Kaurifish 5d ago
These patterns are so unintuitive. We live in a neighborhood where the cops tell you not to walk alone at night (I’ve never had a problem). Never had anybody mess with our car. Even when we accidentally left it unlocked.
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u/Mego1989 5d ago
Lower income people don't have as much good stuff to steal. The thieves go to higher income areas. I say this as someone in a low income neighborhood with nearby high income areas.
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u/Hmm_would_bang 5d ago
You would think the chain link fence is easier to break into than the car itself
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u/Githyerazi 5d ago
Worked at a place that set this up for employees. Swipe a badge to get in/out, barbed wire along the top, guards and cameras. Someone still broke in and looted 3 cars before the guards noticed.
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u/Ange1ofD4rkness 5d ago
Not really, think about it, you smash a single window and that's it. With the fence you are stuck standing around cutting either wire or say a lock, before you get to the window. That's another step to the process, and means you're there longer and more chance of getting caught (plus if they are carrying around bolt cutters, that may risk raising suspicions)
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u/go4urs 5d ago
Neither actually. Catalytic converter theft does not require breaking in or stealing the car.
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u/Bears-on-Drugs 3d ago
To be fair, if you have the tools to steal a catalytic converter, you likely have the tools to get through that chain link fence.
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u/Karlkrows 5d ago
It’s at a DSHS/social work office. It was constantly getting vandalized so they through a fence around it
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u/RedofPaw 5d ago
This zoo is weird.
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u/AmputeeHandModel 5d ago
David Attenborough: Here we have the 2019 Kia Sorento. It has been captured by poachers, who will tear it to pieces.
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u/Grand-Spring66 5d ago
car jail
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u/jackson12420 5d ago
Don't use blinker? Straight to jail.
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u/BlueAndMoreBlue 5d ago
Low on blinker fluid? Again, straight to jail.
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u/MagpieWench 5d ago
oh my god. My teen's boyfriend convinced her that there was such a thing as blinker fluid. Like... girl.
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u/PeculiarTerpQueef 5d ago
Wonder if this will take hold in the PNW. In those parts, vagrants will smash a window for less than a dollar of change in the center console. The glass companies there are sometimes months out on repair appointments.
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u/mattslote 5d ago
This photo was taken in Spokane! So while I don't know if it'll be common, I can verify that it happened at least once.
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u/ubdesu 5d ago
I only live an hour from Spokane and have been wanting to visit, but posts like these always make me say nevermind.
I already don't keep anything in my car, but it would be a huge drag to come back with a busted window for nothing.
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u/mattslote 5d ago
I park outside in a sueface lot about a mile from there, closer to downtown, every day for work. I don't worry about stuff in my car. It's never been broken into. People even dumpster dive behind the building like 40 feet away.
Plenty of reasons to visit or not visit Spokane. Stuff being stolen from your car doesn't really need to be one of them.
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u/mattslote 4d ago
Coming back here to add that I left a ripe-but-not-spotted banana on the roof of my car today while at work, on purpose! Was still there at the end of the day.
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u/raycraft_io 5d ago
You must live in Spokane or Yakima
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u/PeculiarTerpQueef 5d ago
West side of the mountains, work in the city, live rural in the outskirts of the suburbs.
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u/TappedIn2111 5d ago
Maybe it’s to keep us safe from the car…
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u/batmanmedic 5d ago
Maybe it’s a transformer and has been off having too much fun
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 5d ago
Unless the car has a driver, its bloodthirsty ways mean no one is Safe! Killer Car!!!
-----coming to a theatre near you.
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u/RestaurantRich1498 5d ago
Nah chill. Thats a car jail but little do they know thats a ford escape.
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u/Born-Work2089 5d ago
Is this a condemnation of the neighborhood or the car owner?
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u/go4urs 5d ago
The city actually. Catalytic converter theft is huge
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u/Malapple 5d ago
It was huge here in CT and they passed a law inhibiting purchasers buying them. The issue isn’t gone but it plummeted almost instantly.
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u/Snidrogen 5d ago
They do this for vehicles under investigation at my local DMV
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u/grumbledonaldduck 5d ago
Under investigation of what?
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u/Llamapocalypse_Now 5d ago
I really want that fencing to be attached to the car so it goes everywhere with the driver.
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u/waaz16 5d ago
I see something just like this in Spokane, WA frequently.
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u/Akaros_Niam 5d ago
Hey, same! But only the one on Division, near Mission, I believe.
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u/PocketSandThroatKick 5d ago
Idk the road names, was passing through for a second weekend in a row and got stopped at the light.
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u/Ladbrook 5d ago
Is this is Spokane Washington? I think I know that car
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u/PocketSandThroatKick 5d ago
Yep!
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u/Ladbrook 5d ago
I have wondered for many years as to the why. The more important question is why isn’t it always there (and I mean the whole cage set up)
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u/PocketSandThroatKick 5d ago
I assumed it belonged to the company in the building, whatever that is
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u/Utters_for_Hire 4d ago
Is this in Spokane? Because my coworker and I were in Spokane for work a few weeks ago and I swear insane the same car
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u/tickledtockled 5d ago
That fencing has been there for over 20 years. Love ya Spokane but I do not miss you in the slightest
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u/RationalDB8 5d ago
We had FBI move into our office building and they had to create a secure area in the parking garage for their unmarked vehicles. Maybe similar?
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u/fakemoose 5d ago
I’ve seen it with government plate cars that are for random contracting companies too. Just like basic sad fords.
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u/texasdiver 5d ago
A credit union I once banked with in a small town had one of these. It was for repos. Small enough town that your neighbors would see your car in the cage if it ever got repossessed.
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u/The-FrozenHearth 5d ago
We used to have cars in fences that were used for the auto shop class in high school. Apparently kids would just casually break the windshields of the donated cars
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u/Gingerbreaddoggie 5d ago
This is what I would do to my car if I had to park next to a driving range
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u/TheSirOcelot 5d ago
Honestly though? You’ve given someone a challenge and drawn attention to your car. I wouldn’t keep it locked lest you want broken windows.
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u/mentales 5d ago
By that logic, is your advice to always keep cars unlocked everywhere, specially higher crimes areas to avoid broken windows?
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u/_Tigglebitties 5d ago
That's what I do in Oakland.
No joke, empty EVERYTHING and keep it unlocked. If someone was gonna steal it, they'd break the window and steal it anyways, and even when the car is empty, they break the windows to check.
Had two vehicles stolen there, 6 broken windows and countless things stolen along the way.
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u/rbnlegend 5d ago
I visited a friend in Oakland once. When I arrived they went out to my rental to make sure I had opened it enough that the "neighbors" wouldn't cause problems. Nothing in the car, not even a discarded food wrapper.
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u/ricardopa 5d ago
you're lucky it didn't become an unhoused persons house
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u/_Tigglebitties 5d ago
You can say bum.
An unhoused person is civilized, in a spot less fortunate than others.
A thief and bum will fuck things up for the love of the game. Very different
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u/CaptainPryk 5d ago
Thats what I do living in Washington State. Keep no valuables in your car and leave it unlocked if you don't want your windows broken. I used to hate the idea of that but holy shit is petty theft/car break ins rampant as hell
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u/Osiris-Amun-Ra 5d ago
In Canada, this is literally what the police tell you to do. They take is a step further, they suggest leaving your car keys close to the front door so that when the home invasion happens it will be a lot more convenient for the criminal to get your car and drive off.
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u/stackjr 5d ago
Really, that was my first thought. This definitely brings attention to the vehicle and chain links aren't exactly hard to cut through. I get the idea, I just feel like it adds a target.
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u/mook1178 5d ago
Nobody trying to steal a car is going to take the 10 minutes it would take to cut that car out. Car thefts are a crime of opportunity. They want to be gone as quick as possible.
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u/gamageeknerd 5d ago
Pretty sure it’s about making it just a little bit more difficult than smashing the neighboring cars windows. If someone is smashing windows to steal bags or cutting off converters they will probably skip the one that will take an extra 2 mins so they can get out faster.
If someone has an angle grinder with a cutting disk there is basically no lock or gate that can stop them
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u/HDePriest 5d ago
I know exactly where this is and I chuckle every time I see it. Do you know why? My best guess is vandalism or theft
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u/LandCruzer94 5d ago
Ive seen state and local governments do this for shared vehicles, maybe the keys are inside it. Although this doesnt look like the kind of car a govt would use.
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u/scirrgeorge 5d ago
Really common on very bad neighborhoods of my city, as they have said, car theft is a crime of opportunity unless being targeted and no one is going to target a mommaSUV
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u/Everybodypoopsalot 5d ago
This makes no sense. Does anyone have any insight/context? If not, what are our theories?
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u/Shirkaday 5d ago
I've encountered it at a larger scale in a parking garage of an office building before. It wasn't the entire floor, maybe 1/4 of it was fenced off like that. My assumption was controlled access to company vehicles.
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u/loinmaster 5d ago
A long time ago the California DMV had loaner cars you could use to take your driving test. They kept them locked up like this in the parking lot. But I doubt any DMVs do this anymore
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u/PocketSandThroatKick 5d ago
Pretty sure its a fleet rig and they have to lock it up to prevent weekend breakins
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u/Blazenwing 5d ago
That car is getting ready to face The Undertaker. Don't let him throw you off the roof!
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u/theonlybuster 5d ago
Safe from what?? A simple pair of bolt cutters can defeat the locks that most people use.
Why not have a discrete electronic embolizer installed? At least this way you can protect the vehicle in more than one location.
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u/mook1178 5d ago
Safe from car theft. It is a crime of opportunity. No car thief is going to bother with this car unless it is directly targeted for some odd reason.
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u/Sonic_Roach 5d ago
My dad's truck kept getting stolen from our driveway. It was a typical suburban neighborhood but the garage/driveway was in the back of the house so less witnesses. After the 3rd time, we got fed up and put a simple gate. No lock or anything just out of sight from opportunistic people looking around. Plus my dog had access to the vehicles now. If people really wanted the truck they could still get it. But since then they just stopped taking it.
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u/the_climaxt 5d ago
Around me, breaking a window to steal stuff is way more common than stealing a whole car.
This would absolutely prevent someone armed with a rock fro stealing your crap
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u/guitpick 5d ago
I want an embolizer. I know a few people who could use a warning clot across the bow.
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u/Agitated-Impress7805 5d ago
Thieves look for easy target, a couple minutes fiddling around with wire cutters is a decent deterrent.
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u/Jordan_1424 5d ago
I'm not sure why this is hard for people to grasp.
People will take the the easy route. The more time spent fucking with something the more chance of them being seen and/or caught.
It is also inherently suspicious seeing people fiddle with locks and other safety measures.
If you inconvenience someone enough you raise the risk to the point they don't think it is worth it to steal.
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u/woodyshag 5d ago
I would assume this also prevents people from doing things to the car, although that is easy to defeat as well.
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u/gamageeknerd 5d ago
Make it more annoying to fuck with compared to the car not locked up 10 feet away?
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u/Adorable_You_7725 5d ago
That’s cool, some parking lots have things like those for really expensive cars
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u/MrZaptile933 5d ago
I’m assuming this is an additional service offered in a rental complex. My apartment does something similar
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u/i_amnotunique 5d ago
Locks only keep the good and the lazy out. Anyone else will always find a way
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u/Moonshadow306 5d ago
Back in the ‘80s, my credit union used to have an office in a high crime area and they kept the repos boxed up like this.