On one occasion a homeless person smashed passenger windows on ~8 cars parked on La Playa @ Judah in front of Java Beach. My mx-5 happened to be one of them. When I confronted him about it, he claimed some passers by called him a faggot and that's why he broke all the windows. No ashtray incentive needed when you've got Crazy to make up for it.
On another occasion a homeless person reached into my mx-5 and broke the center console door's latch while I was in Safeway in San Mateo. I had left the back window zipped down with the rag top up as I was going to be quick, nothing was left visibly out. I came out of the store to see her crawling out from the back window and run away.
These happened > 7 years ago, I'm sure it's worse now.
Not that I think car alarms would have made any difference here. People commit petty crimes in broad daylight throughout SF with impunity. It's surreal. We watched a bicycle chop shop operate in broad daylight for over a month from the CoreOS office windows, SFPD drove past constantly without doing anything about it.
Edit: Just remembered my ex's mx-5 had its new rag top cut into for the contents of its center console months after she moved to the inner sunset, parking on the street around 7th and Judah. That'd be about 10 years ago. I'd just installed that top, still raises my blood pressure to think about it.
Driving an MX-5 in San Francisco...I have to ask - manual transmission? Because if not, you're not really getting the full experience; but if so, those hills must be fun. I'm thinking of some of the streets in the Marina going up to Pac Heights with stop signs.
Mine was a track-prepped turbo NA with out of state plates, recovered gearhead here. FM2 "race" intercooled turbo w/standalone ecu and alcohol injection, ohlins dfv coilovers and tubular swaybars, R1Rs on 15x9 6ULs, 12" rotors w/wilwood 4-pot calipers, torsen lsd, the list goes on.
But driving a manual in SF proper wasn't really all that interesting compared to other CA gems like PCH, 9/skyline, 36.
Surprisingly that particular car never got fucked with. The mx-5s mentioned in my comment about petty crimes were mostly stock. Dumb luck I guess...
On one occasion a homeless person smashed passenger windows on ~8 cars parked on La Playa @ Judah in front of Java Beach. My mx-5 happened to be one of them. When I confronted him about it, he claimed some passers by called him a faggot and that's why he broke all the windows. No ashtray incentive needed when you've got Crazy to make up for it.
On another occasion a homeless person reached into my mx-5 and broke the center console door's latch while I was in Safeway in San Mateo. I had left the back window zipped down with the rag top up as I was going to be quick, nothing was left visibly out. I came out of the store to see her crawling out from the back window and run away.
These happened > 7 years ago, I'm sure it's worse now.
Not that I think car alarms would have made any difference here. People commit petty crimes in broad daylight throughout SF with impunity. It's surreal. We watched a bicycle chop shop operate in broad daylight for over a month from the CoreOS office windows, SFPD drove past constantly without doing anything about it.
Edit: Just remembered my ex's mx-5 had its new rag top cut into for the contents of its center console months after she moved to the inner sunset, parking on the street around 7th and Judah. That'd be about 10 years ago. I'd just installed that top, still raises my blood pressure to think about it.