why do people steal fog lamps?
August 1, 2011 11:38 AM Subscribe
Hey, armchair detectives, yes you Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Colombo, Zen; why do people steal fog lamps?
There has been a spate of thefts of fog lamps from cars in my city in the UK. Including the built in to the body shell types. Is there anything behind this other than resale of car spare parts. My thought is that it has something to do with using the lamps to grow drugs. Anybody out there seen it in their city and knows what is going on?
There has been a spate of thefts of fog lamps from cars in my city in the UK. Including the built in to the body shell types. Is there anything behind this other than resale of car spare parts. My thought is that it has something to do with using the lamps to grow drugs. Anybody out there seen it in their city and knows what is going on?
It's just for reuse in other cars. Fog lamps are in demand among ricer types; here in the US, a lot of factory cars have fog lamps that are more or less useless and cosmetic (low light output, pointed to the wrong place, etc.) but are standardized in terms of lens shape and I imagine are somewhat interchangeable. There was a period of time in which HID ballasts, bulbs, and enclosures were getting stolen regularly where I am but now that aftermarket HID kits are cheap (if hilariously bad for their intended purpose) that's mostly stopped.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2011
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2011
Foglights are usually low on the front of a car, in an easily damaged spot. 'Factory replacements' are usually costly - a shifty bodyshop can make a killing paying dudes for ones off the street and billing them to customers at markup. Not saying that's every light stolen, but like many easily grabbed autoparts, I imagine it's quite a few of them.
posted by pupdog at 12:00 PM on August 1, 2011
posted by pupdog at 12:00 PM on August 1, 2011
Response by poster: OK, It looks like I was looking for intrigue where there isn't any.
posted by priorpark17 at 12:30 PM on August 1, 2011
posted by priorpark17 at 12:30 PM on August 1, 2011
A quick look on Wikipedia suggests pot growers use high-pressure sodium or halide lights which aren't the kinds of lamps used in fog lights are either normal lamps or xenon bulbs. So that's also against that theory.
posted by GuyZero at 1:45 PM on August 1, 2011
posted by GuyZero at 1:45 PM on August 1, 2011
People in general are weird, low-level criminal people are --- in my opinion! --- sometimes extra weird, and will steal ANYTHING. Reading local police reports, it often seems like getting a (legit) job would be easier/less work than than, for instance, unbolting & boosting car parts, but, well......
There's almost always a local market for the stolen foglights (also stolen airbags, wheels, bumpers & other body parts, catalytic convertors ect. ect.), but how you'd find out more about that I couldn't say.
posted by easily confused at 2:45 PM on August 1, 2011
There's almost always a local market for the stolen foglights (also stolen airbags, wheels, bumpers & other body parts, catalytic convertors ect. ect.), but how you'd find out more about that I couldn't say.
posted by easily confused at 2:45 PM on August 1, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GuyZero at 11:41 AM on August 1, 2011