Stolen Soft Top Windows

[LARSONEM]

It's a bummer and frustrating to have anything stolen (from experience), but taking soft top windows from a Wrangler only benefits the presumed Wrangler owner. I never thought Jeep owners would steel from other Jeep owners.

I had a friend who was a state trooper that oversaw a drug enforcement unit for many years, buying from and selling to the crooks to eventually take the bad guys and their products off the streets. He once told me serious dealers would sell their own mother’s soul to make a deal. Sadly many people in this world simply have no values or morals.

Sponsored

 

[RatZero]

Wow! You live in a rough area

Not really, mind you this is over nearly 40 years and half a dozen Jeeps so the average isn't horrible. But, in my opinion it's not worth replacing soft top windows or damage if you lock down the windows if they only want to unzip them and get to whats in the glovebox or console. If the soft top is on, I don't normally lock the doors and keep everything important out of the Jeep. Where I am, we can use photocopies of car documents and everything else goes with me.

 

[CorvZ061]

To be fair if they have your tailgate open to be able to steal your side windows none of that is going to help.

You know you don’t have to have the tailgate open to get the side windows off, right?

 

[Heimkehr]

Wow! You live in a rough area

The underclass is mobile.

Our nice, quiet suburban neighborhood shares Ring video doorbell footage in a shared forum when it's of general interest. We've been made aware of individuals who've cased properties, jiggled door handles on vehicles in the driveways, and in at least one instance drove quickly away from a wholly avoidable hit-and-run.

The image quality of those high-res videos, which Ring themselves advertise, makes it very plain who we need to watch closely.

The underclass is mobile.

 

[Terrymo]

Not to say there aren't a few shifty bastards around here I would keep my eye on...

 

[Terrymo]

The underclass is mobile.

This is what I think when someone here says smugly, wow you must live in a shitty neighborhood, you should move.

 

[Heimkehr]

This is what I think when someone here says smugly, "Wow you must live in a shitty neighborhood, you should move."

I understand the spirit of such comments -- I do -- but I agree with you that it is too frequently used without any thought behind it.

It may very well be that some folks have already spent the time and money to move to what was a genuinely good and safe locale, only to witness it slowly deteriorate over time and through no fault of their own. That's why I do try to take their side on the matter; I've witnessed that very thing occur in a portion of the town in which I grew up.

 

[Sidewalk]

I think the m.o. would be to steal from one Jeep owner... try to sell the windows on CL or FB Marketplace to an unsuspecting second Jeep owner.

This is what I figured out after buying a spare wheel/tire after mine was stolen. The guy didn't have a Jeep, had one brand new spare, and was solid on the price. I know he stole it from someone else.

The underclass is mobile.

My motorcycle was stolen a couple of years ago. It was recently found, stripped of parts (with many other motorcycles), about an hour away from me.

A friend of mine used to own a bike shop, and was broken into WAY too many times. One of the rare times a bike was recovered, the thieves were about 100 miles away.

One thing I learned from the security footage...there was no common denominator. And some were dumber than others. Including one leaving his driver's license as collateral to test ride, then stealing the bike. And it wasn't even one of the nice bikes.

 

[au176]

This is what I think when someone here says smugly, wow you must live in a shitty neighborhood, you should move.

It really doesn't matter where you go. To quote Willie Sutton, "Why do I rob banks? Because that's where the money is." And that was almost 100 years ago, when people were much less mobile than they are now...

 

[ads75]

Whether someone steals the windows or slices them open with a knife, its still a loss for the Jeep owner. Personally, I think someone slicing my windows open is more likely than someone stealing them.

If you own a Jeep, unfortunately, there is no way to protect your possessions in your Jeep 100% of the time.

 

[Keon]

Guy I bought my bumper from had his soft top windows stolen (JLU). I didn't know it was a thing either!

 

[Wbino]

Top 10 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas By Motor Vehicle Theft Rate, 2022

Rank Metropolitan statistical area (1) Theft rate (2) 1 Pueblo, CO 1,086.44 2 Bakersfield, CA 1,072.36 3 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO 1,062.67 4 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 845.68 5 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 796.94 6 Albuquerque, NM 795.18 7 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 758.68 8 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA 699.30 9 Greeley, CO 589.42 10 Kansas City, MO-KS 572.67

(1) Metropolitan Statistical Areas are designated by the federal Office of Management and Budget and usually include areas much larger than the cities for which they are named.
(2) Rate of vehicle thefts reported per 100,000 people based on U.S. Census Population Estimates.
Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau.
View Archived Tables
Top 10 States With The Most Number Of Motor Vehicle Thefts, 2022-2023 (1)

Rank State 2023 2022 Percent change 2022-2023 1 California 208,668 202,685 3% 2 Texas 115,013 105,015 10 3 Florida 46,213 45,973 1 4 Washington 43,160 46,939 -8 5 Illinois 41,528 38,649 7 6 Colorado 34,068 42,237 -19 7 New York 32,715 28,292 16 8 Ohio 31,647 29,913 6 9 Georgia 28,171 26,529 6 10 Missouri 27,279 29,345 -7

(1) Law Enforcement Agencies may still be reporting thefts for 2023, and these numbers may change.
Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau.
View Archived Tables

 

[drpericak]

Is this a real problem, or did it happen to one person out of hundreds of thousands?

I had a 2019 JLU that a side window blew out of on a busy highway. Couldn't stop and what was even worse was we were out of town at a soccer tournament so it made for a shitty rainy 2 hour ride home.

 

[Jebiruph]

MSRP on the windows varies, but I'm seeing over $700 for some options. Bestop sells replacement fabric, but as far as I know, the dealer is the only source if you need the plastic corner supports for the side windows. That might be motivating some theft.

 

[beachbumm78]

Is this a real problem, or did it happen to one person out of hundreds of thousands?

It has happened to some—including me . Driving down freeway and left one just blew right out. Watched it get ran over by a semi in my rearview mirror. It was $500 to replace it.

I wonder if the op is posting about the same one I saw that talked about how their windows got stolen while they were at a festival or something like that. Was pretty crazy.

Sponsored