Thieves target luxury cars for xenon lights - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 10-12-2002, 23:45

East Coast spawns white-hot fad

October 11, 2002
BY WAYNE PARRY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWARK, N.J. -- It was dark, Benjamin Benson was tired after a long day at the office, and he slumped wearily into his car, flicked the switch for the headlights and pulled out into traffic.

"I start driving, and a police officer pulls me over and says, 'Put your lights on!' " the lawyer recalled. "I said, 'Officer, they ARE on.' He tells me to pull over into a parking lot. He gets out of his car, I get out of mine, we look at where my lights used to be and both our mouths are gaping open. There's wires hanging out of these two big holes."

Benson's Acura had fallen prey to the latest craze among thieves: stealing high-intensity xenon headlights from expensive cars.

Unlike standard headlights that use a glowing filament, the new bulbs use high-voltage electricity to charge xenon gas inside a sealed tube, creating an intense bluish light.

Dealers, body shops and insurance companies say the thefts are driven by a lust for the moon-blue lights among urban youths, who transplant them to spice up their cars.

"They're retrofitting these into their Hondas and making them into low-riders," said Newark body shop owner Richard Black.

While the thefts have been sporadic in other parts of the country, the problem is worst in northern New Jersey, New York City and its Westchester County and Connecticut suburbs. Nationwide, 300 to 400 of the lights were reported stolen in the last year, most of them in the Northeast, says Acura spokesman Mike Spencer.

About the best explanation anyone can offer for the trend is that New Jersey, the most densely populated state, has a high concentration of expensive cars in office parks, shopping malls and park-and-ride lots, a virtual auto parts buffet for thieves.

"It's an epidemic, totally out of control," said Dominick Pardo, another Newark body shop owner. "I mean, it's just crazy how many of these are getting stolen."

In Denville, thieves ripped 20 headlights from cars at an Acura dealership last year. Similar thefts at a Wayne dealership prompted the business to hire a nighttime security guard. More than 50 lights were taken from cars in Fairfield last year, mostly from shopping centers and office parks.

The headlights can cost $2,000 to $5,000 to replace, depending on how much body damage the thieves inflict while trying to get them out.

"A couple years ago it was air bags. Now it's these headlights," said John Tiene, president of the Insurance Council of New Jersey. "Any time a manufacturer adds something new to a car, they become the focus of rings that go out and steal them."

He predicted that instead of raising premiums, the insurance industry will absorb the costs of replacing stolen headlights for a year or two while it pressures manufacturers to make them harder to steal.

Police are hard-pressed to make arrests, even when they see a Honda or other low-end car sporting the super-bright lamps.

"You still have to have probable cause to stop them," said Newark Lt. Derek Glenn. "There's no reason to believe it isn't a part they got legally from a store, and you can't pull them over just on the suspicion it's not."

Insurers are taking their own steps. The Insurance Council makes periodic sweeps of body shops and parts stores, asking to see receipts and invoices for xenon lights on the shelves. A light that had been on a car for just a few hundred miles is often smudged and scratched, Tiene said.