Posted on 08/07/2023 7:36:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Terence Hermiston thinks of his 1982 Volkswagen Vanagon, he recalls the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars he spent rebuilding the cream-yellow jalopy during the pandemic. He harks back to his return to Canada and the U.S. after years abroad, and the feeling of adventure it rekindled as he rattled up and down the coast with his wife and young son in his “sailboat on wheels.”
Produced for the U.S. market from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Vanagons — the name evoking the room of a van and the feel of a station wagon — have become cult classics popular with West Coast road trippers and adventurers. At the same time, they’ve attracted another form of attention: the keen eye of car thieves drawn to their spaciousness and lack of modern anti-theft features.
So it is with Hermiston’s plight. His angular dream machine has been stolen three times from outside his home in Noe Valley since September. And one man appears to be the culprit in each theft — a serial car booster whom San Francisco authorities have failed to stop, despite an abundance of evidence.
One victim found the man’s birth certificate in a van post-recovery. Others said they saw him messing with wiring inside their vehicle, spied him on a Ring doorbell camera video, and retrieved their belongings from his encampment.
Hermiston and other San Francisco Vanagon owners have taken to confronting the man, whose first name is Donald, in an effort to seize their vehicles and any stolen property inside. (The Chronicle is not identifying the man by his full name, because he has not been charged with a crime in any of these incidents.) The Vanagon victims have created an ad hoc network
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
My guess: hippy leftovers from the Summer of Love.
At the donut shop. Or maybe a granola shop, since it’s Frisco.
I’ve seen so many Vanagons stolen on the West Coast especially and I wanted an app that could possibly help in the recovery of said stolen Vanagon. This app allows you to report your Vanagon stolen, fill in all of the information such as city, state it was stolen in, color, and added details that may help us locate it as well as some most recent photos. Once I receive the Stolen Van submission, I post it on our app and send a PUSH NOTIFICATION out to all of our VanAlert app users with the state that it was stolen in. This notification sends the app users to the Listing Article so they can see what Vanagon is stolen and what it looks like. They then will help keep an eye out for it in their area. This is a quick way to put out a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) amongst other Vanagon owners to keep an eye out.
I had not heard of Noe Valley before. Come to find out it a right in the middle of the City of San Francisco.
Where are the police?
🚔🚔🚔🚔🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩
Shoot...shovel...shut up.
If government doesn’t enforce the laws, hold criminals accountable, and ensure justice and tranquility, ultimately the people will.
California.
You were ahead by around a minute. I lose. But mine had illustrations. reply #6
Dude. Property is theft. You can’t own property.
My dad bought one of the first gen VW “vanagons” (he called it a “bus”) in the mid 1950’s and drove it cross country from Pennsylvania to Oregon...a couple of years before I was even conceived.
He told me that it created quite a stir in the small towns of South Dakota and Wyoming. If they stopped at a restaurant the VW would be swarmed by curious locals.
He replaced the 1st gen with a newer model in the early to mid 60’s (my time) and ran that one until it collided head on with a rutting buck.
Apply stick to thief.
“ My guess: hippy leftovers from the Summer of Love.”
70 year olds aren’t stealing vans
Park the van in your garage. Oh. You live in Frisco and don’t have one?
Pay $400 monthly for a space in a parking garage.
Oh, wait. That Sikh guy is under investigation for assault. He will probably be arrested, while the thief goes free.
So never mind.
Easy to find the thief. There is tow truck immediately in front of the Vanagon. Unless you’re a decent mechanic, those things are a real headache. I had a Volkswagen 412 station wagon for years. Best weekend date I ever had. About 45 dates every year. Fantastic car though in my opinion. The Vanagon, not so much......
I remember one nice Saturday in 2015(+/-) that was the 23rd of December, the day before Christmas Eve day. It is the street (Hagiwara Drive) in front of the Japanese Garden and the big de Young art gallery. Thousands of people in the park and visiting these and all the attractions.
Some idiot had thought it okay to leave carryon bags or camera bags in his new small SUV. A car pulls up, two guys get out as it pauses on the traffic lane, they bash out the rear hatch window with a crowbar, steal the stuff and sedately get back into their car and drive off at 20 miles per hour.
I imagined later they probably had a spotter walking the sidewalk and telling them on a cell phone what cars to hit. Two hundred people in a 25 yard range — Just FU we take what we want.
Gen One closely resemble the one on the left only in olive drab green with desert tan. Second one very much like second to left minus the front mounted spare tire.
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