Spiampiano wrote:
1st - Prior to this happening I had been away travelling for almost a month. I left for South Africa for a race on January 18th, and from there went to a training camp, returning to my house on February 10th. I then let again on February 14th for some sponsor obligations, returning on the 19th. Many people have suggested that perhaps he was following me or watching me. I suppose this COULD be true, though, having been gone for such an extended period of time,
I feel as though it is unlikely. I don't believe I was targeted (I could be wrong) and think it was a random event. From what we can tell, it seems he was going from car to car trying to open other vehicles, and since mine was parked in front of my house, it opened. My plan is to actually go to the dealership on Monday with a picture of the man, the car and a description of what we believe the car is (that you gentlemen for knowing so much about cars...that is awesome) and asking if they could provide me with any information. Am hoping some charm might get me somewhere. I also thought I could then scout out the lot and see if the car was there (if, in fact, it is owned by an employee).
One question I have....if you look at the video, the rack (to me) seems to be positioned at the FRONT of the vehicle, whereas in the photo at the dealership, the rack seems positioned further back. Any thoughts there? Does that change anyone's opinion that perhaps this is the same vehicle?
I also asked the detective if we could run the vehicle registration search, which to me sounded like a genius idea....i mean really good. He said "do you know how many VW golfs are registered out there?"....he seemed to think that it wouldn't work, but I am going to push him on this again. Because you guys have seemed to narrow down the make, model and year (within a range) I feel like it is a worthwhile task....so I will keep you posted there!
I've also signed up for alerts on Craigslist and ebay. Every Cervelo bike or frame, every Shimano Dura Ace component, and ever PowerTap wheel set that gets listed, I am getting an alter on. I had a 55/42t front chain ring on that bike and ride 165mm cranks, which is VERY Specific and I think not very common. My feeling is even if the bike gets disassembled, and someone tries to sell the front chain ring and cranks, there would be a pretty good likelihood that that is my guy!
That's interesting he was going car to car. How certain are you guys of that? That radically changes the profile of the criminal. If he was going car to car, chances are it was just random he stumbled on yours. From what I've read, criminals use a device that picks up the signal from your key fob (if you're close enough) and then amplifies it in such a way that the car believes your car is nearby.
If he wasn't going car to car, I'd say you were targeted not so much in that he knew you were a triathlete yada yada yada but rather perhaps this individual is a service tech and he just happened to pull your name, address, car, etc. from Audi's system and decided to go after that car (and perhaps others). I'll admit that this is a bit of a long shot.
Regarding the roof rack in the picture, if you look closely at the picture I posted you can tell that the roof rack is toward the front of the roof of that vehicle. It's close to the termination of the windshield. I'm pretty certain the vehicle I highlighted in the satellite photo is either a Golf or an A3.
Keep pushing on the vehicle registration search! The detective is right, there are a TON of VW Golfs registered in the area but considering you have a year range (which is fortuitously narrow!), color.... between those two stats alone I bet you come up with 300-500 vehicles which sounds like a lot but it's really not. If you can cross reference that with a simple license search for males in a certain height and age range 300-500 should become 20-30. Maybe 50.
On a side note, let me know if you stumble across any reasonably priced 29er powertap rears :p