Hello,
I regret having to use up bandwidth, but some lowlife broke the hood star on my W115 tonite when it was parked outside a friend's apartment building.
These parts are becoming difficult to find around here, only the cheapo Taiwan rubbish is avaliable. I had found a German HUF brand star and fitted it to the car a year ago, no prizes for guessing what happened to the original.
This is one reason I do not use the 500SL much, vandalism and other petty crimes are rampant here nowadays.
Sorry for the rant.
Have a good week

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Nachi11744

Previously, I've posted my wish-list about what to do to these hoodlums (including the under-car flamethrower device from South Africa)
Maybe you could keep a nice German star in the glovebox but install the Taiwan one for the next lowlife. Or try what I sometimes do when I park in strange neighborhoods - open the hood, pull the clip, remove the entire star & dummy cap and lock it in the car.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Man that sucks. Fortunately in the Bay Area, no one seems to care anymore about MB hood stars. (Side benefit of current management of MB and loss of lustre in the brand )

More likely the reason is MB's are profligate in this area. They are everywhere, no big deal.

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63 220S W111
76 300D W115
2013 VW JSW TDI M6

previously-
73 280 SEL 4.5
86 300E 5 speed
2010 VW Jetta TDI M6

I dont know how illegal it would be to do any of the following, but try at your own risk.

-Sharpen the inside to rival a razor blade
-Wire it to your battery (Do not forget the safety dissable switch)
-Replicate the design on the new RR Phantom where the star could dissapear into the grill and a chrome plate covers it. If taking ideas from the Phantom, please incorporate the assisted-suicide rear doors.

-Have it easily removeable and held in with a strong magnet. I believe they made one for the newer chassis.

-Flame thrower is pretty cool, I could dig that.

Or you could always have a heavy duty one made. If you find a metal thats strong enough you could patent this. Ill buy one.

Peter

Dont let the star thiefs keep you from driving the SL, just drive it faster.

Isn't 'caning' the standard punishment for car vandals in Malaysia?

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Mark - if they can catch them!

Nachi - I thought no one steals MB emblems in our part of the world anymore - they're too common : )

Oreo

Hello,
I appreciate all the emphatic replies and suggestions for countermeasures.
The idea to sharpen the inside of the star sounds like the best bet, I will do that to the Taiwanese star and install it on the car with a very strong spring.
I am very disappointed with the level of misdemeanour crimes around here since I came from the US in early 2003, and it is only getting worse, this would have never happened in Raleigh, NC(but nothing ever happens in Raleigh...!!).
I make it a point NOT to park the 500SL on street level parking, only in secure upper level areas, but the W115 was a common enough taxi around here that I thought it would not attract the wrong type of attention.
Sorry to disappoint you guys, but caning only is for rapists and other capital crimes, not vandals!
Oreo-I do not want to sound like a racist and bigot, but there is a new class of criminal around here-the immigrant criminal-for whom breaking private property is like a sport-catch me if you can-to taunt the law enforcement and legitimate citizens.
Have a good week

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Nachi11744

Wait a minute..... theft of MB emblem has also been immortalized on film.

Wasnt there a teenage kid on "The Killing Fields" in possession of an MB emblem that he treated as an amulet that he kept in his pocket?? Furthermore, wasnt the phrase "Mercedes Benz is number one" exchanged between this kid and the film's journalist/narator whose life the boy later spared when he himself became part of the Kmer Rouge in Cambodia.

I seem to recall a much publicized incident several years ago, where some young Americans were convicted in Singapore of vandalising cars and sentenced to caning. At the time, there was much whining here in the US about the cruel & unusual punishnment. (As a victim of several acts of vandalisim over the past 35 years, in my opinion they deserved it!)

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I had my hood star stolen 4 years ago. It was stolen when I still live up in OC. I lived about 3 blocks from a bar and I think an intoxicated individual thought it would be funny to steal my hood star. Not to mention that the car was covered at the time and the thief stole the cover too. It cost me quite a bit to get a German replacement. I had the German clear oem turn signals stolen off of my bmw in an upscale neighborhood here in San Diego. I don't think any semi-nice car is safe no matter what neighborhood you're in.

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1968 250SE

Mark - you remembered right. It was Micheal Fay. Two kids were caught spraying graffitti on an S Class, amongst other cars (MB content). One HongKonger and one American. The parents of the HongKonger said his son got what he deserved but Michael's parent's fought all the way, even appealing to the US president to intervene. Fortunately our prime minister declined Clinton's appeal and Michael got caned. Its not your garden variety cane either, I understand a doctor has to be present.

Nachi - I been watching Malaysian news and they have also been having lots of problems with snatch thieves? I think the law enforcement is being stretched a bit lately. I don't think they'll have a case file open for you : ) The Taiwan star is fine.

Have a good weekend all!

Hello,
I am not the first MB owner to have this happen in the last year, my lawyer's W210 was vandalized, the hood star broken and acid thrown on the car, destroying the paintwork. All this because some guy thought he had cut him off for a parking space. My own mechanic's W123 suffered the *hood star amputation syndrome* too around Christmas.
It was popular to steal the stars in the late sixties, but I thought it was passe. I guess I was wrong.
On a more cheery note, the parts supplier has agreed to let me rummage thru his NOS parts for a German star when we both have some spare(!) time.
Have a good weekend.
I wish I had a classic German gun (Luger would do nicely) to go with my classic German cars.

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Nachi11744

You are not far from the facts, the cops are just too busy sorting out their *pension/vacation funds* to do any effective policing anymore. Drivers run red light signals, drive the wrong way to beat traffic and the snatch thieves have resulted in three or four deaths! What do the cops have to say about all this:We are short on manpower etc. etc.
Anyway, enough of all this rubbish, I have to look into ways of defending my property without killing anyone.
Enough said.
Have a good weekend.

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Nachi11744

Nachi - HAHA! I too had to contribute once to that fund too on the NS Highway. RM50.00 - For "speeding". I agree its a bit of a nightmare on KL roads.

An old client of mine had his star stolen, but had a parts car laying about for a replacement.

Upon replacement, he fashioned a wire to the ornament that attached to a small camera flash accessory that just sat on the dash with a small piece of velcro. If you think about it, the obvious way to remove a star is to pull it down, towards the front of the car, so you would have the leverage as well as the space to complete the job. There must have been a relay of some sort that he had to have put in there. He showed it to me afterwards, told me to stand in front of the grille and pull the star towards myself.

Sure enough, a bright flash went off after moving the star maybe half an inch or so. We all know what a camera flash means, either through peripheral vision, or standing in front of someone's car, trying to remove a hood ornament - EVIDENCE - either they will run away, or spend even more time at the scene, trying to find where you hid the camera, but still, if there's a flash, most people's first impression is that a photograph has been taken.

I have a 75 450SE, and do not live in that great a neighborhood. She is in the shop now, and hasn't been to the new house as of yet, so basically the neighborhood has no idea I have a MB, not yet anyway. Once here, though, I feel I will be a bit of a target, so I have been working on devising the same sort of mechanism. Unfortunately my friend has since died, and I have no idea where the car went to, so there is a lack of any sort of schematics, but I would think that it's not that much of an engineering marvel, it should be easy enough to replicate.

Just a thought.