After spending more than $5,000 on his car for leather seats, a good sound system and extra "goodies," Springfield resident Joel Labuda never pictured himself sitting on a bucket while he drove the Acura to its resting place in his parents' driveway. The bucket came in handy after the seats were stolen, along with everything else that wasn't molded to the frame on the night of Sunday, April 28, or early Monday morning.
"Everything I had on my car, I worked for. It was less than five feet from the door," he said about his apartment at Cardinal Forest Apartments on Forrester Drive, where the car was burglarized. The inside of the car was stripped, including the compact disks, the air-fuel mixture computer, shift knobs, oil and radiator cap. Although it had an alarm, the thieves knew how to dismantle it.
"They knew exactly what I had in my car. I think it's someone that knows us," he said.
ON MONDAY MORNING, a neighbor woke him, and Labuda immediately called the police. This was shortly after 8 a.m., and he said that the police didn't show up until almost 11.
"I saw two cop cars two blocks from his house giving a ticket while we were waiting," said Evan Carson, a friend of Labuda's, who lives in Burke. He was on the scene that morning.
Then the police procedure did not make Labuda happy, either. He claims the nature of the conversation seemed accusing in tone.
"I didn't like how they treated my mom. They blamed it on her," she said.
Fairfax County Police Capt. Dorian Portee, at the West Springfield station, noted the response time to a robbery after the fact. Portee said there are about 3,000 police activities in a day that are logged.
"It's not a high-profile case. That's [response time] fairly common. You don't have any suspects, and the crime's not in progress," he said but said they would investigate it further.
According to Portee, who looked at the call log books at the station, the call came in at 8:01 a.m., and an officer was dispatched at 9:14 "when they got an officer free," Portee said. The officer arrived at 9:42, remained at the scene until 11:08.
"We have everything recorded. We were able to pull at least four [fingerprints] off there, and we will be processing those," he said, and concluded, "It seems we have given him the level of service we give for every one of our citizens in the county."
Labuda's neighbors weren't happy with the car, because the alarm would go off when the car was barely touched. Labuda thought he lived in a safer area.
"I wouldn't think this would happen around here. It made me real mad when my neighbors said they were glad it was gone. One time, my neighbor kicked my tire and the alarm went off," he said.
LABUDA'S CAR WAS ONE he and his friends referred to as an "import tuner," which is an imported, small car with lots of extras. The windows are tinted, the rims are large with thin tires, there is usually a tachometer, a good sound system and custom paint job. They looked at the bigger picture of the police vs. the imports. It was reminiscent of a scene out of "American Graffiti," but instead of big, muscle cars, it's about imports.
"Now the imports are the ones the cops are trying to get. American cars barely get touched around here," Labuda said.
Burke resident Philip Allen is a friend of Labuda's.
"If this car was next to a Corvette and the Corvette took off, they wouldn't get pulled over," Allen said.
Lindsay Burke has an import that's been broken into as well. She's also had her share of experience with the police.
"I've had my car broken into and my stereo stolen, but not since I had my alarm upgraded. I've gotten three tickets," she said. One was for her exhaust, one for her tachometer, which is on the dashboard, and she was not specific about the other.
Sgt. Ken Baine of the Fairfax County Police Department public information office (PIO) disputed that claim in general terms.
"We do not single out any type of car. The people that drive them single themselves out," he said, pointing out the Virginia Code on tinted windows, defective equipment, mufflers and suspension.
Fairfax PIO officer Cheryl Farrell looked at the statistics on citations for 2000 and found it difficult to determine specific citations for illegal equipment because the actual offense could have been listed in several different categories. She did say there were 27 people cited in 2000 for reckless racing, of which six were juveniles and 21 adults.
Springfield resident Molly McGrath knows the import tuner scene. A friend has experimented with the added parts.
"My friend went to court for the lights. She had blue lights," McGrath said.
Some of them are into racing, according to Baine,
"We just did a racing sting, and some of the vehicles involved were those vehicles," Baine said. The sting he was talking about was in Centreville and Franconia areas. In Centreville, the sting was on Route 28, and Nouman Khan of Springfield admitted to being involved in activities out there. Although he never read the Virginia code on adding parts to his car, he's experienced the police enforcing the code. He drives a "tuner."
"They try to follow you," he said, but admitted it's not only a guy thing.
"Girl's are into this thing too," he said.
Rebecca Jamieson from Alexandria has seen cars being tested for tinted windows.
"They'll pull you over for tinted windows. They have this little meter they test it with," she said.
The magazine rack in the book store once dominated by Hot Rod and Road & Track now features Import Tuning, Honda Tuning, EuroTuner and Sport Compact Car. Ads in the magazines include custom seats, shift knobs and pedal kits, popular in the tuners.
LABUDA LIKES spending his money on his car.
"I think it's more like a hobby. There's so many different things you can do to these cars," he said.
Allen added another reason for the flashy imports.
"The whole point of the car is to attract attention. It's about show," he said.
He was cautious when driving his Acura and plans to investigate the situation further on his own.
"I've heard of a couple of shops rip people off and resell it," he said.
"Alarm installers come back and rob cars," Carson added.
A house with a garage is the only way to fight it according to Labuda.
"That's the only way you can really protect what you got," he said.