[Cwatt79]

My car was broken into last night, while sitting in a gated parking garage as it does every night. The driver door window was smashed in. It appears to have been an act of vandalism as nothing was stolen. Based on how the glass was perched, I don't think they even opened the door. The most valuable item in the car was a pair of Ray-Bans, which were in the driver door pocket within easy reach of the broken window, and they did not take them. Thankfully the window tint held the glass together somewhat, although there was still shards of glass all over the entire car. There are also scratches on the door panel/windowsill, steering wheel and seat where the sheets of glass landed.

The alarm didn't go off since the door wasn't opened. What are the options for beefing up the security system in a modern BMW? Are there first party options to add noise/motion/shock sensors to the factory system? Or aftermarket systems that integrate with the car enough that you don't have to carry an additional fob? Help is appreciated!

My local BMW center is charging $638 to replace the window "plus labor for the time it takes to clean the broken glass." I spent an hour vacuuming the car this morning so that shouldn't be much. The glass is $173 and installation is $465. Safelite quoted $400 for the job but can't schedule it until next week. A local glass shop can't get the glass any time soon, but said installation is $150 if I bring the glass. My deductible is $500 so I'll be paying for this outright. The extra $350+ to have it done by BMW over a local shop is a tough pill to swallow, but I also don't like the idea of a local glass installer who's unfamiliar with the car tearing the door panel apart.

[XC3LLR8]

That makes me sick to my stomach, and it's not even my car!

[Pentland]

Sorry to hear this but…

What? US cars don’t have the interior alarm sensor? The car should have a tilt sensor but that wouldn’t help you much.

[Cwatt79]

It's possible I didn't hear the horn if it was going off, although my parking space is incidentally directly below my apartment. I assume I would've had an alert either on the app or at least on the screen when I got in the car if there was a detected incident. Is this assumption correct?

[Invisiblename]

I think all BMWs have an internal sensor, so that should have set the alarm off

[XC3LLR8]

True, you should have an interior motion alarm, as well as an OBD alarm that goes off if anything is plugged into it w/o car being unlocked. I have both turned off via BimmerCode.

Motion is turned off so I can lock the car with the moonroof vented, and OBD turned off so I can leave JB4 or BimmerLink plugged in.

[Pentland]

A 2nd press of the lock button within 10 seconds of locking the vehicle will disable the internal motion sensor.

[XC3LLR8]

Originally Posted by Pentland

A 2nd press of the lock button within 10 seconds of locking the vehicle will disable the internal motion sensor.

Didn't know that - good to know!

[c1pher]

What town is this?

[Cwatt79]

Originally Posted by c1pher

What town is this?

Charlotte

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by Cwatt79

Charlotte

I used to live in the Raleigh area. I feel like crime has steadily risen in NC the past few years but don’t have any stats to point at. Sorry about your car.

[orionstudt]

Originally Posted by Cwatt79

Charlotte

Yikes. I feel for you. I'm in NC and this does not make me feel great.

[redcars]

Realistically, the alarm only goes off after the glass is broken. If they're not intimidated by the flashing red light, they'll smash and grab anyway. You have to ask yourself what are you going to do if the alarm goes off. Sometimes if you win, you still lose and the cops will be there in 5 mins at best.

[Cwatt79]

Originally Posted by orionstudt

Yikes. I feel for you. I'm in NC and this does not make me feel great.

Originally Posted by c1pher

I used to live in the Raleigh area. I feel like crime has steadily risen in NC the past few years but don’t have any stats to point at. Sorry about your car.

The local glass shop that I called checked the local warehouses for the window. She initially said they had a window in stock and could install it today, but shortly called back and said the last window sold yesterday. Thought that was interesting.
Although the G42 is more common here than it seems to be in other areas based on the “Spotted” thread (I usually see one or two a week), it’s still pretty rare.
The first BMW service center I called said it would be 6 days to get a window. The second one said they’ll have it tomorrow, although they can’t install it until Friday. The window is being shipped “from the Midwest.”

After a few seconds to process what I saw when I walked up to my car this morning, I feared it would be months before I could get a new window, like other OEM parts in the supply chain. Thankfully that isn’t the case for windows!

[Cwatt79]

Originally Posted by redcars

Realistically, the alarm only goes off after the glass is broken. If they're not intimidated by the flashing red light, they'll smash and grab anyway. You have to ask yourself what are you going to do if the alarm goes off. Sometimes if you win, you still lose and the cops will be there in 5 mins at best.

That’s a good point. It’s such a crappy feeling to have your property (passion, and source of pride) that you work so hard for vandalized by scumbags for no reason other than to spite you (I assume).
Maybe the alarm did go off, and it scared them away before they had the chance to take anything. If that’s the case, I suppose it did what it’s supposed to do.

[Invisiblename]

Originally Posted by redcars

Realistically, the alarm only goes off after the glass is broken. If they're not intimidated by the flashing red light, they'll smash and grab anyway. You have to ask yourself what are you going to do if the alarm goes off. Sometimes if you win, you still lose and the cops will be there in 5 mins at best.

5 mins? Jeez, in the UK we’d be lucky to see the police within 24hrs, more likely never unless you call them out!

[JoseSportM]

That’s why I installed dashcam. If this happens I want to catch them and not let them go with a smile on their face.

Sorry to hear this. I hope you can have it fixed ASAP

[ThunderM240]

Originally Posted by XC3LLR8

That makes me sick to my stomach, and it's not even my car!

Me 2 as mine is also Thundernight Metallic. Glad I have a garage to park mine in every day especially since there was a rash of high end car thefts in my area last year. State police fortunately broke up that ring but sure there are others out there.

[PNTDG42]

You mentioned your parking space is immediately under your apartment/condo. Perhaps you can hide a wireless wifi camera near your spot and get wifi signal. I’m not sure what the rules are, or if someone did find it, they probably wouldn’t really know who’s it was. I was just thinking that this sort of camera gives you a lot of options at least. Such as motion alerts, audio alerts, playback etc. Of course you’d have to charge it regularly, unless you drilled a small hole to your unit

Does your association maybe have existing cams there, with footage someone could review?

[redcars]

I had my window busted and my DIN stereo stolen years ago. You almost need to sleep in your car to prevent anything. You need something that works like a Ring door cam. Maybe a motion activated light too. The cam system on Teslas are a great idea.
Be careful if you confront someone. You can get hurt, or be held liable if the other person gets hurt. Some attorney will spin it as, "all over a broken window."

[Cwatt79]

Total cost of the driver door glass replacement came to $1,008 at the BMW dealership. $161 for the glass and $759 for 4.5 hours of labor. SA said they spent 2 hours cleaning up the broken glass from inside the door. They told me it would be 2-3 hours, but I ended up waiting 5.5 hours.
Hard to believe the local glass shop and Safelite both quoted $300 for the same job. I wonder how much better workmanship I got for the >300% price premium.