The Cal-look Lounge

A week of ups and downs.  My (our) good friend and fellow lounger Larry Rick had his storage locker here in SoCal broken into within the last several days and the thieves stole numerous Cal Look and VW treasures that he had collected over decades.  The list includes the following original EMPI parts:  eliminator shifter, 3 pair of valve covers, one GT valve cover (the other was kept elsewhere after it was displayed at Shubees funeral), a pair of tall globe manifolds, two sumps and a radio.  In addition, they stole a curved handle copper Hurst Shifter, a number of very valuable split window litho tin toys, 6 other deep sumps, an NOS Santana, one IDA, miscellaneous Weber jets and other parts we are just trying to figure out.

I know many of you know how it feels.  Larry is devastated.  Let's all keep an eye out and see if any of these turn up on the internet or at swap meets.  Larry can be reached via the name    elrick     here on the lounge to confirm whether a part was his or not, or you can reach me as well.  Thanks in advance for any help.  

Dave  

I hate fucking thieves! >:( A vintage bicycle was stolen from our house last weekend while we were away, I've never felt so violated.

I'll keep my eyes open for the parts for sure. This community is too small to pull shit like that and get away with it.

Very sorry to hear about Larry getting ripped off. Those old school items are so in demand, that someone will talk!

Luckily the market is small. I hope they pop up some place where we can find them.

I've got Larry's back down here ...
These guys must LOVE a Good Ass Whipping!

Please keep updates on loss list ...
They WILL be found!
TxT

Thieves' usually are not collectors, and they also tend to be stupid, (on many levels).  Good chance when they try to sell it and it'll come to someone attention.  Even better, if they realize the problem they have unloading everything, it'll just be returned.  There are probably many of us who would be will to accept it for Larry, no questions asked, if returned.

...Ed.

I'll let you know if I hear anything !

Visit the next Pomona swap meet, the great place to find 'lost' items...

I just talked to Larry and he mentioned discovery that two more items are missing.
An Empi 40DCNF carb kit, without the carbs, and 4-15 inch genuine EMPI 8 Spokes, no caps or hardware, natural finish.

Hearing the story of how they got in, sounds like any of us who have things in a rented storage facility better check on the "security" of our unit.

PLEASE, anyone who hears, see, or knows about this is encouraged to do the right thing... Get his possessions back to him.
Larry is a hard working guy who only has (Had) this stuff because he scraped and did without other stuff for 30 plus years so he could follow his passion as an Honest and true collector.

We need to have a coordinated effort there. AA lot of area to cover.

I just hope that the ingorant bastards don't just look at them and think they aren't worth chit and trash them

Sorry to hear this, Larry is a great guy & this stuff is verry hard to come by... He might want to take a look @ some of the scrap yards. thieves are usually not very bright and sometimes have no idea what they have. Also take a look at some of the local drive in swap meets that happen all around here. I wonder if the theft happened out of chance, or if somebody knew what was in there. I hope you get your parts back Larry, it sounds like there was some great stuff in there.

WOW........C'mon man guy never screwed anybody in his life!
What the HECK !! Everyone needs to keep their eyes and ears open !!

Larry is one of our Bugs for Breakfast buddies and knows everything
that needs to be known about Cal Look from the earliest of the 70's
til now. 

Lets all check Samba ads, craigslist etc.... >:(

Larry is a VERY good guy, will keep my eyes and ears open. This sucks! F#@ken low lifes!

Ted

were other lockers targeted, or just Larry's? It would be helpful to figure out if it was VW people or random thieves. Knowing this it would steer you where to look..

Do they have video Surveillance?

Right now, what we know is that they came in from the unit next to his, through the wall, which is only sheet metal with screws.  I've notified the local scrap metal yard.  Donnie, there was surveillance, but not in that area.  The storage facility is "looking into it", but really needs to do more.
Thanks for your suggestions.

D

Man, I hate to hear about stuff like this.

I see that the thieves got into the unit from the next one over, but it makes me think about what I used to do when I had my car and tools in a storage unit before I had an attached garage where I lived.

On the inside the storage unit, I added an extra lock and loop of chain in a manner that only allowed the door to be opened ~6-8 inches. When the door was raised this amount, there was no slack in the chain, and the lock was elevated. My theory was that even if someone cut the primary lock off the outside door latch, they wouldn't be able to easily get in. It was a bit of a hassle to lock and unlock the setup, but the extra sense of security was worth it.

In addition, when I was working inside the unit, I kept the rollup door only partially open or completely closed, and parked my daily driver across the entrance to help prevent others from seeing what was inside.

I like your added security measure Eric.  Hastle or not, it's good to know you done all you could.

In Larrys case, it was never imagined that someone would take down a wall, have the balls to rip him off, and put the wall back up to cover their misdeed.

They must have come through the main entrance.  If you can get video of the week prior to the theft, perhaps you can get a plate number of at least a possible vehicle type.  I know it's a long shot, but what do you have to loose?

Oh crap, it was him, sucks twice as much when you can connect a face to the name..  :(

Hope he gets the stuff back or atleast the thiefs get caught..

Thanks for commenting TERO, yeah he's also the guy Dave Gallasi speaks about!
Larry  is a walking history book about Cal Look.
Funny thing about him is he had narrowed a front beam in the 70's so he could
run Ghia disc brakes with adapters for REAL BRM's.
He owned the 67 vert at BUG-IN with 21 REAL BRM's ........THAT GUY!

The quickest photo I can bring up of that day at Bug In.
Larry, Leonard and I put all our BRM's, all 21 of'em  into the '67 Cab and had some fun.

That is a bloody tragedy to get those parts stolen!

Should catch the mongrels and chop one of their hands off like in the old days!