Stray dogs wreck my Innova Hycross: Parked in the workshop for 3 weeks

As the car moved, I found a lot of cables lying on the floor broken/chewed/hanging.

BHPian sanketdesai82 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A few weeks back, on Tuesday I had taken my VX(O) Hycross to the office and then parked the car in my garage. That night the garage door wasn’t latched/locked correctly by our helper and the next day morning while I was headed out to the gym, I noticed the garage door was left open and closed it only to notice that the car cover was fully torn on both the sides near the front tyres (I suspected street dogs).

On that Saturday, I had planned to take my dad to the farm and the car. When I started the car I got 4-5 different alerts ranging from Brake fluid low/ABS issue etc and when I tried to reverse the car, got greeted by a loud noise and literally the brakes were not working. As the car moved, I found a lot of cables lying on the floor broken/chewed/hanging. I had to request an RSA from Toyota and got the car towed to Mody Toyota workshop. That evening the service manager called and informed us that it looks like a rat ate the cables etc. During the weekend, I sat to examine the security cam footage of the garage and saw two dogs had entered and near my car early morning that day.

Next week Monday I visited the workshop and the engineer showed me the remains of the cables and the insulation tin which is on top of the exhaust pipes. While I was talking to the engineer, he said that these look like dog bites and not something a rat would do. Long story short, been 3 weeks since the car has been at the workshop and is being fixed under insurance and has taken time as the spares were not available in stock. I am yet to get the car so have to wait and watch.

Few questions which I wanted to ask here:

• 2 of my other cars are parked outside my house plus most of the society cars including my neighbour's cars are always out but never have I seen such a thing done by the dogs, just does not make sense
• Do you think there were rats and these dogs were trying to catch/hunt them resulting in the damage?
• I can clearly see dog bites on the tin sheet which clearly shows it’s a dog
• Should I consider rat prevention hardware like this or the sprays etc - CARCAT Ultrasound Rat Repellent for Automobiles - 2nd Gen - CARCAT-DUO- Ultrasound+Strobe LED -Made in India Waterproof rat protection for rat problem in the car-protect car from rats - best 94% efficacy

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