Is it easy to steal a Jeep?

[ShadowsPapa]

I believe his was a commentary of people not knowing how to operate a manual transmission vehicle.. AKA "millenial theft deterrent" if If I myself am a millenial and only buy stick shift vehicles....but I'm an exception

I've only had one vehicle broken into and really it was my own fault (as much as theft can be caused by the person being robbed) for not locking my car. The battery in my key fob was dying and only worked sporadically, one morning I got into my car to find my center console belongings scattered around and the glove box open. My $600 tuner was still in the glove box, $100 leatherman sitting on the passenger seat, $100 fenix flash light next to the leatherman. They got my spare change maybe? I replaced the battery that day.

IMO the bit about the young not knowing how to drive a stick is a myth. My son, his wife - he's 38, she's 40, my younger son, 35, and all of the young in our area with their tricked-out Hondas, they are sticks, you can hear them shift. Those who race their less than 10 year old Asian cars at the track on weekends, all sticks. Both of my sons learned on manual transmissions.

I find it odd that people believe because it's a stick that young people won't get it. Maybe the females won't - they seem to be totally uninterested in anything manual - want to be able to text, fix hair, do whatever in the mirror while cutting you off in traffic around here.

Next time you hear an Asian made car with a fart can on it - it will be a stick in most cases.
So I wonder if that myth comes from the memes and jokes posted on the web because there's little basis in reality. At least not here.
My daughter-in-law, a slender Korean lady about 5' tall, maybe 120 soaking wet, drove trucks in Korea - borrowed my 3/4 ton 4x4 with trailer when they moved and parked it like any OTR driver could.
I believe any driver education should include the basics of operating a manual transmission. At least the basics. But these days, even driver education has gone out the window. Iowans have no clue what a turn signal is for - in most cases it means get the hell out of my way I am coming over no matter what. Yield signs = you must get out of my way because I WANT IN THERE. Even my father years ago ran into that, in the car pool the guy driving literally said as much. The guy was coming up an acceleration ramp to I80 and literally forced others to slam on brakes and nearly caused a wreck. Dad asked him "you know what that yield sign means, right? And the guy seriously answered "yes, they are supposed to yield to me to let me on".
WOW. And that guy would have been in his 40s back then - this was in the 70s.

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[d k]

Way, way back in time when I was still in the military, I bought an 'ignition interrupt' system from a company called Jacobs Electronics and that had a programmable button that you could program to do a multitude of things.
Basically, after you started the car, you had 10 seconds to touch it or the car would die out.
If you opened the door while the car was running, you had 30 seconds to touch it again or the car would die out. This was done against car jackings, etc.
It wasn't even a button, it was a screw head that you just touch and it would ground out or something....

It was great. I'm sure it would go against some law to have it now..

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Way, way back in time when I was still in the military, I bought an 'ignition interrupt' system from a company called Jacobs Electronics and that had a programmable button that you could program to do a multitude of things.
Basically, after you started the car, you had 10 seconds to touch it or the car would die out.
If you opened the door while the car was running, you had 30 seconds to touch it again or the car would die out. This was done against car jackings, etc.
It wasn't even a button, it was a screw head that you just touch and it would ground out or something....

It was great. I'm sure it would go against some law to have it now..

The capacitance of the human body - clever. It must have been like a number of other fun electronic devices you used to be able to buy. Worked like the lamps you touched to turn on or off. OR perhaps the orignal touch screens back in the 1990s, worked on your capacitance.

 

[d k]

Yea, I never knew exactly how it worked, but I got it primarily because I would driver down to Mexico a couple of times a week and it was pretty common to get car jacked, so I wanted to have an answer for them in case they were dumb enough to try.
I would carry throwing knives on person in case it got real ugly.

The capacitance of the human body - clever. It must have been like a number of other fun electronic devices you used to be able to buy. Worked like the lamps you touched to turn on or off. OR perhaps the orignal touch screens back in the 1990s, worked on your capacitance.

 

[MPETE]

FYI, If your tonneau cover uses a cable that runs across the cover to the latches on the side, a clothes hanger and about 2.7 seconds is all that's needed to defeat that "locked and secure" truck bed. I always think of the tonneau cover as a way to keep things "out of sight, out of mind" but as far as keeping things "secure" back there it's just as much of crap shoot as anywhere else.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

FYI, If your tonneau cover uses a cable that runs across the cover to the latches on the side, a clothes hanger and about 2.7 seconds is all that's needed to defeat that "locked and secure" truck bed. I always think of the tonneau cover as a way to keep things "out of sight, out of mind" but as far as keeping things "secure" back there it's just as much of crap shoot as anywhere else.

Back to the old "keeping honest folks honest" - well, if they were honest, they'd not bother!
So many of these thefts are crimes of opportunity - they have the time, the space (no one around) and they can easily see what's there, or soon could with a few seconds of effort.
Make it take longer or make it harder, you reduce the chances. Most criminals are rather lazy in that if it takes too long, they won't bother. But if you give them lots of time and leave them alone..........

 

[DLAW]

I believe his was a commentary of people not knowing how to operate a manual transmission vehicle.. AKA "millenial theft deterrent" if If I myself am a millenial and only buy stick shift vehicles....but I'm an exception

I've only had one vehicle broken into and really it was my own fault (as much as theft can be caused by the person being robbed) for not locking my car. The battery in my key fob was dying and only worked sporadically, one morning I got into my car to find my center console belongings scattered around and the glove box open. My $600 tuner was still in the glove box, $100 leatherman sitting on the passenger seat, $100 fenix flash light next to the leatherman. They got my spare change maybe? I replaced the battery that day.

Funny, similar thing happened to me earlier this year when COVID was starting to get bad in late March. Forgot to lock my car. I saw cops show up on my street next morning. I talked to a neighbor and his car was ransacked. I thought "uh oh" and ran to my car. Sure enough, I left it unlocked. Funny thing was that I couldn't notice a single thing actually missing. I had a $50 Home Depot gift card sitting out in the open and they didn't take it. Everything was ransacked, but nothing taken. Maybe they are just looking for wallets? I have no idea....my neighbor's work laptop was still in his car! they didn't even want a laptop....who knows what these idiots are thinking.

Video footage found it was a kid that rode into our neighborhood on a stolen bike. The kid ditched the bike, and finally left our street after he found a car with the keys in it and he stole the car. So maybe that was his end game.

Our street is littered with cameras now. Everything is captured, you evil SOBs!

 

[DocMike]

When I had my first car, a hopped up 71 Bug I used to pull the rotor out of my distributor and pocket it. Then I'd lock the car and the deck lid. I figured for they really wanted it, they would break in and push it, but pushing a slammed vw bug in Chicago would attract a lot of attention.

My 53 Buick was 3 on the tree and it's own theft deterrent. Very few people could drive that.

I did have my 1991 Audi stolen out of my driveway here in the Springs. Took them a month to find a very rare car with a "Support Your Local Hooker, Play Rugby" sticker on it. They burned up the clutch, trashed the dash and stole everything they could out of it. This town is a shit hole. I lived downtown for 18 years here and gave up locking my cars because I was replacing too much glass.
They would steal just random bs. Like my ex wife had a bag on the floor boards with dirty kleenex in it. Or once they took just the ashtray to my S6. Left the change. Book of CDs that could not be pawned because no cases. This winter I had some meth addled chick in my house. She broke into my car. Used my garage door opener. Screwed around in my Audi and then got into the kitchen. I was nose to nose with her. I was still half asleep and could not process it. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to go get my conceal carry permit and spend a lot of time at the range.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

When I had my first car, a hopped up 71 Bug I used to pull the rotor out of my distributor and pocket it. Then I'd lock the car and the deck lid. I figured for they really wanted it, they would break in and push it, but pushing a slammed vw bug in Chicago would attract a lot of attention.

My 53 Buick was 3 on the tree and it's own theft deterrent. Very few people could drive that.

I did have my 1991 Audi stolen out of my driveway here in the Springs. Took them a month to find a very rare car with a "Support Your Local Hooker, Play Rugby" sticker on it. They burned up the clutch, trashed the dash and stole everything they could out of it. This town is a shit hole. I lived downtown for 18 years here and gave up locking my cars because I was replacing too much glass.
They would steal just random bs. Like my ex wife had a bag on the floor boards with dirty kleenex in it. Or once they took just the ashtray to my S6. Left the change. Book of CDs that could not be pawned because no cases. This winter I had some meth addled chick in my house. She broke into my car. Used my garage door opener. Screwed around in my Audi and then got into the kitchen. I was nose to nose with her. I was still half asleep and could not process it. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to go get my conceal carry permit and spend a lot of time at the range.

Really scary was a friend who lives in CO had a concealed carry permit - and left his gun in his car console one night and forgot to take it in the house. Car was locked.
Next day he found the car had been broken into and his gun was gone - nothing else was disturbed at all - not the spare change he left laying in it, nothing, it's like they knew, and went right to it.

 

[DocMike]

Yep. I can see this happening. It's funny. I know all of my neighbors. Downtown and in the new house. They are good people. It's always some asshole just passing through.
I love taking the top and doors off my Jeep, but the roadster goes in the garage and the top and doors go back on. Every night. I have even hesitated to program the garage opener on the sun visor. It's just asking for trouble. I think my next project will be to build a proper garage out back to put the excess cars.

Really scary was a friend who lives in CO had a concealed carry permit - and left his gun in his car console one night and forgot to take it in the house. Car was locked.
Next day he found the car had been broken into and his gun was gone - nothing else was disturbed at all - not the spare change he left laying in it, nothing, it's like they knew, and went right to it.

 

[Higher_Ground]

That is exactly what they were after, and probably why several of the posts above mentioned otherwise obvious valuables left undisturbed.

Pretty much after cash, keys, and guns. Not worth trying to resell anything else. The only people you really read about getting caught have a trunk full of wallets and GPS units... they are the newbies.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yep. I can see this happening. It's funny. I know all of my neighbors. Downtown and in the new house. They are good people. It's always some asshole just passing through.
I love taking the top and doors off my Jeep, but the roadster goes in the garage and the top and doors go back on. Every night. I have even hesitated to program the garage opener on the sun visor. It's just asking for trouble. I think my next project will be to build a proper garage out back to put the excess cars.

We have great neighbors in the next lot - (we live in the coutry, years ago a lot of break-ins, mostly GUN THEFTS)
Yesterday my wife went out with her friends to quilt shops - she got back after 5pm and brought in her purchases and normally right away closes the garage and locks the house door. She got so far as to locking the house door. I could have SWORN that I checked that garage. I was sitting watching the tail end of a Star Trek and the phone rang - our neighbor - hey, did you know Barbara's garage door is still open?
Oops! Thanks - I got up and closed it.
A few years ago my brother stopped by while we were gone - just to drop some stuff off. We brothers rarely see each other and even less often either of them come to our house. Scot pulls down the drive and was looking at my car, then started walking to the house and our neighbor lady came running out and gave him the 10th degree - what are you doing here, who are you - and so on. Sort of scared my brother! LOL
Her husband has guns - I feel sorry for anyone stopping by at night when we're gone........

 

[DocMike]

They love to steal your registration out here as well. Know several people that have had that happen.

That is exactly what they were after, and probably why several of the posts above mentioned otherwise obvious valuables left undisturbed.

Pretty much after cash, keys, and guns. Not worth trying to resell anything else. The only people you really read about getting caught have a trunk full of wallets and GPS units... they are the newbies.

 

[anavrinIV]

I have even hesitated to program the garage opener on the sun visor. It's just asking for trouble. I think my next project will be to build a proper garage out back to put the excess cars.

you'll be happy to know the garage door opener in the Jeep does not work without the ignition in at least ACC if not RUN. Pushing the button with everything off doesn't do anything

 

[ShadowsPapa]

you'll be happy to know the garage door opener in the Jeep does not work without the ignition in at least ACC if not RUN. Pushing the button with everything off doesn't do anything

Has to be in RUN mode according to the book and setup instructions. I tried in ACC, didn't fly. I tried to both program it and use it in OFF or ACC mode, nope, no luck. I finally read the instructions.
They say that's because of the chances of the Jeep being "open"......
Anything after about 1990 is rolling code anyway, less easy to get into.
AFAIK, only the buttons are in the visor, the meat of the opener isn't, or shouldn't be.

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