Stolen 2023 Mojave

[JT23]

That was me... chaining it to the driveway will slow the theft down to a crawl, as a flatbed wouldn't even easily take it.

If you don't want the hassle of a chain, you could install bollards that operate off a remote...

That’s hardcore, and at this point I’m not opposed at all. Renting right now though so don’t have the option to “install” anything.

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[JT23]

very easy.

Anyone with an iPhone will be alerted if a tag that doesn’t belong to them is following them.

Hmm, interesting. They’ll be notified? But if it was installed somewhere difficult to find then would they necessarily be notified where exactly it was? I’m not well versed on them, just curious for solutions.

I’m curious how they are disabling the alarm. Assuming through the hood? Or cutting into a soft top?

Or are these left unlocked?

Hard top and locked. I did not have locking hood latches though. So I guess that could have been a weak point.

 

[BourbonRunner]

@OP:

I live in Catonsville. What part of town are you in?

Nuisance and more serious crime has skyrocketed around the region, mostly because generally weak on crime policies have caused an environment where there is no consequences for one's actions. They crowed about the murder rate dropping last year but neglected to mention the massive increase in carjackings and vehicle theft in general. Juvenile crime especially is up since Jill Carter's infamous juvenile crime "reforms" had their expected result - gangs get younger kids that won't get prosecuted to do the dirty work.

Many of those stolen vehicles are being taken by organized groups who are shipping them out of the port of Baltimore to other countries.

My recommendations:

1. Hood latch locks
2. Hide an air tag in the vehicle somewhere. Anywhere.
3. Tazer with PIN lock start
4. Put your fobs in a Faraday cage at night (been discussed here before, the keys are notoriously easy to clone)
5. Buy a 6 speed. Most perps especially the young ones can't drive a clutch.
6. Mechanical devices like Clubs, etc are easily defeated but your advantage is it may deter because it does take a little bit longer.
7. Buy/rent a house with a garage and keep your vehicle in it.

But most importantly and this goes for everyone and anyone-- Get gap insurance every time you buy a new vehicle, and most times when you buy a used one. In spite of the appreciation of MSRP, cars are a fast depreciating liability.

 

[cybercat]

I wonder if there's a way to make a switch that would trigger the Autopark function even with the door closed. Make the Jeep think the door is open until a switch is thrown. Oh and make the dam door harness 5 inches longer.

Cheaper than the Tazer PIN code function.

 

[JT23]

@OP:

I live in Catonsville. What part of town are you in?

Nuisance and more serious crime has skyrocketed around the region, mostly because generally weak on crime policies have caused an environment where there is no consequences for one's actions. They crowed about the murder rate dropping last year but neglected to mention the massive increase in carjackings and vehicle theft in general. Juvenile crime especially is up since Jill Carter's infamous juvenile crime "reforms" had their expected result - gangs get younger kids that won't get prosecuted to do the dirty work.

Many of those stolen vehicles are being taken by organized groups who are shipping them out of the port of Baltimore to other countries.

My recommendations:

1. Hood latch locks
2. Hide an air tag in the vehicle somewhere. Anywhere.
3. Tazer with PIN lock start
4. Put your fobs in a Faraday cage at night (been discussed here before, the keys are notoriously easy to clone)
5. Buy a 6 speed. Most perps especially the young ones can't drive a clutch.
6. Mechanical devices like Clubs, etc are easily defeated but your advantage is it may deter because it does take a little bit longer.
7. Buy/rent a house with a garage and keep your vehicle in it.

But most importantly and this goes for everyone and anyone-- Get gap insurance every time you buy a new vehicle, and most times when you buy a used one. In spite of the appreciation of MSRP, cars are a fast depreciating liability.

Club has been purchased and is on my rental currently. AirTags arrived today. Just ordered farday pouches for all fobs in the household. Whenever I buy my next jeep, locking latches will be happening. I’m completely in the dark on a tazer, but may be worth researching. Thanks for all those suggestions.

Sketched about putting any specifics online after what just happened to me, but I’m on the same side of town. SW of the city. You’re absolutely right about how things have been going. I don’t think this was a “Kia/Hyundai steal and scrap the ignition” scenario. I’m thinking my vehicle got targeted to go straight to the port and into a container. High demand, off-road vehicle that is probably cruising through dirt roads overseas as we speak. Hard to think about.

Have loan/lease protection through my Insurance thank god. But again, not really worried about being “upside down”, just worried that I won’t recoup the full investment.

 

[ErylFlynn]

I might be needing to install that Bolt locking hood. I did enable the hood alarm, not tested it but used my Tazer to turn it on. From what I saw in one case they popped the hood, and pulled the fuse for the horns. Then when they go to unlock it and get in, the alarm goes off but you only get the lights flashing.

And was wondering about OBDII port locks. How well do those work? They hard to bypass?

 

[BourbonRunner]

Club has been purchased and is on my rental currently. AirTags arrived today. Just ordered farday pouches for all fobs in the household. Whenever I buy my next jeep, locking latches will be happening. I’m completely in the dark on a tazer, but may be worth researching. Thanks for all those suggestions.

Sketched about putting any specifics online after what just happened to me, but I’m on the same side of town. SW of the city. You’re absolutely right about how things have been going. I don’t think this was a “Kia/Hyundai steal and scrap the ignition” scenario. I’m thinking my vehicle got targeted to go straight to the port and into a container. High demand, off-road vehicle that is probably cruising through dirt roads overseas as we speak. Hard to think about.

Have loan/lease protection through my Insurance thank god. But again, not really worried about being “upside down”, just worried that I won’t recoup the full investment.

Good you've gotten those things moving forward and understood about the location details. I am a real estate agent and though I cannot talk about criminal activity in specific areas due to fair housing law, it is safe for me to say criminal activity has been on the rise overall and our "leaders" in Annapolis are powerless to do anything about it lest they lose their jobs in the next cycle.

You are most likely and unfortunately correct: High dollar, high value off road vehicles have always been targeted for overseas sales. Being this close to a port has its complications.

Did you ever hear the story about the plumber in Texas (I think) whose truck was found in Afghanistan still with his logos on it being used as a technical?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I’ve seen a lot of recommendations for AirTags. Significantly hidden within the vehicle. Anybody know how easy it is to disrupt that signal? Positive is that it’s completely separate from any vehicle electronics/equipment so it can’t be disconnected.

Work fine as long as in an urban area. There's a lot of places where a vehicle could go for miles and never be close enough to an Apple product to make it work - but most thefts happen in populated areas, or at least where there's enough chance of an iphone or similar being close it's worth doing. Just don't make it the ONLY means of protection. It won't protect, just help recover - you hope.

I’m curious how they are disabling the alarm. Assuming through the hood? Or cutting into a soft top?

Or are these left unlocked?

If I recall correctly, the first press of lock doesn't set the alarm - you have to hit lock two times.
Not sure if that's configurable or not. But that's how it was on our other Jeeps - just locking doesn't set the alarm, it's how you lock, or a double-press of lock if I recall.
It's in the OWNERS MANUAL in case anyone still is familiar with such things.

And was wondering about OBDII port locks. How well do those work? They hard to bypass?

There's a security gateway in the way that prevents much from being done on the OBD port itself. That's the purpose of the SGW - unless you have certain tools, you have to bypass the SGW to get in to make changes.
Won't do any good to cover the port that has limited functionality - they can install a bypass cable or device on the SGW and do what they want, or get behind the glove box and get more direct access via the bus star connectors back there.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

3. Tazer with PIN lock start

Just like the OBD port "locking cover" - all one has to do is yank the tazer out unless they can use some of the new features that work even without the tazer, or hide the tazer like one member did (well, with a similar device that has a PIN lock function - he made a harness to hide the device0

Anyone steeling Jeeps who is serious at all will bypass simple things - they are aware of tazer (remove it, pin lock dies as it's a live function), or will have a breakout box, etc. for using the SGW or bus connectors behind the glove box.
Tazer pin lock will only stop joy riders - unless the joy rider knows it's a live feature and pulls the tazer out and plugs the cables back in.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

We need a section just for stolen jeep reports. .Every bit of discussion on "prevention" has been covered in several threads, and one just days ago.

 

[JT23]

We need a section just for stolen jeep reports. .Every bit of discussion on "prevention" has been covered in several threads, and one just days ago.

Yea, sorry for clogging the pipeline with the same topic. But just as I thought when I saw those several threads: it’s not super common and probably won’t happen to me.

I was obviously wrong. Hopefully seeing these posts will raise the awareness for the community and others will be influenced to take these preventative measures.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Just like the OBD port "locking cover" - all one has to do is yank the tazer out unless they can use some of the new features that work even without the tazer, or hide the tazer like one member did (well, with a similar device that has a PIN lock function - he made a harness to hide the device0

Anyone steeling Jeeps who is serious at all will bypass simple things - they are aware of tazer (remove it, pin lock dies as it's a live function), or will have a breakout box, etc. for using the SGW or bus connectors behind the glove box.
Tazer pin lock will only stop joy riders - unless the joy rider knows it's a live feature and pulls the tazer out and plugs the cables back in.

All of the above is true. A Tazer pin lock will stop the casual thief of opportunity, just like a Club will possibly deter them but the savvy thieves know how to bypass them before they get to the truck.

Short of hooking a couple battery leads to doors ?, there isn't much that can keep a determined thief from getting your vehicle.

 

[Minty JL]

Get another, get a TAZR and enable the security features.

I also added locking hood latches.

 

[Aj58]

Hmm, interesting. They’ll be notified? But if it was installed somewhere difficult to find then would they necessarily be notified where exactly it was? I’m not well versed on them, just curious for solutions.



Hard top and locked. I did not have locking hood latches though. So I guess that could have been a weak point.

for the air tag you can just open your phone and select find tag. It will bring up and arrow and point you. In the direction and then tell you how far away it is.

what you can do is cut the cable so it doesn’t make a noise making it even harder to find. And possibly put two of them, one in an easily found spot, and then the other underneath that and harder to find. They’ll find the first as a decoy and maybe you’ll get lucky enough they think that’s all.

don’t get me wrong it’s better than nothing and has worked before. Just depends on how “good” the thief is and like shadow said, whether or kit there are other iPhones around to pickup and relay the signal. Won’t work that well on rural areas.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

for the air tag you can just open your phone and select find tag. It will bring up and arrow and point you. In the direction and then tell you how far away it is.

what you can do is cut the cable so it doesn’t make a noise making it even harder to find. And possibly put two of them, one in an easily found spot, and then the other underneath that and harder to find. They’ll find the first as a decoy and maybe you’ll get lucky enough they think that’s all.

don’t get me wrong it’s better than nothing and has worked before. Just depends on how “good” the thief is and like shadow said, whether or kit there are other iPhones around to pickup and relay the signal. Won’t work that well on rural areas.

Definitely disarm the speaker.
Possible hiding places include up between the walls of the truck bed, maybe pull a tail light and hang one in that recess.

Just don't rely on that alone - it's a 'find my vehicle' thing, not a prevention, but the more I see and read, considering the costs of vehicles and all of the stuff in them, the hassle, pain in the butt, time involved, a few bucks spent can't hurt.
It's truly a shame these companies put out such things and then "it will ONLY work with our devices", or in the case of Samsung - "it will only work with certain Samsung devices".

If a company comes up with such devices that will work with any Android or Apple phone with UWB capabilities and so on............ but we have no Apple devices and only my wife has a Samsung phone and it's a Flip 4 - no UWB.

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