STOLEN from my driveway this morning! New Jeeps are crazy easy to steal apparently...

[FLGladiator]

FCA engineers live in a cotton candy world to allow any joe schmoe to pop my hood.

First thing I noticed as a first time Jeep owner. What's up with the anyone can open the hood ordeal.

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[Redruby]

Sorry for your loss

 

[RangerG]

The day after I picked up my Gladiator I added hood locks. Mainly to keep my batteries and LED lights safe….and now the jeep itself.

My last Wrangler (TJ) had “The Plug” installed. Now that Iloved!!!! Good luck stealing the Jeep with that. Properly installed it is AWESOME! I have put it on my other cars over the years as it is not some stupid alarm piece. You could leave the keys on the seat without the doors on the car and without the matching unique plug pin the car still will not go as the plug is required to complete the electrical circuits within the car for starting.

They have held contests to see if someone could steal the vehicle with the plug and nope. You have to spend hours tracing all the wires in the engine bay as it is camouflaged etc. Sure they could tow away your JEep but easier to move on.

Most thieves do not even know what the Plug is so have it installed somewhere reachable but somewhat obscure. Even if they figure out the obscure gray plug is involved and cut the wire right at the plug it does not do a bypass letting them steal it.

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That so sucks they took it.

This thing installed has not effected any other system in you Jeep? Do have it in a gladiator?

 

[robinja]

I had a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon and have been in love for the past 1.5 years....

Sorry that happened to you. I live where that kind of thing isn't a problem... we instantly drop them and then call the coroner to come pick up the body. The sheriff writes a report and then shakes our hands and says nice job.

 

[aceisback]

I sure loved my BOLT hood lock when I had my Sahara. Can’t install on Gladiator because of forward facing trail camera. I really wish BOLT would address that for those of us with trail cam.
Sorry for your loss OP.

 

[glassjawkid32]

I had a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon and have been in love for the past 1.5 years. Everything came to a sudden end this morning when I woke up and went outside to find that it was gone. From video surveillance I obtained from two of my neighbours, we can see two thieves walk up like they owned it, reached under the engine area (Assume they cut the horn wires, disabling it from sounding by the alarm) opened the hood, you can see quick car light flashing on/off, and they jump in it and drove away. Took under 4 mins from the time they walked onto my property at 4:50AM. Called the police and it was the second Jeep Gladiator reported for my area today. There have been several thefts of Jeep Gladiators reported in the past few days in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Please take precautions to protect your Jeep Gladiators, Wranglers, and other Jeep products as they are all susceptible to new theft measures.

Add a separate hood horn or other deterrent devices along with video security. Wish I had a garage big enough to park mine.

Be safe, protect yourselves and your very defenceless Jeep babies!

Do you have a tazer? I thought that was the only way to activate a hood alarm. That being said I wonder if they wernt reaching for an air tag.

 

[Sarge502]

I didn't meant to imply you were, I respect what you had to say. I was largely agreeing, if the Jeep was a "normal" car. As it stands, I just feel bad for the guy. That's a crappy way to start your morning.

No worries. That may have came off wrong.

I literally just took a report 3 days ago where dude went into a gas station and got his car stolen. Not only did he leave the doors unlocked. But left the keys inside and it running. If that doesnt say come steal me than I dunno what does.

Of course I get there I ask him if doors were unlocked he said yes. Asked him if the engine was running (just cause I had a feeling it was) he tells me No as if that made it any better.. Go in and watch the video, which told me otherwise. Guy and a girl enter the lot broad daylight, walk past 2 other cars without even double taking let alone trying the door handles, then they almost get out of camera view but they stop go to the whole other side of the pumps and go right to the stolen car (cause they hear it running and seen nobody in it).

 

[JTDay]

My jeep has two plastic plungers near the grill/radiator area that appear to get depressed when you close to hood. I would have sworn those were part of the alarm system.

 

[NachoRuby]

My jeep has two plastic plungers near the grill/radiator area that appear to get depressed when you close to hood. I would have sworn those were part of the alarm system.

They aren't enabled from the factory as an alarm trigger. For what reason, I don't know. You can enable them with a tazer, though. From the factory, it's just a sensor that tells the Jeep if the hood is open or not, and makes the light come on. I have no idea why they aren't part of the alarm by default. That, I agree, is an oversight.

 

[NachoRuby]

First thing I noticed as a first time Jeep owner. What's up with the anyone can open the hood ordeal.

Just always been like that. It's kind of just something expected of a jeep, since e the beginning of time. I'd be more worried about that for stealing stuff (parts) from the engine bay though. They do offer aftermarket hood locks though. This won't prevent while vehicle thefts. They still somehow bypassed any security that might exist if they managed to turn it on. I think they got in the same way folks are stealing hellcats left and right. Whatever security Mopar has just isn't very good. Only thing they did was cut the horn wires

 

[Jerhemi]

Damn, that sucks! Sorry for your loss. I am not too far from you, maybe I better start blocking the Jeep in with my mini van.

 

[glassjawkid32]

No worries. That may have came off wrong.

I literally just took a report 3 days ago where dude went into a gas station and got his car stolen. Not only did he leave the doors unlocked. But left the keys inside and it running. If that doesnt say come steal me than I dunno what does.

Of course I get there I ask him if doors were unlocked he said yes. Asked him if the engine was running (just cause I had a feeling it was) he tells me No as if that made it any better.. Go in what the video, which told me otherwise. Guy and a girl enter the lot broad daylight, walk past 2 other cars without even double taking let alone trying the door handles, then they almost get out of camera view but they stop go to the whole other side of the pumps and go right to the stolen car (cause they hear it running and seen nobody in it).

Bait car.

 

[OngsterA]

Do you have a tazer? I thought that was the only way to activate a hood alarm. That being said I wonder if they wernt reaching for an air tag.

Has the tazer activation work on Gladiators? No other parts needed? This would be a good deterrent, one more thing to slow them down.

Sorry for that unfortunate event, OP, hope you didn't lose other valuables in your JT.

 

[kjdf17]

I doubt the doors were locked. I could be wrong. Maybe the OP could clarify, but I seriously doubt it unless there was forced entry which I also doubt cause he wouldn't have left out if glass was broke everywhere. However, whether the door was locked or not, probably wasn't accidentally left out.

Not saying that's the case here. But at least 85% of stolen cars or even just theft of the contents from a vehicle are usually preventable and are just crimes of opportunity. Again not saying that's the case here. But its true at least in my area and we have a high percentage of car theft. Actually very high as of lately, one of the highest in the country actually. But I do this for a living for quite some time so I'm relatively knowledgable in the matter. (not in stealing cars, but taking the reports for them after the fact.) Leaving the doors unlocked you might as well invite people inside your home. Amazes me how negligent people can be. I see everything from firearms, iphones, computers all left in vehicles (most of which are unlocked). Doesn't mean a criminal still cant and wont break in (forcibly). But that damn sure makes it easy for them leaving it unlocked. Most and I say most; people just go around trying door handles and if its locked they move on.

In this case regardless if left unlocked or not. It makes me wonder how they started it. There is a new devices I've been made aware of (although I'm not fully knowledgable on) that can reprogram key FOPS etc and can re-program a different one used to start engines and possibly unlock doors. However these are pretty rare and just recently been popping up. Probably the excuse that I'd use though as to how they got in if it wasn;t forced entry. Amazing the amount of work criminals can put in. If they only put it to use in other ways.

In any case sorry to hear about your JT OP. Hopefully you get it back in one piece.

Yeah, on the footage that I have the thief has an iPad/tablet in his hands and never even touches the doors. He goes near the jeep with the iPad then places it on the ground. He then goes under the front of the jeep on the passenger side tire and then he opens the hood with a partner. They do something near the battery side, probably in the fuse box. The lights flicker, they close the hood, jump in the Jeep, start it and drive away...

 

[GOCAMPN]

It's too easy to get inside a Jeep, it's crazy. I've read people can use signal boosters to ping your keyfob from outside for opening the doors. Not only that but I locked my keys inside a few weeks ago, the local PD came with this $12 kit and got right in!

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Either way, I just bought these after reading OPs post. I figure 1 will do the trick, so this 2-pack should cover both my JT and JL. They look like stock besides obviously the center piece with the lock, so I don't think it'll look wonky only having 1.

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Best of luck with your insurance claim and whatnot, maybe you can get a new model year! Haha.

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