Someone broke into my truck

Absolutely correct. The homeless of all ages, teens, and gangs.

 

Like others have already written, the back window lock is a joke.

A flat blade screwdriver that has been slightly reshaped will unlock any Toyota door lock within 5 seconds. A filed down Toyota or VW bug key with the right cut will unlock any Toyota lock within 5 seconds. Porcelin from a spark plug will break any tempered glass within 5 seconds. Thieves don't use slim jims, they're too big to carry. The Club and those brake pedal/steering wheel locks are useless to any thief that has a saw from a 99 cent store, the steering wheel cuts like butter and can be cut through in a couple of minutes. The more that is added to the vehicle that can be seen the more the thief will be deterred to pick another vehicle (i.e.: an alarm with The Club works better than just one or the other). NRA stickers and stickers that are associated with the police help as well (seriously).

 

That's one of the reasons if the stock car stereo sounds OK to my ears, I'm not going to change it out for something better that will make my truck a bigger target.

 

What back window lock haha..agreed. @mattgecko window bar is a must.

And yes, more than one visual deterrent is better than just one. I used to use the red light from a car alarm and wire it into my car even though it didn't have one just for the effect.

 

One of the shops I worked at made a small fortune on selling/installing self flashing LED's. The LED and a resistor cost less than $5 and they'd sell it for $60 installed. It would typically take less than a half hour to install. They also sold a lot of custom built kill switches (my next thread I'm creating).

 

I did a few vehicles starting with my 84 Camaro that I had in 1992..only one vehicle I actually installed a cheap alarm in, but I figured at least seeing the light back then might be a deterrent. I forget if it was that car, but a couple of my old ones had the Chapman lock too...

 

Good info, only question is about stickers. Wouldn't nra stickers (or like orgs) make your vehicle a target for people searching for weapons? was always told to keep the car clean of stickers, esp. gun related ones

 

Good point, I'd never thought about that. In general I keep my truck free of any stickers that could be controversial, usually limit it to my favorite bands etc.

 

Pretty sure people on drugs don’t look at stickers. Just looking for that next high for whatever they can get then sell.

 

The 3rd Gen keyfob can be boosted from your driveway and they open the doors and disarm the alarm. Many owners have had this happen.

Not sure how the 2nd Gen works

 

True, but they aren't the only ones that bust into cars. I was speaking more towards the criminals looking for weapons

 

I have my doubts that someone could steal the signal from a remote sitting on you table in the house. But know for a fact that the signal can be stolen when using the remote to lock your doors. The thief can then clone a 2nd remote to unlock your doors.

It happened to me 2 years ago with my Ford truck while my wife and I were eating lunch. The crime was caught on security camera but they were unable to get a tag number and not enough detail to identify the thief. He pulled up in front of my truck opened my drivers door looked in the console and took a pistol. In and out in 10 seconds and even locked the truck back. My truck was targeted because he had a remote to unlock the door. No attempt was made to look inside any other vehicle. The gun was recovered in November in Baltimore. This was a pro stealing guns and hauling them north

This isn't new technology. Years ago they were using a similar device to steal cell phone signals and clone new phones. Happened to my wife and we found out when we got a $600 phone bill. This was before unlimited call and text plans. The phone company made it right and cell phone technology has improved to make it harder to steal signals and clone phones. Wireless key fobs are much simpler technology.

 

Very true, I remember the cell cloning thing a while back. One reason they went to digital.

 

Yea there are some pretty specific things criminals look for to identify vehicles with weapons, crazy how sophisticated they are. The real question here is...did you get it back?

 

Yea one of my favorite stories was the reversal of that, some special missions unit in Bahgdad with an array in the back of a corolla broadcasting on common cell freq's, making ied's blow up before they ever got emplaced

 

Here try this
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/so-you-dont-want-your-truck-stolen.655197/#post-22833814

 

Get one of these stickers

 

Didnt read through the whole thread but I would get a console vault.
Had stuff taken from my truck, in my driveway broad day light.
I got the CV from a member here.
On morn I got in my truck something didn't seem right, after work checked my home security cam video sure enough some guy went into it about 5am.
Dumb ass walks up my drive checks my door and finds it unlocked, leaves comes back 2min later with his hoodie pulled up and goes in truck finds vault and leaves
The cops down load video i dont know if they ever got him.
Yup sometimes i forget to lock my truck

 

I guess someone could look at it like that but I personally don't.

 

Most modern aftermarket car alarms are code hopping and even if the code is captured the code changes every time it is used.