2019 taco new license plates stolen last night

Yep,.. somone stole both my plates last night. Reported to police for sure so I can get new ones for a small fee. But.. I want to put some theft proof license plate fasteners on now.. anyone here have some recommendations or suggestions ?

thanks

 

I live in Ca where crime is crazy high and havent seen plates being stolen, just reg stickers off them. Where do you live? I probably need to look into tamper resistant plate bolts as well.

 

I have seen license plate kits at AutoZone that had tamperproof hardware, it would slow a thief down.

 

What is your plate number so we can look out for it? Probably will get used in commission of a crime now.

 

I live in CO I appreciate the question but I don't want to put the plate number out there for security reasons.. More than likely it will be used nefariously. Really sucks though because of covid I have to call
on a weekday and make and appointment to get to a person to get new plates. I'm going to bolt the damn things on next time with tamper proof bolts and nuts. Also installing a camera on my garage to watch the driveway. I have too much stuff in my double car garage to get both vehicles in there at night.. like a motorcycle and wood working tools.

 

Also can anyone tell me if there is a metal flap in the gas inlet tube.. mine appears like just a tube a hole no flap. I havn't had the truck very long.

 

Use some ‘security torx’ style bolts and then fill them with clear silicone after the plates are installed. Cheap and easy. Definitely not 100% theft proof but it’ll make the thief move on to easier pickin’s....

 

No metal flap on mine either..

 

Thanks bro ..

 

Stealing a license plate is so useless imo. Might as well steal the entire vehicle which I usually do

 

I bolted my license plate holder to the truck with four bolts and nuts and the license plate is also bolt and nut secured too. The back is the same. If someone want my license plates. They are going to have to take the bumper or start cutting.

 

hi Mike can you show me how you did that ? Is your taco 3rd gen? Stock bumpers?

 

After adhering stickers to plate run a razor blade through it a few times so when they peel it off it comes off in pieces.....been down this road once

 

This.

girlfriend’s family owns a dealership and she was always having the dealer tags stolen off of her cars. Changed the fastener to a T25 Security Torx and never had an issue again.

 

What you don’t see is behind the plate there are bolts and nuts on the holder Open the hood, reach you arms under the grill and nut the bolt and tighten where the bumper reinforcement bar is.
the rear is only bolt and nut secured on the top but the bolt goes through to the metal and lock nutted on.

going to take some time to remove the front plate but the rear plate is permanently attached to the bumper.

 

Thanks Mike I saw that the back screws (stock) pass through a solid metal part behind the plastic facade.. So I have the bad figured out.. My 2019 taco has a plate mount on the front with two bolts.. did you just take that off and then mount the plate in its place?

 

Yeah. Bought it at autozone. It has several spots where you can make holes for the bolt and nut. I already had two holes from the dealer what’s another two holes.

 

I just assumed police officers scan plates from their vehicles in traffic? I’ve even seen a vehicle with multiple cameras cruising my work’s parking lot during lunch(not google- they were plate-high mounted front/back/sides).

I guess my point is that it doesn’t seem like a good racket, but thieves usually aren’t that smart. More of just an inconvenience to honest folks.

 

Just don't use plates?

 

Correct. The police have cameras that use optical character recognition to scan plates. The computer runs the plate against a database looking for open citations, warrants, etc. no correlation to the actual vehicle.
If a thief put a “good” plate on a stolen car it lessens the chance of getting stopped.
Best one can do is report the stolen plate right away.