Theif came back to steal my truck - key fob question

OP, you are lucky they did not know how to use the FOB with a dead battery. Holding the FOB against the Push To Start button will start the truck.

Garage sounds like a great idea. Protects against theft and your paint will thank you for keeping it out of the San Diego sun.

One more tip. I never leave my garage door remote in my truck when it is away from home.

 

That’s brings me back to my old Civic/Integra days.

 

@SanDog11

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/my-22-mt-trd-or-was-stolen.766468/#post-27354490

 

I would throw a hidden kill switch in it, I saw an interesting one someone made on here where it’s wired into a factory dash button. I think it was wired so you had to hold down the auto high beams dash button to start the car.

 

Reverse it, get an AirTag of your own with a pelican case. Pull one of your tail lights and stick it on the backside of where your tail light mounts. It won’t identify that’s it’s tracking someone with an iPhone (Too far for someone riding in the cab), but ping off other iPhones walking by to locate your truck in case it does get stolen. Works great, cheap and gives you another avenue to possibly locate it so the police can get your truck back if it’s ever stolen.

 

I heard that street justice is a good fix.

 

THIS. Plus you'll get your fob back. I used one of those things to catch a home invasion happening to my neighbor. Lucky for him it went off on his way out, so I didn't catch him myself, but the K9 got him later and perp is now in prison.

 

That's interesting.. I thought it would ping your phone if you were near one for too long. Didn't realize you had to be within say 10 feet of it.

 

Sorry to hear this op! But the garage will solve this for now. I suggest you buy a tech stream dongle and the $50 service to reset all your keys yourself or go to the dealership and have them reset your leftover fob. Depends on how much your stealership charges (it may all just be the same price). I purchased a lexus card key and reset all my fobs since the card key was used and the process was pretty easy. I also leave my spares hanging in my house inside of faraday pouches I bought on Amazon and they do work. No need for a microwave. lol My Card key is inside my phone cover, which is also a semi faraday/rfid block (it doesn't work until I'm right up on the handle).

 

uhhhh...

so instead he would have made a thread about how he left the key in the truck and now the thief has a key to open and start his truck.

 

Couple things to try:
contact insurance- get your steering wheel replaced, key fob replaced, and truck reprogrammed to new fob codes/ID's
OR
Keep trying small things to deter them from getting it; but you just subject your truck and/or yourself to catching collateral damage when they come back for it each time.

Either direction you go, you don't have to let us know the solution. Many would be extremely surprised how much a single person could find out about you and your life based off 1 sticker on your truck, or anything else they may have taken from inside your truck. Not trying to instill fear, but you'd be smart to assume they know where you and your truck is at all times; they've obviously hit it multiple times. It goes to show there's not much that's going to stop them from getting what they want. Go ahead and eat the cost of your insurance deductible; its cheaper than having to find another truck, especially in this current market.

 

lol his insurance company will not pay to have his truck reprogrammed.

 

I'd assume when you make a vandalism/stolen property claim, they replace the stolen property. Given that the stolen property was a key fob to the truck, I think it'd be in their best interest that they'd replace it with a different ID fob. But lets say they don't; he gets his wheel fixed, a new fob, and pays someone else a few $ to use techstream.

If I were the insurance company, I'd pay to have the new fob programmed verses paying for an entire stolen truck.

Edit: Obviously may not be the best avenue to take if he has a $1k deductible or something else super high.

 

You can do it yourself. Use Tomskeys and you can get a new key, program it and delete any that you arent using from the system.

I did it and it was a piece of cake.

I even accidentally sent the new keyfob I bought from him through the washer AND dryer. Afterworks still works fine.

 

99.999999% of insurance policies do not cover things that aren't bolted down, so you leave your macbook in there and they get it... nope.

now he might be able to file a claim for property through homeowners but that's going to be a lot of cash because those deductibles are high.

honestly if he just buys a new key fob and takes it to the dealer to have the new fob programmed they should be able to just overwrite the stolen one with the new one in one shot. ...annd he shoulda done this before they came back with a hacksaw, but that's just me.

 

When a reprogram is done, the first step is erasing all the fobs except for the one present.

Next they add back the fobs you want to use. They have to all be present to be added back.

 

Tom's Key has a video on the process, assuming you have at least one FOB that works...

You need one working FOB, and you can teach your truck to unlearn all the other ones but the one you put in front of the start/stop button.

But remember, they have your fob. I assume they have the emergency key that goes with it. So even if your truck is taught to ignore the stolen fob for starting, they can still get into your truck with the emergency key, patch in, and drive away in no time. A garage isn't going to solve all your problems. They could bury an apple pod tracing thing somewhere and just take it when you're out and about... You'll need to rekey physical access (all the manual locks) to the truck.

 

Just curious, what’s it look like where they tried to cut the steering wheel

 

This is pretty much my point. OP needs a police report. He has a stolen/vandalized (and recovered) truck. Time for insurance to rekey the entire thing.

Thats dramatic, I understand; the point is insurance can file it in whatever way they need to in order for the needs to be met.

 

I assume your spare key fob also has the "hidden" physical key in it... you may want to rekey the door and tailgate locks too (not just reprogram the truck/fob)... unless you want your truck to constantly get prowled.