1988 Toyota Pickup - Stolen

glad to see it is in such nice shape and not beat up.

But why did it cost you so much money to get it out of the impound?

 

Sounds like a better than excellent outcome

 

Just read through the thread, very happy to hear you got it back, and in decent shape. People like that are trash, I'm glad they didn't treat your truck like that.

 

The tow was $240 cause they had to flatbed it, then some fees and $67/day. They recovered it on Tuesday and I was out of town until last night so I had to let it sit for 4 days unfortunately. Its a frustrating situation being stuck with the bill, since It wasn't in there because of my negligence, not really sure that there is any way around it though.

 

I'm glad you got your truck back...The bill definitely sucks but now that you got your truck back you can put all that bad stuff behind you. Things could've been a lot worse for you.

 

Had a motorcycle stolen once. They found it and even though I picked it up within an hour of the PD's calling. I paid a day's storage and the tow fee. They were nice enough to waive the after hours pickup fee--but no one yields the fees. Keep track of them though. If they catch the thieves, you can try and get the money back via the Victim's and Witness's fund-unlikely but worth a try. If you are insured, ask your insurance company.

 

So glad to hear the thieves were gentle on her

 

Glad you were able to recover it in fairly good condition

 

Best security upgrade is motion sensor attached to a shotgun with 00 buck shot and a 400 watt electrical field on the doors.

 

Holy shit, dude, you got so lucky! Congrats!

 

Damn, so happy for the recovery, it's a beautiful truck and I wish it never happened to ya. Lucky it wasn't on the other side of the border!

 

So here's my idea, he has a manual truck and coming up with a kill switch that is really hard to find and is not a liability to the truck while it's running is the goal.

It's an 88, not sure if it's a distributor or just and ignition module but here goes.

With a manual, just disabling the starter coil won't work as the truck can still be push started. So I am thinking of tracking down part of the ignition system, the power to the ignition coil maybe? Interrupt that circuit, install a suitably amped relay and run a wire into the cab for a switch? Ideas? has to be something that is A: Not easy to see and B: Not quick and easy to bypass.
With the switch my original idea with an automatic and interrupting the starter coil is to install a magnetic switch in the center console on my 2nd gen underneath the coin tray. In order to start the truck you would have to put a magnet in the coin tray to close the circuit on the switch. Problem is that he has a manual and that won't work. The other problem is that if you interrupt the ignition coil, the magnet must stay in place for the truck to run and the coin tray idea doesn't sound like the best way to do this. It would have to be something where the magnet is held in place until you pull it out. IDK, a discreet slot of some kind? Something, either way, the idea is that it would be a switch but not the type of switch a thief might look for and if the switch itself is mounted in a fairly inaccessible place then it will be pretty hard to find with out tearing the dash apart which won't happen because who in hell would think of looking for a magnetic switch, mounted under the speedo bezel that is tapped into the ignition circuit? I'm thinking that if a thief can't get the truck started under a minute or two tops, he's walking away.

 

Oh man, that's fantastic! Sorry about the fees, but that's so great that you were able to get it back with minimal damages.
So odd that the thieves would put on all the weird tires/wheels. Such a mix!

 

I don't want to quote the whole reply but Chris that is a great idea. As someone with limited funds too I'm sure this is mentally and financially devastating. If the TW family could only get ahold of these folks, there would be blood!!!

 

I agree And such a nice truck too

 

Knew it would be A+B towing.

It's a independently owned tow/recovery service but they have a contract with the city so they can charge whatever they want and nothing can be done for it.

They are such jerks, I always had a problem with them every time I had to call them to uphold the rest of their contract (Tow/Recover city and police vehicles). The city doesn't have it's own impound yard.

 

fuel pump kill switch is easiest fix on old manual cars. Even if you bump start it the car would grumble maybe one time and starve, even if hotwired. You simply put a fog lamp switch or something that doesn't even resemble anything important. You could put it in dash, under seat, even in plain sight if you do a small discreet one. Interrupt one wire, and its done.

 

hmmmm, that's not a bad idea

 

some great ideas!

I was thinking, for the fuel pump cutoff, get maybe 6, 3 way switches in a row, and make some special combination of positions that all 6 have to be in for the circuit to complete?? Would be pretty funny too every time you get back in, you would feel like your powering up Doc Browns DeLorean.

 

lol, either way, I think we could figure out a way to make it so that you and only you can make that truck move