truck stolen!!

Down south, then back north?

 

Chop shop

 

Drug mule?

 

... ^^^ ... That's what I was thinking ... stolen for ... "drug-delivery-mobile" ...
.

 

yes happens more than you think.

 

But I still want to know how they didn't break the column.

 

They could cut a key by the VIN at the dealership I am pretty sure.

Not sure about the immobilizer, although there was a post on here somewhere about someone who lost their keys and had a locksmith plug in a computer and reset the immobilizer to use the new key he had cut.

It's all possible with the correct set of tools and the required knowledge. That is supposedly closely guarded, but there are bad people in every business.

 

At the Motorcycle dealership where I live a bunch of the service department people got arrested. You would take your bike in to get serviced than while your bike is being serviced they would make a copy of your key. And since you purchased your bike there they had your address. They would try to hit people that lived in apartments because it was less likely that you kept your bike in a garage. Next morning you wake up and your bike is gone and in pieces on craigs list. You have no idea what happened.

So its possible that something like that happened to you.

 

I've lost my key out surfing one time and I was totally screwed. Luckily I had AAA and they sent a locksmith out to help me (4 hours later at around 11pm and I was soaking wet and cold - save that story for another time lol). Any way, the guy was able to create a key for me but I have to say, it took him a long time (relatively speaking). So, they would have had to maybe drive up and get the VIN, then create the key and maybe come back? A lot of work for a joy ride and making the extra key is expensive even for the locksmith. He told me whatever the machine they were using was sick expensive (don't remember the number).

In summary, if they had all this equipment, they must have used the Taco to run drugs or something to make it profitable and worth the risk. That's fing scary.

This seems like a real likely scenario too. Also, they could hit the trucks and probably steal a lot of things like GPS's or whatever left in them. What's really unsettling to me is that a lot of people keep their garage door openers in their trucks which would make it super easy, in some houses, to break in through the garage...

Criminals are so fk'd up...

 

So in conclusion, we are speculating that they paid a good amount of money to get a new key with immobilizer and for a new window. They paid for gas for 8k miles and drove it around undetected for a month. And the insurance company wanted to wait and wait for it to be found.

amirite?

 

That is crazy. Glad you have it back, but I would be so bothered and curious about how they stole it and then what they did with/in it. 8k miles!! And they obviously knew what they were doing.

 

And they know where it is, have a key and what happens when they 'need' a truck again?

Might want to invest in a theft recovery system...

 

They probably had plates to put on it that came back clean and matched the description. I know that alot of police cars around here are outfitted with cameras that automatically run the plates of the vehicles around them. Wait for a bad reg or an outstanding warrant on the owner.
I would imagine in 8k miles they would have passed a couple of these and had the plates run!

 

Given the mileage, I agree with other posters the truck was likely used to move drugs.
My thought on the theft is that whatever damage done during the initial hotwire or whatever was probably repaired, just like the window. It looks like nothing happened inside now, probably because they replaced those parts.

Definite consideration to the VIN new key theory too. I would like to see the police report, did they have another key in the ignition when it was confiscated? Was it running without the key ???


BTW, Fuck insurance companies. You shoulda already had a new truck.

 

YUPP

 

Damn I'd make a terrible criminal, I wouldn't have thought of any of these things. But I am happy I am not one, I'd do everyone else trying to live a clean life a favor and blow my f'ing head off...

 

And that's why I don't keep anything in the truck with my address on it and lock the door going into the garage. I was told to do that back in the '90s during work training by the State Police when a lot of vehicles were being broken into, their garage door remotes taken, and their address retrieved from documents in the vehicle (registration, tire warranty paperwork, etc). First thing I do when I get my registration is cut out the address. Same thing when I bought my tires and got the warranty paperwork.

 

I don't keep registration paperwork in the vehicle at all. I don't use the remote either (in fact, I leave my opener in vacation mode which means the remote doesn't work). You could copy the registration and redact the address if necessary-in CA, the only requirement is to show the registration or a copy of it.

Something else to remember. It's not hard to open a garage door. All someone needs to do is shove a coat hanger through the top of the door, hook the emergency release and yank. Viola! Open door. Mine is wired shut. If you don't believe me, Google it. There are a bunch of videos on how to do it

 

Ya I use a PO Box on mine for that exact reason. I wonder what the criminals would think if everyone turned criminal and just went after each other in total chaos. Probably make them wish there were honest people in the world...

 

The same concept with vehicle GPS systems. Never put your own address as "Home". Put in some other random address a mile or so away from your house so that you get mapped how to get to the area rather than to your house.