Attempted theft in Canoga Park, CA

[manitoufs]

My wife was returning to the Ty at the Fallbrook Mall near the Mervyns today. As she approached the truck there was a seedy looking white guy hanging around it looking in the blackout windows. He tried the door (locked) and raised his hand and called someone on his cell phone.

As my wife got closer he apparently realized that she was the owner. He looked at her, shrugged his shoulders and jumped into an older red Jap car that was coming over being driven by an Afro-American. They whipped out of the lot. She didn't get any better discriptions and no plate numbers.

West Valley owners beware.

 

[Mephisto]

thanks for the warning george!!!
my new job is in canoga park, so ill be sure to be extra careful. i got a pager thingy, those goes with my alarm, so if the car alarm goes off i get paged, and i know to run out to my truck ready to bust some heads!

i might swing by cruisers tomorrow night after work, since its right down the street, and see if theres any sy/ty'rs there. hey george next time ya go for an early morning cruise let me know, i still owe ya some dough for the fan and the conrad.

 

[ParTyBoy]

Appears as if thefts of SyTy are quite commonplace is Canoga Park... Andrew's was stolen...

 

[manitoufs]

As I understand, Andrew's was grabbed right out of his alarmed garage (his garage is on an alley) with a dog present. Sounded like an inside job.

Mine looks like an fairly organized team. The getaway car was an older CRX type with faded red paint. The white guy may have been hispanic - slight build, a wispy goatee and with no obvious gang features. The getaway car was backed into a nearby parking slot and had no front plate.

I am definitely upgrading the alarm and accelerating my Lo-Jack tuneup. There is another thread going in the Mods forum dealing with alarms. It looks like there are some good options out there.

 

[Syclone#1992]

Some people said there was a way to diable the fuel pump so they would only get a couple of feet before the truck stopped.

 

[JustBeachin]

Brian F. DID get his Ty stolen at Del Amo Mall in Torrance, CA. Right in front of a restaurant. He came out and found a pile of glass. Fortunately, he did get his back.

If you think about it, a mall makes a great auto shopping mall for car thieves. My wife can't figure out why I don't wanna take my truck to the movies, or to the mall when we go out.!?!

 

[tyndago]

A mall is an easy place to steal a car. Lots of cars get stolen in malls....

Most cars - if the thief knows them are easy to get into...

I am not a thief but I think it pays to know what they know in order to help prevent thefts.

Most alarms are very easy to disable. Most are stuffed up on the left side of the dash...pay the extra money - get it mounted under the seat or in the back.... Most alarms dont have hood locks.

What they will do is this - get in... I can think of 3 ways I can get into a Sy/Ty in about 30 seconds from the door... one way will leave no - none - marks. There is also a way to get in from the hatch...

Get in - alarm goes off - pop the hood - find the alarm and yank the wires. Most sirens are very easy to find... I buried my siren in my engine compartment - ran the wires with the factory wires... taped them up to look like factory. I also had a backup siren that sounds if power is cut.

Once the alarm is disabled - most thieves crack the column - its plastic on most GM's and your car is gone.......

I recommmend a cover for the column... I have also seen the cover for the gearshift... but there is a way to defeat this fairly quickly - but the harder you make it the more likely your car will still be parked there...

Thats it- gone - in less than 60 seconds - hey its not just a movie...

 

[Opleezz]

Fuel shutoff is a good idea, if your car is gone go take a little run down the street and get ready to catch someone in your car, my s-10 had it and the only place they got was back about 10 feet and it died, so i know they work good..

 

[manitoufs]

Nice post Sean -
I suppose you could get in the habit of pulling the ecm-b fuse too. Come to think of it, maybe a hidden remote switch for the ecm-b circuit would be helpful.

I like the idea of a remote with different levels of alarm (DEI). At least it gives you a chance to do the 911 thing and activate Lo-Jack.

 

[ROSEDOGGYDOG]

I posted this before

http://www.powerlock.com/

 

[JimmyM]

The main thing that I like about my Ultimate chip is the anti-theft feature.Those punks aren't getting my shit unless they bring a rollback :grin:

 

[MattGE]

all this is making me not want to go back to the US. Thanks for the tips Tyndago. Isn't there a way to short the alarm through the parking lights also?

 

[tyndago]

Shorting the alarm though the parking lights... it depends on the alarm.

A lot of "OLD" alarms had a output for flashing lights... if this output wasn't fused...then yes you could kill the alarm this way...

But still the easiest way is to just let the thing go off - pop the hood and kill the siren . Then you have as much time as you want to mess with it...

Also depends on the alarm - starter kill if it fails safe , or fails open....

I would also say the Ultimate set on security would screw most thiefs up...

If I had time - I could disable the security feature on the Ultimate also...if I had time - and I wanted to steal the truck.... but 99.99% of the people would not figure out how to bypass this.... I think about things like this.... because like I said before - the way to defeat a thief is to think like one...

If I had time.... I could kill any alarm.... I just need time - which is not what most people in a mall parking lot have... make it harder - and they will not end up with your truck...

 

[tyndago]

Another thing - that I have messed with people with before... I showed a few people at the nationals this.... maybe I sholdnt put it out - but - its not a normal thing to check...

In a Typhoon... above the license plate and between the roll pan and tailgate is enough room to reach in there...

In there is the connector to the fuel pump in the tank.... disconnect this - and the truck will not run.... no power to the fuel pump. It may start... but it will not run for long.

Its pretty easy to do... only takes a few seconds...

I used it to mess with a couple people at the nationals....

But you could use it as a good anti- theft...

Other things - but mostly if you are leaving the truck somewhere for a while - pull the coil wire - its small - but I have heard of some thiefs carrying coil wires...

Pulling the ECMB fuse would work... - Or I used to pull the chip out of my Syclone if I had to leave it for a weekend outside...

 

[Mephisto]

its funny, a few days after george posts what happend. today i come out of my work on my lunch break, and see some guy checkin out my truck. so i stop walkin toward it, and just watch him. he starts walkin around it, then tries to look in through the window. as soon as that happens i hit the button on my alarm, and start the truck. the guy freaks out since he cant see anyone inside the truck, and he starts walkin away from it. i come walkin up to my truck as he's walkin away, and say "hey!!! can i help with something there chief?" he turns around acting nervous and just keeps on walkin.

gotta love the beauty of the remote start. thats not the first time its come in handy. i was gettin donuts before work one time, and i had started my truck with the remote, while i was still in the donut shop. just as im leaving, i see a homeless guy come up to my truck and start knockin on the window, thinkin someone was inside, so he could try and get change. then he tried to see in the window, and thats when i hit the panic button on the alarm, and it goes off. the homeless guy got spooked and took off! haha

so the remote start feature serves more than one purpose of warming your car up for you in the winter time :grin:

 

[Qwikgmc]

Ive got a faded red crx... I better check its still there,

That was lucky a few more seconds later youd be ty-less

I never leave my truck where i cant see it
nearly every time i take it somewhere
theres someone looking at it,under it, inside it, just because there curious or never seen one before, id hate to know what was happening when i cant keep an eye on it,
scary stuff

Connor

 

[bdubb]

On 2002-03-09 17:34, tyndago wrote:
Another thing - that I have messed with people with before... I showed a few people at the nationals this.... maybe I sholdnt put it out - but - its not a normal thing to check...

In a Typhoon... above the license plate and between the roll pan and tailgate is enough room to reach in there...

In there is the connector to the fuel pump in the tank.... disconnect this - and the truck will not run.... no power to the fuel pump. It may start... but it will not run for long.

Its pretty easy to do... only takes a few seconds...

I used it to mess with a couple people at the nationals....

But you could use it as a good anti- theft...

man some ASSHOLE sabotage sombodies typhoon at the great lakes bbq doing this.

 

[tyndago]

Really..... I would hate to think that someone did this to someone else as a prank....

Oh wait... actually I did it to some people...

But besides that - it can make the truck hard to steal...

Bury those sirens...... put them under the battery tray.... or in the fenderwell....or under the oil filter.....

 

[audiophile]

I think there should be an alarm where you can program your own message inot it with your own voice. Imagine trying to steal a car and the alarm starts screaming "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU BASTARD! TRY TO GET A DECENT LIFE AND BUY ONE YOURSELF IF YOU WANT ONE THAT BAD!"

i know i wouldn't fuck with it.

and have the backup alarm say "oh hell no, i know your not still here trying to steal me!, etc..."

 

[SYO237]

just a thought...posting on how tips you can do on HOW NOT to get your truck stolen is kinda defeating the purpose right?

anyhow...


used to work at a restaurant... i parked my truck WAAAAAAAAYY out in the parking lot by itself...no one near it....however, from my little window from the kitchen, i could see out the front doors of the restaurant to my truck...

amazing how many times a day i would see a car pull up to the truck and someone get out.... many times i was out in the parking lot yelling across the lot for the jerk to step away from my truck...

i would constantly have people walk up to me knowing i was a sy/ty nut and tell me they know of a syclone sitting way out in the front of publix in the parking lot...

"well, no sh!t? a syclone? really?"

it got so out of hand to where i had to ask permission to park behind the restaurant to hide the truck (the cooks/waitresses were always outside smoking, etc.)



then there is the story of the sy down in south FL where the owner walks out of his house only to see some people PUSHING it down the road with another car.... called the cops, truck was recovered over a month later...raped and torn to shreds.
truck went to auction... new owner contacted me...told him the story..he took apart the truck only to find dirt packed in the engine and tranny... the truck went back to auction a few days later :smile:


and posting for warren....

lojack on his truck... walks out of his apartment... glass on the ground where his truck was... calls the cops.

they locate his truck with lojack and decide to stake it out... 2 guys walk out..ones wearing warrens school jacket (canadian college). cops come in and arrest the guy... he trys to explain how its his jacket...

hmm....canadian college, yet the guy is puerto rican/mexican/swahili (whatever, he wasnt canadian, put it that way).

warren gets his truck back and a shirt that reads:

"i got it back with lojack"

he wears it proudly.