Go Man Go Stolen

[AlleyCat]

I moved here in 95. My late father, republican, was missle systems manager for Hughes in CA. All missles were produced in Tucson. So they moved to Tucson. Now it’s Raytheon. I moved there two years after they moved there. I’m ten minutes south of biosphere 2. Not all Californians are bad. But there are enough of them.

 

[Speedy!]

@Reillyrob yeah I touch base with the primary detective about once a month. I'll just say the deck is stacked against both the police and law abiding citizens. I don't wanna say too much on an open forum but it's very active.

@fumanchu182 thieves read forums too. That's the reason I've not mentioned what I did to mine to prevent starting it. No sense helping them

@Bowlerguy92 IGLA seems to be the most recommended. I've also checked with a local installer and there's an "anti carjack" function available as well. If car is running and you put it in park and open the door, when the door is closed it will ask for your pin code in a few seconds. If it's not correctly entered the car shuts down 1200 feet (300 meters) from when the door closed and when the car is below 30mph. I asked if that distance could be shortened and installer said no, it's a safety thing so you're not standing next to the car jackers when the car shuts off. I wanted closer so I could better deal with the situation without having to sprint after the car.

There's another add on you can get where the systems notify you via push notifications like a text to your phone when the alarm is tripped. I think there's a monthly fee for that one.

Since mine was stolen 3 other people I know have had theirs taken as well and another with a kill switch has had his window broken SIX times where they tried to take it. At that point I'm sleeping in the car.

In one of these 3 situations the thief was driving the car around like it was his. He even paid a door man at a club to let him park it up front because "it has a broken window". Crazy. He actually recovered the car, minor damage and bald rear tires.

 

[Speedy!]

@GNBRETT I meant to comment on the Airtag thing. We have Android phones, I don't do Apple AT ALL but I did look in to the Airtags and tested them against the Android Tile.

I got an old Iphone for basically free, no service plan just connected it to wifi. Got some Airtags for like $20 each, cut the speaker out of them so they won't make any sounds.

I put a tile and an Airtag in each of our vehicles and tested for a week. I was able to track our cars all over town no problem with the Airtags. Tile didn't get enough updates to be meaningful.

We now have Airtags in all our cars, hidden deep in them like removed carpet and upholstery deep, with speakers removed. However for like $5/mo you can get a GPS tracker with a SIM card that's real time tracking through an app. I found a tracker that is battery powered and you can hide in the car somewhere and run wires to the battery to keep the GPS battery charged. I think the GPS was like $40 so a cheap and easy solution and more robust than Airtags.

Yes, with any phone you can "scan" and it'll tell you there's a foreign Airtag in your vicinity and you can enable a tone. With the speaker removed the Airtag will remain silent. Maybe the thief takes time to try to find it, maybe not. Maybe them knowing one's in the car is enough for them to look for another target. Who knows.

I'll add, my buddy's Trackhawk was stolen. He had an Airtag in it and was able to locate the vehicle pretty quickly/easily. However the police would not come when he was at the location. At that point it's how far you wanna take things I guess. Maybe call the cops and tell them you've located your stolen car and they have 15 minutes to show up before you go knock on the door demanding it back and see what happens.

 

[2ndgen]

I'll have to check the bible ("Self-Defense Laws of All 50 States" by Mitch Vilos) about other states, but at least in Utah:
* it's 100% legal to apply deadly force to stop a felony in progress... of which both car theft and possession of a stolen car are
* you can apply any force up to but not including deadly force to apprehend someone fleeing after committing a felony--so if they try to run you can still beat them to within an inch of their life while waiting for the cops to come hook them up

 

[AlleyCat]

Utah has good 👍 laws!

 

[Speedy!]

I looked up on TN law and it's a little more complicated. TN has stand your ground. Means you don't have to try to retreat if someone is threatening you and if you're in fear of serious bodily injury you can use deadly force. Will be a field day for attorneys if the bad guy isn't armed though.

In your home there is castle doctrine which states it is assumed if someone enters your home un-invited they intend serious bodily injury and lethal force is legal in that case. Then they added language that this extends to your automobile and a 21 foot perimeter of the vehicle. So like a car jacking.

I don't think in TN you can take action if the person flees which is BS IMO. There's a law that's in "process" to add lethal force to protect property but it's been stagnant since 2021 I think.

 

[Smitty]

Blows my mind the level to which the car was stripped. Obviously no 2 cent operation. Makes me sick. Hopefully the cops will be able to crash their little party eventually and put them away for a long time. Good luck @Speedy! in whatever you decide to do.

 

[GNBRETT]

If one REALLY wants to get their car back then LoJack is their best bet imo. BUT....... Remember, the ONLY way LoJack can be activated is if a Police officer or dispatcher enter it into NCIC. (National Crime Information Computer).

The downside to that is uve already reported ur car STOLEN and now have a stolen recovery for life and I can tell u with 100% certainty that will DESTROY the value of any Hellcat or Trackhawk even if it was only taken for an hour thats fact! In fact, when I was searching for a DD Trackhawk my search engine excluded stolen recovered Trackhawks. They beat the fuck out of them!

LoJack will get ur shit back fast! Anytime Ive ever had a LoJack hit we would find the car within minutes yes minutes! Some took off, some left it abandoned and some crashed but once we got a hit there is no hiding. Remember, LoJack is RADIO based not satellite based so there is no hiding. And the best thing about LoJack is its a one-time fee with no monthly payments.

GPS is what I would use if my shit ever got stolen. If within a day I could not locate it I would make a Police report and activate LoJack before it was stripped. I still cant wrap my head around how much they took I mean it was like the car was ready for paint at the factory smfh.

Im not saying Airtags are totally worthless cause every single thing u can add will help but there are far better option that cost peanuts! Hard wiring the GPS is the best bet imo cause u can hide it way up under the dash or even in the trunk. Mine is located behind my front bumper good look getting to that lol.....

Really sorry those animals took ur shit I know u had a lot of time and money into that car and it was the star of ur Youtube channel just sux but im sure it will never happen to u again now.

Hopefully ppl seeing this thread will learn that anyone anywhere is subject to get their Dodge stolen and now get a kill switch or two.....

@GNBRETT I meant to comment on the Airtag thing. We have Android phones, I don't do Apple AT ALL but I did look in to the Airtags and tested them against the Android Tile.

I got an old Iphone for basically free, no service plan just connected it to wifi. Got some Airtags for like $20 each, cut the speaker out of them so they won't make any sounds.

I put a tile and an Airtag in each of our vehicles and tested for a week. I was able to track our cars all over town no problem with the Airtags. Tile didn't get enough updates to be meaningful.

We now have Airtags in all our cars, hidden deep in them like removed carpet and upholstery deep, with speakers removed. However for like $5/mo you can get a GPS tracker with a SIM card that's real time tracking through an app. I found a tracker that is battery powered and you can hide in the car somewhere and run wires to the battery to keep the GPS battery charged. I think the GPS was like $40 so a cheap and easy solution and more robust than Airtags.

Yes, with any phone you can "scan" and it'll tell you there's a foreign Airtag in your vicinity and you can enable a tone. With the speaker removed the Airtag will remain silent. Maybe the thief takes time to try to find it, maybe not. Maybe them knowing one's in the car is enough for them to look for another target. Who knows.

I'll add, my buddy's Trackhawk was stolen. He had an Airtag in it and was able to locate the vehicle pretty quickly/easily. However the police would not come when he was at the location. At that point it's how far you wanna take things I guess. Maybe call the cops and tell them you've located your stolen car and they have 15 minutes to show up before you go knock on the door demanding it back and see what happens.

 

[TrackDay]

@GNBRETT I'm not a kill switch guy. I'm too OCD to cut up factory wiring and finding the right plug types to make it plug and play is very expensive or impossible. Plug and play would be a requirement for me to do it. Having said that, I had things I did to prevent the car from being started that didn't require any wires to be cut and took about 30 seconds, I just didn't do it. I literally thought about it as I pulled in the parking spot but said "nah it's 8am on a Wed with cops across the street it'll be fine". I'd do an immobilizer over a kill switch if I could go back in time and warn myself.

Look up Cat Creations. They have a plug and play kill switch. I know you now prefer an immobilizer, but I don't like the idea of someone else doing an install and me not being able to know how to uninstall if I so choose at a later date, or not being able to get in and disable it if something goes wrong and it leaves me stranded.
There is a new dash camera available that uses radar to send you a phone notification if someone walks up to your car and sends the video to online storage as well. Requires a monthly data plan, but it's cheap. The camera is not super cheap but I really like the idea of being able to check on my car and get a warning that someone is looking in the window, looks like they may smash my window, etc.
A little more about it, but there are other videos too -

I like an alarm system too, like Compustar, with a GPS tracker like Drone Mobile.
My car really means a lot to me, like yours did Speedy. I can not replace what I've put into it, or the sentimental value of finally getting a modern version of the car I saw across the street as a little kid.