So we had 2 cars stolen from the parking lot where I work in the past week and the neighborhood is quite suspect for this activity. So my questions are, how hard is it to steal our 4runner's? The two cars stolen were a '18 GMC Denali and a '96 Mercedes sedan. My second question is, what's the best way to prevent the theft of my 4runner without going crazy in the investment. I saw a fuel pump kill switch that might work and a battery kill switch. What ideas do you have or have used?

I was surprised to hear talk about the effectiveness of using The Club. It is a low tech solution that has been around forever but apparently some think it is still worth the trouble to place on your steering wheel.

When I had my Grand National I bought an electrical device that was wired into the ignition switch and to complete the starting circuit you attached a wire to the back of any screw you could touch while seated in the drivers seat. Touching the screw head while turning the key would allow the car to start. I took it out when I sold the car, and I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere. Even if I did find it, I'm pretty sure I would not attempt using it on any modern car with all the complicated electrical systems.

buy a sprint booster. It has an immobilizer feature that locks out your pedal.

It's reversible, and its plug and play. I believe it took me 15 minutes to install it. ALot of people on this forum use it to mess with their throttle sensitivity, but not many people are aware it has a built in immobilizer.

It doesn't say much on their website about that option. Do you know how it works, like the process of immobilizing it each time when I park? Could they figure it out if in the car?

you have to manually turn it on and off. It requires a 3 pin that you toggle through the buttons. It's basically like a valet switch. I use it when I do long term parking.

Nobody is going to figure it out, unless they know what it is. If you remove the device, it will unlock the pedal. So basically, install it somewhere less conspicuous (the unit is the size of a quarter), so its really easy to hide.

So sprint booster advertises it as a "pedal lock". Sorry, i got it confused with immobilizer.

Thanks for the advice. I just bought one. I like how I can use it like the pedal commander to slightly boost up the pedal sensitivity and also have a use for the pedal lock out feature.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amber-c...?skuId=6259837

Sucks that people are so bold to steal a car from a work parking lot. Sprint Booster would at least delay the thief probably long enough to where they would give up. The negative is, would suck to use that kill function every day at work.

Every little thing you can do to delay the thieves improves your chances. The club, sprint booster lockout, etc....The only problem with all of these devices and alarms is that many thieves simply flatbed your car away. I actually watched a repo of a coworker’s car a couple of years ago. She was a real piece of work that made good money but simply refused to pay her bills and openly bragged about it. She laughed about how she bought a new Grand Cherokee and stopped making the payments. She would hide the car at different friends’ houses to avoid repossession. She was quite proud of herself. She called us suckers for paying our bills. One day the repo company called the office and asked if she was working. Someone was more than happy to give her up. We knew they were coming. We saw the flatbed screaming down the hill. They drove through the lot until they found her Grand Cherokee. NO EXAGGERATION.....they backed up to it, one guy jumped out, hooked a chain to the front axle while the other guy lowered the bed, they dragged it onto the flat bed and took off while the flat bed was still raising back up......total time.....45 seconds!!! I timed it!!! It was a thing of beauty. Almost as much fun as when she went out to the lot to go to lunch and realized her car had been repoed. You should have seen the tears. Anyway....how do you defend against something like that??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

People working there arent going to say they were repossessed but they most likely were.

#1: Buy Insurance, forget about it. That's your best bet.

After that - GPS tracker is a good idea. Lots of options. Combine with a black gun and you can have yourself a time.

For theft prevention electronics - I don't like easy kill switches. I prefer to wire in a short circuit. So if the the switch is not in the proper position and an attempt to start is made - it short circuits a fuse that is necessary to provide power to a critical component. That way they can search, find the kill switch, and it still won't work. That's how my FJ40 is setup. If you don't have the dash switches in a specific combination of settings, fuse blows in the distributor due to a direct short. They won't get it running again after that for a while just because it's really hard to track down and figure out. But if I screw up - takes 2 seconds to fix.

Good luck. Just buy insurance and forget about the rest. Or find somewhere safer to park.

GPS tracker, that way you can call them and say: "If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

Trunk Monkey!

YouTube

Insurance and a hidden kill switch...