No longer a 4 Runner owner

billnourse

billnourse

New member
While visiting my son in Aurora, Co. over Thanksgiving some dick decided he wanted my 4 Runner more than I did. Sunday morning at 1:30 AM my daughter-in-law saw it parked in front of the house. When I got up at 5:30 it was gone. In addition to the vehicle, I lost a ton of belongings including all of my photography lights, all the survival equipment and recovery equipment that was in the vehicle.

Not sure how they got it. I still have the keys in my possession. From the tracks in the snow it looks like a vehicle drove up to the driver's side, one person got out and got into my locked vehicle and left with it.

20 day wait before insurance will act. I know that in the future I will add a club to all our vehicles. Don't know if that will completely solve the problem, but surely it will help.

If anyone sees a Silver 2017 Off Road premium with a lift and SSO front bumper with winch in the Denver area, please contact the police.

Bill
 
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That suck's, both on the loss and how long it takes for the insurance company to make it right.

Hopefully you will be back in a better 4Runner soon.
 
billnourse said:
While visiting my son in Aurora, Co. over Thanksgiving some dick decided he wanted my 4 Runner more than I did. Sunday morning at 1:30 AM my daughter-in-law saw it parked in front of the house. When I got up at 5:30 it was gone. In addition to the vehicle, I lost a ton of belongings including all of my photography lights, all the survival equipment and recovery equipment that was in the vehicle.

Not sure how they got it. I still have the keys in my possession. From the tracks in the snow it looks like a vehicle drove up to the driver's side, one person got out and got into my locked vehicle and left with it.

20 day wait before insurance will act. I know that in the future I will add a club to all our vehicles. Don't know if that will completely solve the problem, but surely it will help.

If anyone sees a Silver 2017 Off Road premium with a lift and SSO front bumper with winch in the Denver area, please contact the police.

Bill
Click to expand...
That's terrible! I'm sorry to hear this. Any chance someone at a dealership or service location (anywhere you had to give someone your key) was able to make or acquire a copy of your key? Or perhaps someone had access to your VIN and was able to get one that way? From what you describe, it sounds like the person was pretty confident this was going to work, which makes me think they had a key made and programmed to your vehicle.
 
Generally auto insurance doesn't cover personal items inside the vehicle so you may want to contact your homeowners insurance to see if they will cover them if it's a significant amount. Good luck.
 
That is terrible to hear. I am very sorry that happened. I am still shocked at how awful some people are. Hopefully your insurance will cover everything. Wishing you the best of luck and happy holidays. Hopefully karma will get the thief sooner or later. :mad:
 
Definitely check with homeowners/renter's insurance if you have it - they frequently cover stolen belongings outside of the home as well.
 
Kandor said:
Generally auto insurance doesn't cover personal items inside the vehicle so you may want to contact your homeowners insurance to see if they will cover them if it's a significant amount. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Home owners is already on it. The loss is considerable.

Bill
 
Damn, i'm sorry that really ****ing sucks. Steeling someone's personal property is the lowest of low, and it sounds like there is a good chance you were targeted in particular by someone which makes it even worse.
 
That sucks. Sorry to hear it. It's somewhat unusual to see newer, chipped vehicles being stolen by strangers; that article about relay attacks notwithstanding.

The majority of the new car thefts I investigate involve one of three things: some kind of domestic dispute where the other half has a key, someone who's lost their keys, or someone whose house has been burglarized and a spare set of keys has been taken (or whose car has been burglarized with a spare chipped key left inside of it). I guess it's not unheard of to have an unsavory dealership employee make a key, but that would be somewhat unusual.

If you are at your son's, can you be certain that nobody has burglarized your house in your absence and gotten a key for the truck? Piggybacking that, can you be certain that there's no identifying information in the truck that reveals your address, and no key or garage door opener for the residence in the vehicle? If there is, and you're not at home, get someone over to the house immediately to check it.
 
Thieves SUCK !! Sorry to hear. Hope they eventually catch the thieving bastards. Doesnt help you now but maybe someone else.
 
Wow, that's awful. I've had a vehicle stolen (from a "safe" part of town) and it sucks being left in the dark. Mine was found a week later with a hypodermic needle and a lighter between the seat and console. UGH. Wouldn't have thought it would make me feel so violated!

Please let us know how it goes.
 
You can defeat the club in about 1 minute with a hacksaw. Sorry this happened to you. Instead, I would install a hidden interlock or disable switch.
 
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Really sorry OP...

flyrv9 said:
You can defeat the club in about 1 minute with a hacksaw. Sorry this happened to you.
Click to expand...

...or a butane canister, punch and hammer in less time...

When kids started driving other people's SUVs into the ditch, rolling their windows up and down, etc. REMOTELY OVER THE INTERNET I knew the more "tech" they put into cars the more insecure and surveillance-capable vehicles would become. Here's more proof. Many manufacturers vehicles now include Amazon Alexa connectivity FFS...

Terry Gilliam did a great movie called Brazil over 30 years ago satirically portraying what hiccups in the machine might look like in the future, among other things...

Let's make 1984 fiction again!
 
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sorry to hear that, I had a run in once. I left my door unlocked in my audi and I heard some noise outside about 2am. I was up so I grabbed my glock and walked around the corner to see the lights on. I walked up on the person and held him at gun point. I told him you might want to call the police and stay in this car. He called the police and was arrested.
 
Key needed?

Sorry, I'm just latched onto this one.

Question for everyone. In this theft, wouldn't the thief have needed a physical key, and in fact, the correct chipped key? Perhaps I'm missing something. The steering column locks in the absence of the key, right? So if someone was able to get the engine to start some other way, they still wouldn't be able to drive it, correct? Or maybe there's an easy way to defeat the steering lock? To me, this still looks like a planned-out event.

Decided while typing this to check with a local dealership. According to them, in the event that I lost my keys, the vehicle would need to be towed to the dealership and they would need to reset the computer for the new keys. If I haven't lost my keys and just want a duplicate, they still need the vehicle in order to program the key.

If all this is true, it may be someone who had access to the vehicle in the past and also had the capability to program a spare key to the truck. Or, that person drove it to a dealership or locksmith and had a spare key made ($30 for a valet key), then months later followed him to Colorado to steal the truck. That, or it was towed away.

If I'm missing something, please enlighten me. This one's weird.
 
thennen said:
Decided while typing this to check with a local dealership. According to them, in the event that I lost my keys, the vehicle would need to be towed to the dealership and they would need to reset the computer for the new keys. If I haven't lost my keys and just want a duplicate, they still need the vehicle in order to program the key.

If all this is true, it may be someone who had access to the vehicle in the past and also had the capability to program a spare key to the truck. Or, that person drove it to a dealership or locksmith and had a spare key made ($30 for a valet key), then months later followed him to Colorado to steal the truck. That, or it was towed away.
Click to expand...
[MENTION=266619]thennen[/MENTION], wouldn't stuff like this be recorded by the given dealership onto the VIN of the vehicle permanently or into Toyota's records? Just curious because needless to say it is a security issue and easy enough to do with the right "access"?


I doubt they'd even need a blank to drive the thing away. Punching an ignition switch is as easy as slapping yourself in the forehead for a thief. I stopped following issues like this years ago after Daimler radio hacks, etc... If someone really wants something...
 
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