sportscarfan
New member
Great to see it was found, I hope it's not too bad...
Stolen - My 4runner (RECOVERED)
- Thread starter DenverAirport
- Start date
Glad it was found! My buddy had his T4R stolen out of his driveway and the police said it was most likely on a shipping container headed to Africa and there was nothing they could do. It was found months later sitting in a tow lot for the whole time! The only reason the police were notified was because the company owner tried to pull the title. Guess it never made it to Africa? :lol:
Another throw-out here …. Picking up on the homemade brake to steering wheel security bar, we used a titanium steering wheel bar on our T4R while living overseas. Never had it tested - someone attempting to steal - perhaps it served more of a deterrent. But we did get our truck back to the states in one piece. :bluejump:
Brian.
Member
Takes nothing to cut through the steering wheel and remove the "steering wheel lock". This has been a Well known defeat since "the club" was first advertised ~ don't trust any lock that relies on the steering wheel.
Got any more details for us OP? Any damage? Parts removed? Anything we can maybe help you out with by raiding our own spares piles?
Endlessblockades
Senior Member
Totally agree, but they do send a visible message that "this owner has put some thought into theft-deterrence - maybe they have other roadblocks to an easy steal" At least that's what I tell myself. There is no way to stop a truly determined thief, but I try to give them pause. On a city street where my rig lives, anyway. Maybe it's just wishful thinking but that's how I rationalize it. I am working on a start-kill and basic tracking device, too.
DenverAirport
New member
UPDATE
Hey! Have been super busy with work, dealing with insurance, and a lot of stuff since this all happened. Has honestly been a bit of a nightmare so far. Thanks to everyone who has reached out so far and asked.
So time for the story:
My truck was spotted by someone who recognized it from being reposted so damn much by the community far and wide on social media (thank you all again so much -- special shout out to [MENTION=609337]Snowbound[/MENTION]t4r and @timmythetoolman again for their reposts -- led to a lot of visibility which saved my ass here.)
It had been spotted four or five times since it was stolen, but never found. People had called it into the police but the thief kept the car off the road, parking it in garages of vacant houses for sale [seen doing this by a neighbor of one of the houses] and avoiding driving it. One person approached the thief and said that they may recognize the truck, specifically the roof rack (in all honesty a hella stupid move but funny enough it helped in the end) and apparently this led to the thief taking off and driving the truck through the middle of a public park.
After this event, less than 12 hours later in the late evening / early morning the thief was found by police on the side of the road about (30 miles from my apartment) taking the roof rack off my truck. She used proper tools thank god.
I got to see my truck about 24 hours after all of this and here's a few pics.
Thief had taken everything I had inside the truck (thousands of dollars worth of camping + recovery gear, tools, etc.) and gotten rid of it and left me with a truck full of trash and likely other stolen shit. My renters insurance will be covering everything stolen from my truck without hesitation and seeking damages from my building's insurance likely.
Damage:
- Spoiler stolen
- Roof rack taken off and water got into the open holes on the roof / into the frame as a result. I got the Prinsu rack and my Rotopax locked to it back though!
- Long scratch on driver side panel
- Huge scrape on rear passenger door
- All nameplates / tags stolen and scraped off with a screwdriver except the one in the pic above. They really dug them out. Sucks.
- Seats and center console inside of car littered with writing in red sharpie. Stains also on carpeting.
- The alignment is in rough shape and the steering is in brutal shape
- The starter is also in brutal shape
- My spare key hidden in the vehicle is now gone
- Lots of other small annoying stuff
All in all. Not bad at all. It could have been so much worse.
So after seeing the vehicle I had to get it towed to have a mechanic inspect it. But as I found out, mechanics won't inspect theft recoveries here due to biohazard risk, so I had to get it detailed before I can get it inspected (and in case you were wondering, I have to pay for that out of pocket. Will still be able to bill insurance for it but still sucks.) Now here's the kicker, most detail shops don't do theft recovery here due to the risks involved. So I needed to go to a biohazard capable shop. So I did. And I'm glad I didn't drive around because this is what was found: blood, shit, piss, and needles assumedly used to shoot meth (don't know this for sure but the writing on the seats for sure had a meth-y vibe lol.)
So now I've gotten my car detailed and brought to my preferred mechanic and am awaiting my insurance damage adjuster to visit the shop and likely say it's a total loss so I can buy my truck back from GEICO and hit up the junkyard.
I already started the junkyard-ing today. Not sure what all I'm going to need that I haven't found already outside of gold limited badges / nameplates. Going to need a drivers seat, got a center console from a 2001 so I can finally due the cupholder mod. Going to need to buy new set of locks / ignition. Gunna need a new rear passenger door with limited cladding.
Who knows though maybe my insurance will pay for a repaint (a man can dream...)
That's all for now.
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Devbot
New member
You could check with your insurance what they think of reupholstering the seat. Or pay for it out of pocket, but that is an option if you don't wanna wait around and hope to find some in good condition. I also feel like in this day and age there has to be a home method of sorts to removing sharpie - think of all the pissed off parents over the years that had their stuff drawn on
The body damage is a major cringe factor, that really sucks man. Hopefully insurance decides to cover it by some odd chance or that'd be a pretty penny
The body damage is a major cringe factor, that really sucks man. Hopefully insurance decides to cover it by some odd chance or that'd be a pretty penny
DenverAirport
New member
Must have slim jimmed it. I think I just want to have a lot more obvious "security system" on my vehicle in the future in addition to a kill switch. I also might buy something like this which would combine security capabilities with a camera for insurance purposes.
DenverAirport
New member
Yeah I've asked my insurance about it -- waiting to hear back about everything next week after their inspection is finished.
There are definitely ways of getting sharpie out but the elbow grease to get out the amount of like methed-out sharpie in this car will not be worth the time. I got a promising lead on seats today. Going to check em out at the junkyard tomorrow.
phattyduck
Elite Member
It is basically ALWAYS meth. At least if you get your car back. Otherwise it would be in a container on the way to another country.
Fight for the max payout for the vehicle value minus buyback price... The insurance company won't do any fixing for you - but you are already on track with getting it back in good shape.
-Charlie
I wonder what they were doing that messed up the alignment and steering? Sounds like your 4runner went on a really gross Fear and Loathing-esque bender. It sucks but I guess just think of it as adding character (once you get it fixed up) and at least you have a pretty cool story to tell about getting back.
Devbot
New member
driving over shit with no regard because it's not your vehicle... as exampled by him saying they were spotted driving it through the middle of a park
Driving straight into and over a curb at 25mph will do that pretty quickly
DenverAirport
New member
This was my first thought too. There were a few empty bottles in there, you never know. Detailer did a good job but I'm still going to end up replacing the carpet and seats just because it was time to do that already. Since I just had them deep cleaned I can still pass em off to someone looking to do a full upholstery job but even though the carpet is clean that's going straight in the trash....
DenverAirport
New member
I have it on good authority that they didn't air down before they drove onto a playground :/
Can't stop wincing and thinking about the thief destroying the ball joints hitting a curb straight on...ugh
ToyotaBrah
Member
I was just thinking about this truck the other day. Truly glad you got it recovered. I cosign the replacing of the seats and carpets after discovering the body fluids on them.
On other note, I do happen to have a spoiler with me. PM me and I can work something out with you.
On other note, I do happen to have a spoiler with me. PM me and I can work something out with you.
