West Seattle Crime Watch: Stolen Camry to watch for

Hope your vehicle never gets stolen. If it does, we’re happy to help get the word out to folks to be on the lookout (of course, report it to police first!). Samantha says her car was taken from the 8800 block of 24th SW, near Westwood Village, late last night/early this morning:

It’s a gray 4-door Toyota Camry hybrid, 2007, with WA license plate 725VOA. Identifying marks: There’s an obvious, medium-sized dent in the rear bumper on the driver’s side. There’s also a scratch near the bottom of the back passenger side window that’s a few inches long. There was a brown Britax car seat in the back seat, but that’s probably gone by now.

rw August 14, 2011 (5:46 pm)

I’d be really curious to know how they pulled this off. The Camry hybrid has a keyless steering lock and ignition system. I know that if a car thief wants to get a certain car, they can get it. But this theft would presumably require more sophistication and effort than the typical punk joyriders would be capable of.

Derek August 14, 2011 (6:50 pm)

Or a tow truck.

Dale August 14, 2011 (7:43 pm)

Yes, when I worked as a Fire & Theft investigator we discovered a ring in the Covington area using a stolen tow truck as their MO.

Samantha August 14, 2011 (11:50 pm)

(Hi, it was my car. Thanks for posting this.) A tow truck is a possibility we hadn’t thought of. Interesting. I’ll ask my neighbors if they saw anything like that.

We just bought the darn thing in May to replace our poor totaled Vibe. The keyless entry/starting always seemed like a gimmick to me. The signal is unencrypted RFID. Not hard for someone to break into If they’ve got the motivation, and the victims don’t even hear locks or glass being broken. Plus, hybrids are nice and quiet.

The police say most stolen cars are used to sell drugs for a week or two, trashed, then abandoned. Great. Ours is nondescript, so it makes sense.

Well, I didn’t really like the car anyway, so here’s hoping it’s either found unscathed or not at all. I’d rather it was stripped than deal with a car that’s been trashed with who knows what.

Jim P. August 15, 2011 (1:31 pm)

Far too many of these keyless systems can be bypassed as they are just kludged in to an existing ignition system. Hot-wiring still works surprisingly well.

Those $300 key fobs? Profit center, not security.

There’s usually an emergency reset code that is supposed to be “secret”..yeah right….I’d not hold my breath.

Sorry, comment time is over.