An Arbor Heights resident hopes you can help find her stolen car:
My newly bought 2012 Prius v – my dream car – was stolen from in front of my house last night (Sept. 3rd). It is silverish blue. I live on 40th St. SW. Reward for anyone who provides information leading to the recovery of this vehicle.
Plate # is AZE2410, according to SPD’s @getyourcarback Twitter feed, which includes the reminder to call 911 if you see a stolen car, rather than checking it out closeup.
The Prius have an electronic key fob as a Anti Theft immobilizer system..Someone must have cloned your key fob. Hope you find your car.
I think the 2012 prius was still susceptible to wireless fob extenders. The range isn’t huge, but if the key sit near the front door or exterior wall, the signal can be caught and amplified.
Thieves use a tow trucks sometimes. And those electronic keys aren’t impossible to bypass. I found this article from Wired 10 years ago.
The victim did not include it in the e-mail and hasn’t yet answered my followup, but Tweets by Beat says 100xx block, in Arbor Heights, so I included the AH mention.
It’s important to try and understand if the thieves around here are technologically competent enough to use RF amplifiers and hacking to steal cars. We all know it takes a just pocket knife or shaved key to steal a car that doesn’t have any anti theft tech. But if the thieves have stepped up to defeating newer cars’ security and not just stealing fobs, we’ll have to up our game.
There have been various videos and stories about this. The CBC had a longer-form story recently about these tools.
The more cameras we can get around the neighborhood, the better. Start capturing faces, techniques used to steal cars/break into homes, patterns of crime by the same persons, etc. Although even security cameras are not hacker proof, it’s better than nothing. NETGEAR’s Arlo is cheap and effective.
I’m also thinking about getting this for my stuff. https://www.thetileapp.com The cool part is that when it’s out of the standard range, it’ll use the network of other users to then locate items for you again. It’s not spot on like constant GPS tracking, but pretty effective. Throw one in your cars and then have a better chance of locating it. There’s also the expensive LoJack system that’s been around for decades.
A part of me just wants to get an older vehicle and do the old style antitheft practice of a kill switch to the fuel pump and battery along with removing the steering wheel. Still, they can always just put it on a tow truck.
MIKE is right! We need every square inch of our neighborhoods under surveillance! Please, please won’t someone just keep me safe?!
@Howard, maybe if something happens to you, you’ll tone down your sarcasm
Howard, you ever go to the lookout on Admiral Way and look at the lamp post? Be sure to say something extra wise when you’re there. It’s listening to you. ;) Paid for by the DoD too. Surveillance is everywhere, even when you don’t realize it. It’s just a matter of who has access to use it.
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