How secure are our vehicles and the truth behind them from Law Enforcment

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Cherdos

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Hello everyone,
I know I am new to the boards and have never introduced myself. I am 36 and live right outside New York City. I am a Police officer and have been for 11 years on a Dept. that borders NYC so I am not NYPD. I am going to tell you all what I know through personal experince and stuff I found out from experts on our vehicles. The stuff in here is by no means classified and is preety much knowledge that the bad guys have. So here is my tale.

I have always wanted a Yukon Denali and was finally able to afford one. I remember the day picking it up from the dealer. It was a 05 tan fully loaded soup to nuts. I loved this truck and was going to drive it forever. I had come home one morning from working my normal tour 11pm to 7am and parked it in my spot outside my building and went upstairs to go to sleep cause I had to be back at 3pm for a extra tour. I woke up took a shower and headed down to go back this was around 2:15pm and my car wasnt there. There was no glass or any sign of forced entry and I thaught to myself maybe I parked it some where else and took a walk around my block. It was no where to be found. I saw one of my neighbors who has the spot next to me and she said that she saw it there around noon when she went out to go shopping. So everything just hit me right there my car was stolen. I called got a ride into work( I work in the same city where i Live) and had a report written. I had this truck for just 44 days. I conatcted onstar and had them attempt to locate the vehicle with no success they said they were not able to pick up the vehicle signal. This truck was never found.

Fast Forward 3 years I ended getting another Yukon from the insurance money this time a Fully loaded SLT. I moved but stilled lived in the same city. Simillar situation came home from work one morning having to get up to go in the afternoon. This time I was living in a house and had it parked in my dirveway. Came out to go to work and again my truck was gone. Again no sign of forced entry just gone. Well again I contacted Onstar and again they were not able to get a signal but this time I had Lo/Jack installed and contacted them. Within 5 hours they had a location on my vehicle it was in a praking garage in the bronx. I made a few phone calls to friends in the auto theft unit and they aggreed to sit on my vehicle. 2 days went by and noone came to claim the vehicle so they returned it to me. I starte dtalkign to the guy I knew and noticed he was with someone outside our dept. during the watching of my vehicle. Turned out the mystery guy was with the FBI. They were investigating a group of European men targeting high-end SUV's for shippmenet back to europe for sale.

With my truck and all GMC any time a key gets cut it goes into a database of the location of where it was done. What this group was doing was first a spotter would go out and get your VIN#. Next he called a person out of state for the codes on the key to cut and transponder signal. Then he would take that info to another state and have a key cut. Now this was all done by people involved with the scam and if you were to do it you would need to show your license and reg. Last he would just walk up to your car with a perfect key open the door get in and drive away.

This team that ended stealling both my trucks was busted and 15 people were sentced to over 10 years each.

So with all that here are some facts about oour vehicles.

1) Onstar as a vehicle recovery is a joke. On the 05 body style the onstar unit was directly behind the glove box. All you have to do is drop the glove box and yank out the 3 wires going into the module and you disable the unit, Thus making tracking impossible.
2) Lo/jack really works. I am in no way sponsering them or telling you to go out and get it installed but my vehicle was 2 stories underground and was able to found by a PD unit with a lojack reciever in there vehicle. Any type of Sataliete based system as we all know with Sat. radio no view of the sky no signal. See if your local P.D. has there vehicel equipped with lo/Jack and tell them Lo/Jack will install them into there depts vehicles free of charge.
3) Our vehicles require you to step on the brake to get them out of park. A simple device that locks the brake pedal in place is worth its weight in gold for our trucks. My 2 Trucks were stolen in Broad Daylight hours. When these guys were questioned they said they targeted vehicles whose owners did not have those types of devices in there vehicles.
4) This buisness is huge money. These guys were doing this for over 3 years and had stolen over 500 high end Esky's,Kon's and Hoe's when 1 group dies another will start. Take measures to protect your baby. Escaldes again lead the list in stolen vehicles this year.

Like I said I love my Yukon and I know what it fells like to have it taken from me. I see some great rides on this forum and would hate to have you feel what I went through. Layer your security never leave anything out that you dont want to loss. Navigation units left out in plain sight are the number one thing right now being stolen. Window etching might sound dumb but one will lower your insurance rate, two is usally free by your local police dept. and can help recover your vehicle if it is stolen. I hope veryone who reads this takes something away from it cause trust me you never want that feeling of seeing a pile of broken glass or nothing there where you vehicle was parked.

Thank you for your time in reading this and wish everyone is safe.
 

zach2011

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I agree, this really makes me want to get Lo/Jack but then again my area is small and not dangerous at all, so I don't know. But very good wealth of info, thanks for sharing!
 

puckhead

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Thanks for the info!! What is window etching by the way? Not familiar with it
 

zach2011

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Did a Google search, only thing I can come up with for window etching is getting the VIN etched into the windows. Our Escalade has this, but my Tahoe doesn't so maybe a certain number of GMT900's have it from the factory.
 
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Cherdos

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Window or vin etching is done by making a copy of your vin on a piece of paper that is preforated for your vin. It is then held up to the lower corner of your window on the outside so it wont ruin any tinted window. It is then rolled over with a weak acid that etchs your vin into your window. You can not remove this with any type of cleaner or chemical. this prevents criminals from stealing your vehicle for parting out the windows.
 

stevek

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Anyone have a killswitch? I was thinking of getting one and putting it somewhere in the center console
 

jomulk56

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Great info, and I actually knew about the key thing. Also, I used to do repos and once you create a relationship with your locale car dealers they don't even ask for ID's. I cover up the vin plate in all my vehicles with a 3x5 notecard and tape because of that.
If I even get pulled over and the cop asks me about it I tell him just that and remove the card so he can check the VIN.
 

stevek

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Great info, and I actually knew about the key thing. Also, I used to do repos and once you create a relationship with your locale car dealers they don't even ask for ID's. I cover up the vin plate in all my vehicles with a 3x5 notecard and tape because of that.
If I even get pulled over and the cop asks me about it I tell him just that and remove the card so he can check the VIN.

Same, I always have my vin covered. I keep it covered like any other piece of private information.
 

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