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This would get my parents for sure. I live by crazy homeless scum so flailing yelling people are the norm for me. It's better to just assume the worst of unknown people, keep the doors locked and the windows up. This type of thing just reinforces that mentality
 
couple of months ago I parked at a trailhead to walk my dogs, when we got back to the car there was a $20 bill stuck under my windshield wiper, thinking this was probably some sort of distraction technique I immediately surveyed my surroundings. There was no one anywhere in my vicinity, I then grabbed the 20 and inspected it to see if it was a fake, it was not.


I then loaded up the dogs got in my car and left. I'm not a small guy and my dogs are both pretty stout, so I think this was likely either mistaken identity and someone owed someone money, or there was someone watching my car from a concealed position, and when they saw that between me and the dogs they'd be dealing with about 410 pounds of beef they decided it wasn't worth it and just gave up on the $20.

It worked out well for me they bought me beer and gas for the night, but it did get me thinking "what if this set up was used on one of my family members?" I could see this going badly for a woman or even a man who is alone and let's his guard down.

Be aware of your surroundings, and make sure your loved ones have their heads on a swivel as well.

With the money under the windshield wiper the safe bet would be jump in the car, drive away. Make sure you weren't followed then grab the money. Not the route I took but would have probably been the best bet.
 
This would get my parents for sure. I live by crazy homeless scum so flailing yelling people are the norm for me. It's better to just assume the worst of unknown people, keep the doors locked and the windows up. This type of thing just reinforces that mentality
You must be over by the West Eugene Walmart. 😬😒
 
....and when the driver/victim called police to report their car stolen, description of car, plate #, description of thief and the direction the car was headed, they were put on hold for 20 minutes.
 
Thankfully this is where new tech can probably help out those like my wife. She has one of those vicinity key systems. Where as long as the key is in the vicinity she can push the button to start or stop the engine. Get too far away the vehicle turns off automatically.

I personally have always been trained to always remove my keys when I leave the vehicle. Even if for less than a minute. We had tons of vehicle thefts in NV where thieves would hang out at gas stations wait for the person to go inside for a soda or something, get in and drive off. If the had only taken their keys in with them it wouldn't have been a problem.

I've even been trained to not only turn off my car but remove and pocket my keys in the event I'm pulled over by the police.
 
couple of months ago I parked at a trailhead to walk my dogs, when we got back to the car there was a $20 bill stuck under my windshield wiper, thinking this was probably some sort of distraction technique I immediately surveyed my surroundings. There was no one anywhere in my vicinity, I then grabbed the 20 and inspected it to see if it was a fake, it was not.


I then loaded up the dogs got in my car and left. I'm not a small guy and my dogs are both pretty stout, so I think this was likely either mistaken identity and someone owed someone money, or there was someone watching my car from a concealed position, and when they saw that between me and the dogs they'd be dealing with about 410 pounds of beef they decided it wasn't worth it and just gave up on the $20.

It worked out well for me they bought me beer and gas for the night, but it did get me thinking "what if this set up was used on one of my family members?" I could see this going badly for a woman or even a man who is alone and let's his guard down.

Be aware of your surroundings, and make sure your loved ones have their heads on a swivel as well.

With the money under the windshield wiper the safe bet would be jump in the car, drive away. Make sure you weren't followed then grab the money. Not the route I took but would have probably been the best bet.
My bet was someone found the $20 on the ground and being an honest soul put it under the wiper of the vehicle nearest where they found it, or maybe the only vehicle nearby.
 
My bet was someone found the $20 on the ground and being an honest soul put it under the wiper of the vehicle nearest where they found it, or maybe the only vehicle nearby.
That was my first thought also due to the location but $ on windshield is a known scam (see below article) so PaulF was smart to be cautious imo. Driving away and then removing the bill, like PaulF said above, is the wise way to go imo. Just like if u r confronted with an "emergency" where "u have to come out here right now!" then driving a little ways away to a safe distance and then evaluate the scene is wise imo.

 
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What are the odds that any of those four unsuspecting women were savvy enough to take their purse along as they stepped out of their car? My bet is, at least half of them are now busy replacing a bunch of ID, credit cards, and door locks at home.
 
Thankfully this is where new tech can probably help out those like my wife. She has one of those vicinity key systems. Where as long as the key is in the vicinity she can push the button to start or stop the engine. Get too far away the vehicle turns off automatically.

I personally have always been trained to always remove my keys when I leave the vehicle. Even if for less than a minute. We had tons of vehicle thefts in NV where thieves would hang out at gas stations wait for the person to go inside for a soda or something, get in and drive off. If the had only taken their keys in with them it wouldn't have been a problem.

I've even been trained to not only turn off my car but remove and pocket my keys in the event I'm pulled over by the police.
* and lock the car.

I may be paranoid but my car is locked with doors closed the second I'm out of it - gas station, pit stop at the mailbox, wherever.

To your point about keys - they never leave my pocket (or my wife's purse). Car doors have little buttons to unlock when the key is near, so getting back into a locked car is painless.

Highly recommend the feature!
 
My car will continue to run without the key fob until it is shut off, then it is immobilized. I keep the fob in my pocket as it is a wireless fob - I do not need to insert it into anything. I can lock/unlock all the doors remotely, or unlock just the driver's side door. I have to be in a certain position/distance to unlock it by touching the door handles (you cannot unlock externally if I am inside the vehicle with the fob).

I am not sure about the panic button, whether it will shut off the engine or not, but you can't shut it off without the fob? I will have to try that today.

Generally some of the higher end euro car immobilizers will not allow easy replacement of certain electronics, including the stereo and nav systems - they need to be reset/reprogrammed to the car to work. Also the alarm systems are harder to defeat. Hence car thieves tend to avoid these cars for stealing and stripping them, going after common Toyotas & Hondas instead, which are in more demand for parts and easier to defeat.

The Ducati I owned would cost $2-3K to replace the EFI/EMI and you cannot start it without the coded key paired with that particular engine system. You cannot get a replacement key for it without having the special red key - the factory will not sell replacement keys without the red key and they are very strict about selling the whole system. The regular key is black and you keep the red key in a safe place.

I think for BMW cars the key fob has to be programmed for the vehicle, the fob is several hundred dollars and the process by the dealer is at least several hundred dollars, so you try not to lose your key fobs (I have two).
 
Thankfully this is where new tech can probably help out those like my wife. She has one of those vicinity key systems. Where as long as the key is in the vicinity she can push the button to start or stop the engine. Get too far away the vehicle turns off automatically.

I personally have always been trained to always remove my keys when I leave the vehicle. Even if for less than a minute. We had tons of vehicle thefts in NV where thieves would hang out at gas stations wait for the person to go inside for a soda or something, get in and drive off. If the had only taken their keys in with them it wouldn't have been a problem.

I've even been trained to not only turn off my car but remove and pocket my keys in the event I'm pulled over by the police.
 
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Excellent info! Thx for posting that I didn't know they could do that. Most of the cars stolen around here are late 90's to 2006ish Toyota's, Honda's, and subarus. But lately I've seen more very late model cars being stolen and I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. I've seen 2017ish tacoma Tacoma, Honda Element, and Prius on nextdoor lately. My guess is for the element and Prius they steal it to remove the cat somewhere else but only a guess.

One thing the video mentioned is a steering wheel lock. If he is talking about the club, now the homeless car thiefs carry universal keys to remove clubs. Fe this was posted recently on Nextdoor:
7E3F1DA6-C70F-4209-8B1B-2F99217A1B1E.jpeg
 
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Way back when I was delivering RVs to dealers, I made a delivery to Arvada CO and din't get out of there until late at night. Slept in a Rest Area on the freeway nearby. About 1am, a gal knocked on the window and said her car wouldn't start, asked me to come (all the way) down to the other end of the Rest Area. I didn't get out, but offered the use of my cellphone for her to call somebody that GAF. When she refused to use it, I said too bad, I'm sleeping, go away. Pretty non-compassionate right?

Well, there was something twitchy about that gal and my spidey senses were tingling.

The next morning as I was driving out of the Rest Area, all the way down at the other end, which had it's own bathrooms, was this gal... with a derelict old beater boat of a car, with towels hanging all over it (like they lived there), and most importantly, what looked to be a big boyfriend.... uh, car troubles, yeah right.
 
Also, most are trained and it is good practice that the first thing you do when getting into the car is to start it. Before putting the seatbelt and such on.
If someone tries the car is already started. I usually put it in gear with my foot on the brake. too. Then if assaulted you can immediately drive away or better yet over them.
Even in a parking lot. You are better moving even if it causes an accident than to be moitionless in your car.
 
That was my first thought also due to the location but $ on windshield is a known scam (see below article) so PaulF was smart to be cautious imo. Driving away and then removing the bill, like the PaulF said above, is the wise way to go imo. Just like if u r confronted with an "emergency" where "u have to come out here right now!" then driving a little ways away to a safe distance and then evaluate the scene is wise imo.

The story you linked to says they used a $100 bill, this has me feeling a little cheated. I know times is hard but I mean, come on, if you can't risk a hundred dollars to try to car jack a beat up Honda civic maybe they should just stay at home.

$20 got me beer and gas, $100 i could of got some ammo too 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲😁
 
OK, so if I find a $20 - $100 bill under my windshield wiper I survey the surroundings, grip my piece, and unsnap the holster. Then I remove the FRN from the wiper, get in, and drive off.
 
couple of months ago I parked at a trailhead to walk my dogs, when we got back to the car there was a $20 bill stuck under my windshield wiper, thinking this was probably some sort of distraction technique I immediately surveyed my surroundings. There was no one anywhere in my vicinity, I then grabbed the 20 and inspected it to see if it was a fake, it was not.


I then loaded up the dogs got in my car and left. I'm not a small guy and my dogs are both pretty stout, so I think this was likely either mistaken identity and someone owed someone money, or there was someone watching my car from a concealed position, and when they saw that between me and the dogs they'd be dealing with about 410 pounds of beef they decided it wasn't worth it and just gave up on the $20.

It worked out well for me they bought me beer and gas for the night, but it did get me thinking "what if this set up was used on one of my family members?" I could see this going badly for a woman or even a man who is alone and let's his guard down.

Be aware of your surroundings, and make sure your loved ones have their heads on a swivel as well.

With the money under the windshield wiper the safe bet would be jump in the car, drive away. Make sure you weren't followed then grab the money. Not the route I took but would have probably been the best bet.
Some people are really honest. My bet is someone else dropped it on the ground near one of your doors and someone else thought it was yours and wanted you to get it back. We often complain about the bubblegumty people but it's good to remember that there are at least as many good people than bubblegumty people.
 

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