Jimmi' Jammer

[Magicman]

With the influx of F250's being broken into and sometimes stolen, I decided to have Jimmi' Jammers installed.


 
It's a steel plate that in installed between the door handle/lock and the locking/unlocking mechanism inside of the door.  This deters the parking lot thieves that are targeting F250's.  Hopefully just the decal will cause them to leave mine alone.  I hates thieves.   :-\

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Sounds like a simple fix, you would think Ford would have done it. Someone tried to break into my daughters Ram 2500 and I think a similar fix would have prevented it.

[yukon cornelius]

my fix is to always own ratty junk. you wont steal it if you don't want to be seen in it. also it seems all my vehicles have certified "Yukon" theft deterrent devices. you wont steal it if you cant figure out which switches to flip or knobs to turn and cant figure out how to start it  ;D

[21incher]

My decal "Protected by Smith & Wesson" has kept my F350 safe so far. There seem to be alot of car break in's mentioned on the news lately around here also.

[Magicman]

I would not want the thieves to think that there might possibly be a firearm inside of my unattended truck.

After several trucks had been broken into, our Police Chief recommended F250 & F350 owners take some precaution such as the Jimmi' Jammers.  Another ploy is that many truck owners leave the ignition key inside the truck and use the keypad to unlock the truck.  This allows the truck to be stolen after gaining access.  I never leave my keys inside and am hopefully that with this additional access protection that I can avoid having to deal with thieves.

[sandsawmill14]

my fix is to always own ratty junk. you wont steal it if you don't want to be seen in it. also it seems all my vehicles have certified "Yukon" theft deterrent devices. you wont steal it if you cant figure out which switches to flip or knobs to turn and cant figure out how to start it  ;D

yukon your trucks sound like mine :D :D :D

[snowstorm]

i had to take the ignition switich out of one of my f350's. sometimes the radio wouldnt work sprayed it with wd40 blew it out and all was fine. it takes about 2 min to get it out. if you were in the biz of stealing trucks maybe less. push the pin up an out it comes. i had a switch out of a 93 it fit in the 02 

[thecfarm]

snowstorm,how right you are about the older ones. I threw my keys away at work,an hour away. My brother had a Ford too,he was only 15 minutes away. I called him and he brought his switch and I pulled the plug off and plugged his in and I was good to go. That was the the one on the dash. Simple times way back than.

[gfadvm]

I leave my dog in the truck with the windows partly open on both sides, doors unlocked. Thieves would have to kill her to get it hot wired. Keeps people from parking too close as well

[WV Sawmiller]

   I managed to leave my keys in my ignition and locked the doors on one of our high security vehicles in Iraq when I was working there which was a real treat. Fortunately I ran into a reservist who was a Boston City cop back at home and he had the techniques to open it including spreading the door with wooden wedges wide enough to pop the electric door lock with a coat hanger.

[sawguy21]

He did that on a high security vehicle ??? :D I have seen it done with a bag that is slipped into the gap then inflated like a blood pressure cuff. I like Yukon's solution, that would keep them busy.

[4x4American]

What was wrong with the regular locks?  I tried to look it up on google, I typed in Ford lock problems and just typing ford and problems into the same search overloaded me with stuff to wade through  ;D


I leave my dog in my truck most times and key in the ignition, .308 and 12 bore in the gun rack.  He is real aggressive towards anyone who goes near it if he's on guard and most thieves are scared of dogs.  He's a small dog, ~50lbs but he is made of muscle and blood and skin and bones..a mind that's weak and a back that's strong.  Not fool proof but gotta have some faith in people. 

[sawguy21]

No problem specific to Ford, locking systems were made that way for years. All the thief or tow truck driver had to do was slip a Slim Jim down the outside of the glass, hook the rod and pull up. Simple, quick and quiet.   

[chevytaHOE5674]

Wait what is this door locking you guys speak of? :D Does that involve removing the key from the ignition?

Can't remember the last time I took the keys out of any of my vehicles...ha

[Ianab]

While you could probably break into the Toyota relatively easily, starting it will take at least a laptop and some rather exotic radio gear.  It does have a backup key that you can use to unlock the door, if the battery has run flat. Then you can recharge the battery and the electronics should come to life again.  :D

But normally it's just a matter of having the RFID tag in your pocket. Grab the door handle and it unlocks. When you get out, push a button on the handle and it locks. It also knows if the fob is left in the car, and it wont lock. It's quite a smart system and I haven't found a fault in it so far.

As much as we might distrust the electronics, when you come out of the shops in the rain with a couple of kids, not having to fumble around and find a key is brilliant.

Of course no one steals boring looking Toyota hatchbacks so it's sort of stealth in that way too.

[Cedarman]

We have a keypad on our Ford Edge.  So if you leave the keys inside, you can still get in.
BUT, if you leave the engine running and lock the doors, forget it.  The keypad will not work.  So you better remember where the spare key is.

[Raider Bill]

I appraise on average 5 f250 a week for acv do to theft so steal away I have payments to make!

If you leave a dog locked in a car in florida not only is there a law to proctect the person that smashes your window to get the dog not but you get cuffed and hauled away.

[4x4American]

My dog always has water and fresh air.  I have vent visors over my windows so I pretty much never close them.  If it's cold he gets a crack, and if it's hot, all windows open just to the point where he cant jump out through them.  If he sees somethig he likes, he gone.  He jumped out the window at 30mph once to chase a deer.  At work he spends all day in my truck, by choice.  He hates it when I pull him out to make him take a leak.  He'll go do his business then go right back to the truck door and ask to be let in.  It's a common sight around here, dogs in trucks/cars.  Doesn't really raise any eyebrows.  Sorry to hear that you can't bring your friend around town with you down there. 

[Brucer]

A news story this week about the new (in)secure electronic locks.

A home security camera shows a grainy image of a driveway, taken at night. Someone walks up to the driver's door, holding a small box in his hand. He reaches out with this other hand, pulls the door open, and gets in. No fuss, no alarm, no fiddling with the lock.

The police haven't got their hands on one of the devices that unlocked the car, but they've seen them on plenty of security videos. They used to be available on E-bay until E-bay began delisting them.

Basically, if someone with the device is standing nearby when you lock or unlock your car, the device will read the RFID signals and store them. The thief then identifies the owner (via the license plate) and visits the home at night to steal the car (or it's contents).

A person can even steal the car right off the street. The device works instantly so there is no tip-off to passersby that something unusual is going on.

There's a guy in LA who demonstrated to a report how easy it was to unlock the reporters car with a homemade device ($30 in parts). He's not a crook, though. He does freelance consulting to auto companies, trying to break into their latest defences.

I like keys. Even if they have electronics built into the key, they're too troublesome for thieves nowadays. The little box is like a generic skeleton key. It's easier for the thieves to use it on someone else's car.

[Ianab]

The Toyota key doesn't need you to push the unlock button. It's more like an RFID tag, and works even without a battery in the remote.

The "hack" works by intercepting the remote signal and it's handshake back from the car, and then jamming the unlock. This forces the driver to push the button again and then the car unlocks. But the thief now has a valid "challenge / response" recorded to use later. I suspect with the Toyota it might let you unlock the car if you captured an unlock code, but you wont be able to start it without the RFID tag, which is a short range passive device, I wont say impossible, just that the device demonstrated wont do it (Alone)

This would be relatively easy for the car manufacturer to program around, simply by going to a single use rolling code sequence, which uses a different code each time, and renders the old ones invalid. They may already have done this. That's the system that smart credit cards use, and even then someone found a bug in that, where you could record a transaction and replay it, causing the charge to go though again. But it requires some pretty sophisticated gear, and only works until the card is used again, then a the code "rolls over" to a new one.

But in the end, you can only make something as secure as practical. If someone is determined enough to steal it, they can bring a crane truck and just pick it up, security system, extra locks, guard dog and all.

Luckily 99.9% of thieves aren't that dedicated

[coxy]

 they can have my newer truck but they better leave my 96 f250 alone  ;D ;D    I always leave the key in my truck along with the payment book in the glove box I just hope if they steal it they pay it off 

[clearcut]

A new hack, that is reported to work on 24 models of vehicles, is an amplifier that passes the signal from the key fob to the car. Your key is on the night stand, and the thief with the amplifier device simply walks up to your car, reads the correct signal from your fob, and opens your car. They can then drive happily to the chop shop.

     http://www.wired.com/2016/03/study-finds-24-car-models-open-unlocking-ignition-hack/

[Raider Bill]

My dog always has water and fresh air.  I have vent visors over my windows so I pretty much never close them.  If it's cold he gets a crack, and if it's hot, all windows open just to the point where he cant jump out through them.  If he sees somethig he likes, he gone.  He jumped out the window at 30mph once to chase a deer.  At work he spends all day in my truck, by choice.  He hates it when I pull him out to make him take a leak.  He'll go do his business then go right back to the truck door and ask to be let in.  It's a common sight around here, dogs in trucks/cars.  Doesn't really raise any eyebrows.  Sorry to hear that you can't bring your friend around town with you down there.

It's  about our heat.  Too many dogs and and kids for that matter are left locked in closed cars in the Florida sun. 

Most places I go to are dog friendly so my little lady goes most everywhere with me.
At a massive 13.9 lbs most everyone leaves her alone.

[sandhills]

My first dog was a red healer that went pretty much everywhere with me.  I drove a '79 ford pickup that we converted to propane so he always rode on the tank to stay cool, even in the winter I couldn't get him in the cab  :D.  We don't worry much about locking doors around here so far anyway.

[thecfarm]

Things are happening in Maine too about leaving dogs in the car. We use to leave the car running with the air conditioning on when we would leave the dog in the car. We would lock the dog in the car.  ;D