Help me identify make/model of car used by THIEF

[mongo1958]

A temporary security solution for your door locks: You can remove the cylinders of your door locks pull out and swap 2 pins and reinstall the cylinder. You keys will no longer work in that lock, do this to all you locks. Assuming that you have a garage, change the code to your garage door opener. You can still gain access to the house via the garage door.
Now you can take the cylinders to Home Depot and have them rekeyed or you can do it yourself on your time schedule.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/home-safet ... key-a-lock

[Doc Dan]

Man, I'd hate to live in commyfornia right now. Things are very difficult because of so many stupid decision over so many decades. I hope you can find out who did this. I guess from now on she'll lock her doors whether in or out of the car. She must have been traumatized, poor thing.

Does she happen to have one of those trackers on something in her purse, or a FitBit or anything?

[JRinFL]

I'm so sorry to hear of this.

The car used in the robbery may also have been stolen. Police should be able to see the security cameras at the entrance to HD to see if the same car shows up.

[TomAiello]

Marginally related;

Bolster, where do you live?

My parents are on the central coast (near SLO) and I'm wondering if this sort of crime is on the rise in that area. It's pretty disturbing to me that the police don't seem to care. As my parents get older, they are more likely to be vulnerable to that sort of crime.

[Foehammer]

Looks a lot like a Jeep - maybe a Jeep Cherokee or Compass. Leaning more towards Cherokee.

That was my first guess.

[Bolster]

Follow up: Have not seen the White Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. Three different house keys on my wife's ring, so that's $400 x 3 for rekeying those houses. Don't yet know cost to rekey my car and my kid's car, but my wife's car would be nearly $1000 for a complete rekey, and half that for a simpler "reprogram," which would allow the thief to use the key to get in the car, but could not start the car because the fob electronics would be changed. Even though the thieves stole $1 in cash, the event will still be costly.

Some answers to questions:

- No garage door opener, iphone, or debit card stolen, thankfully. No tracker in purse, but certainly that would be tossed immediately.
- Have not figured out yet how to turn off the "open all doors when driver's door opens" feature. Working on it.
- Security cameras around the house, yes, several. Though see caveat below; if license plate not readable, it doesn't mean much.
- Cooperation from ARCO not great because everyone taking Xtra long weekend and boss not around. I am not convinced we have seen their video at full resolution. The cashier didn't seem to know how to work the video very well, kept cramming two screen views onto one, etc.
- Getting the police interested has been problematic. I think there's so much crime this doesn't even register. My experience with police and property crimes is that they basically want the victim to positively identify the perp or fugeddaboudit. I think I am actually doing the police work here, identifying the car (erm, well, YOU did that!), contacting the ARCO station, getting video, etc. There are multiple HDs nearby so I don't know which one would have video...if we could even match the perps to the car in the parking lot...an employee would have to be very motivated to do that footwork. Maybe after the holiday the Police will get back to work? I hope. But there's basically nothing for us to recover other than $1 so I think that's not very motivational for the Police.

Again thanks to all. Hope someone here can learn from my mistakes.

[weeping minora]

...Hope someone here can learn from my mistakes.

Unfortunately, I don't believe you made any mistakes. This is just a case of them bad luck blues, my friend. A sad reminder of the times we're in. Can't seem to trust as much as you'd be able to throw what you're putting your trust in, and can't seem to lend so much as a hand without one taking the whole arm. This goes on both sides of the law out here. This happens far more than we see/hear and the circumstances could have been far worse.

Stay vigilant. Once we become too comfortable in our ways, a reminder is always right around the corner to keep us on our toes. There are always bad apples that spoil the sweet, sweet slices of life.. Perhaps far too many, and far too many that are allowed to, these days. We don't pay for that type of .... to fly, we shouldn't feel obliged to give in to that, and we shouldn't tolerate that. I'm afraid that's where this off-topic becomes too "off-topic", within this forum...

I hope all gets squared away and that you and your family rest easy and walk lighter, soon! That's all that really matters through all of this.

[Bolster]

Another footnote, if you don't mind:

My wife tells me she successfully cancelled all her cards within 15 minutes, and in that 15 minutes, there were multiple attempts at multiple stores...Lowe's, HD, Target, several others. Only the HD purchases were successful (perhaps they were first). Seems to me there's no way a perp could physically drive to all those stores in 15 minutes, so my hypothesis is: When a card is stolen, it is possibly used for multiple phone orders? Then the perp drives by the store to pick up the loot later?

Just trying to understand the anatomy of the crime. The spending occurs nearly immediately, almost simultaneously, and is intense.

[weeping minora]

Another footnote, if you don't mind:

My wife tells me she successfully cancelled all her cards within 15 minutes, and in that 15 minutes, there were multiple attempts at multiple stores...Lowe's, HD, Target, several others. Only the HD purchases were successful (perhaps they were first). Seems to me there's no way a perp could physically drive to all those stores in 15 minutes, so my hypothesis is: When a card is stolen, it is possibly used for multiple phone orders? Then the perp drives by the store to pick up the loot later?

Just trying to understand the anatomy of the crime. The spending occurs nearly immediately, almost simultaneously, and is intense.

Possibly aided by the frenzy to "order everything online" nowadays. In-store/same day pick-up catapulted that immensely. I'm sure they have info/accounts linked online to many stores that offer such amenities. These criminals have all day to sit and scheme. As is often said, it'd be a wonderous thing to revel in what these people would (or could) offer to the world if that energy would perhaps shift towards a different approach and outcome.

That's my 2 pennies worth.

[standy99]

Couldn’t home depot know who picked up goods, camera there ?
Or if they used it in store…..camera also ?

Probably all the crime TV shows I have watched with the Mrs like first 48 etc

[TomAiello]

- Getting the police interested has been problematic. I think there's so much crime this doesn't even register. My experience with police and property crimes is that they basically want the victim to positively identify the perp or fugeddaboudit. I think I am actually doing the police work here, identifying the car (erm, well, YOU did that!), contacting the ARCO station, getting video, etc. There are multiple HDs nearby so I don't know which one would have video...if we could even match the perps to the car in the parking lot...an employee would have to be very motivated to do that footwork. Maybe after the holiday the Police will get back to work? I hope. But there's basically nothing for us to recover other than $1 so I think that's not very motivational for the Police.

I have a friend who 'took matters into his own hands' on something like this by posting the surveillance video to various local Facebook groups with a reward offer. He was able to identify the culprit and give their identity to the police. It turned out the culprit was a felon on parole, who was re-arrested.

[Bolster]

^ Love it. Unfortunately for me, this is the best photo I have of the perp...not very identifiable...

[horzuff]

I wonder how they protect themselves against fuel theft if that's their camera quality... Really sorry that this happened to You

[Naperville]

I guess my paranoia pays off.

- I carry my key fob in a security pouch so the code cannot be read
- I lock the doors when I exit the vehicle for everything, including getting gasoline

Is it a hassle? Sometimes, but I avoid this very situation.

[TomAiello]

I have long been in the habit of locking the doors. When I was (much) younger, my mother used to call it my 'lock-o-mania'. I would always lock/unlock every door when I walked through it. I've intentionally eased back on that since having children (it was too easy to lock them out of the house because no one else is in the habit of carrying keys everywhere).

[Naperville]

I have long been in the habit of locking the doors. When I was (much) younger, my mother used to call it my 'lock-o-mania'. I would always lock/unlock every door when I walked through it. I've intentionally eased back on that since having children (it was too easy to lock them out of the house because no one else is in the habit of carrying keys everywhere).

I must have 'lock-o-mania' too. I strongly suggest belonging to AAA-Auto Club for anyone venturing down this path.

I have to warn everyone else here. Not sure why, but I passed through a time period where I locked myself out of my Chevy Express Van leaving the keys behind maybe 3 times back in 2003. Belonging to AAA will save you and it's cheap. They can get the car door opened for you with a simple call.

[James Y]

I have long been in the habit of locking the doors. When I was (much) younger, my mother used to call it my 'lock-o-mania'. I would always lock/unlock every door when I walked through it. I've intentionally eased back on that since having children (it was too easy to lock them out of the house because no one else is in the habit of carrying keys everywhere).

I must have 'lock-o-mania' too. I strongly suggest belonging to AAA-Auto Club for anyone venturing down this path.

I have to warn everyone else here. Not sure why, but I passed through a time period where I locked myself out of my Chevy Express Van leaving the keys behind maybe 3 times back in 2003. Belonging to AAA will save you and it's cheap. They can get the car door opened for you with a simple call.

I have AAA.

I actually have OCD around keys, security, etc. I always lock my car whenever I step away from it. I've seen people leave their cars with the keys in the ignition, engine running, when they run into a convenience store. I couldn't imagine doing that.

At home, I store my car/house keys in a Faraday box. I think that's what it's called.

Jim

[Bolster]

OK guys, an update:

The folks at ARCO finally turned over the raw footage on a thumbdrive (after bugging them for days). Previously all I had was an iphone movie of their computer screen! Now I have the actual file, and the resolution is a lot better. Not enough to read the license plate, but I'm getting there. I'm using a method called "hyperfocus" where you take multiple blurry/blocky/artifactual images (like you get from the single frame of a movie) and stack them, then merge them, then sharpen and contrast adjust, and it starts to get close to readable...but I'm stuck with my screen's 1080P resolution and I think the original file has more than that. I have a friend with a 4K screen and he'll take additional screenshots, and I'll do the "hyperfocus" process again. If you are interested, I'll post two images...one of just what my 1080P screen sees in a single frame of the ARCO video, and then the "hyperfocused" merge of 11 screenshots of same. As you can see, we're getting close. Tally of what they have cost me in rekeying: $2800.

PS: I'm a lock freak like many of you guys. I lock everything all the time. But we're talking about my wiiiiife here. Different story. Though to be fair, her car opens all doors when she gets out the driver's side. Still haven't figured out how to turn that off.

[Bolster]

Getting closer with multiple enhancements...what do you see? Is this a vanity plate? Is there a gangsta phrase here that I don't recognize? (I don't speak gangsta). Click the attached photo to enlarge it.

PS: Car dealer says you can NOT turn off the "auto open all doors when driver exits" function on wife's car. Wow, what a terrible "automatic feature." She is switching to the Naperville method. Get out, lock doors, fill gas.

[mongo1958]

Getting closer with multiple enhancements...what do you see? Is this a vanity plate? Is there a gangsta phrase here that I don't recognize? (I don't speak gangsta). Click the attached photo to enlarge it.

PS: Car dealer says you can NOT turn off the "auto open all doors when driver exits" function on wife's car. Wow, what a terrible "automatic feature." She is switching to the Naperville method. Get out, lock doors, fill gas.

I clearly got the car wrong so take it with a grain of salt.
I can make out what looks like 42K4.
And now for the weather...