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Truck stolen, but recovered

tkbenziger

tkbenziger

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I'm in Houston working for a few days and had my 22 NE 2500 limited parked right beside hotel entrance. This is in the Galleria which "appears" to be a nice area. The thugs busted my rear driver window pulled out the uconnect and trim along foot panels to start the vehicle.

Fortunately for me I was up about 530 a.m. and went down to get something out the truck. I saw it was gone, inquired with Valet and they said they hadn't moved it. I used the RAM app to locate the truck about 40 miles away. Houston PD used the address I gave them and found the truck.

Unfortunately it seems these vehicles are very easy to steal. Be vigilant out there y'all.

I am thankful we were able to recover the truck and there isn't more extensive damage. But man I just feel so violated..
 

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Did they pop out the radio to get to the security gateway? I'm assuming that they were able to program a new fob to the truck so they could start it?
 
NOOBS! They don't need to deface a truck to steal it. And no need to program a new Key Fob.

It is so damn easy, it is scary.

Key Fob signals can be extended to any distance with common hardware. You only need two guys to steal your truck: One close to your house door to catch the Key Fob signal with an iPad (because usually this is where people puts downs their keys) and another one using that relayed signal to open the door and start your truck. The truck see no difference whatsoever.

Once the truck is started and put in drive, the Key Fob signal is no longer required until engine is stopped. They just get an annoying error message.
So they just need to get your truck in a container in a single straight shot. And goodbye.

There were 4 RAMs stolen in a single night in my area using that method. Being relatively close to a sea port (1 hour), they get them into containers and are being shipped overseas. Before you find out your truck is missing, it is well protected in a container. Too late for any tracking.

Store your Key Fob overnight in a Faraday pouch. There are available widely on Amazon.
 
Sorry to hear about this, that's terrible. I am really curious on what they did to start the truck, anyone have details on what it takes?

**Edit** Thanks to @MikeXM for his explanation. **Edit**
 
Newer Key Fob are/will be designed to stop emitting once they detect no movement (so they know you are not walking to your truck). That type of night attack will no be longer possible with these updated Key Fob.
But AFAIK, RAMs Key Fobs are still vulnerable.
 
superjoe83 said:
Did they pop out the radio to get to the security gateway? I'm assuming that they were able to program a new fob to the truck so they could start it?
Click to expand...
I'm not really sure exactly how they did it. I know it took them less than 5 minutes to get in, start, and drive off.

My fob still works to lock / unlock / start etc.

I will be having it "rekeyed" and looking into additional options for security to hopefully prevent this from happening again.
 
Some cars and bikes, when the motor is started and you drive off without the keyfob, after it is out of range of the keyfob, will shut down. My Genesis was like that along with My Harley and I beleive my G8 did the same, just been a long time since I had them.
 
MikeXM said:
NOOBS! They don't need to deface a truck to steal it. And no need to program a new Key Fob.

It is so damn easy, it is scary.

Key Fob signals can be extended to any distance with common hardware. You only need two guys to steal your truck: One close to your house door to catch the Key Fob signal with an iPad (because usually this is where people puts downs their keys) and another one using that relayed signal to open the door and start your truck. The truck see no difference whatsoever.

Once the truck is started and put in drive, the Key Fob signal is no longer required until engine is stopped. They just get an annoying error message.
So they just need to get your truck in a container in a single straight shot. And goodbye.

There were 4 RAMs stolen in a single night in my area using that method. Being relatively close to a sea port (1 hour), they get them into containers and are being shipped overseas. Before you find out your truck is missing, it is well protected in a container. Too late for any tracking.

Store your Key Fob overnight in a Faraday pouch. There are available widely on Amazon.
Click to expand...
Why did they have to break the rear window and tear up the interior if they used the method you described?
 
superjoe83 said:
Why did they have to break the rear window and tear up the interior if they used the method you described?
Click to expand...
I didn't say they used that specific method on that job. I'm just saying it is very easy for them to do it. And I have no clue what they actually did in that case. There are more than one way to skin a cat...
Given the owner was in a hotel room, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have access to his Key Fob signal as it only goes out for a few feet. So they used another method that requires a break in and some nice "dash mods".
 
MikeXM said:
Newer Key Fob are/will be designed to stop emitting once they detect no movement (so they know you are not walking to your truck). That type of night attack will no be longer possible with these updated Key Fob.
But AFAIK, RAMs Key Fobs are still vulnerable.
Click to expand...
Supposedly this is true about the Ram Fob. There is a British company I came across about a year ago that makes a retrofit for the Fob that does turn it off after 30 seconds or so of no movement. So that technology has been available for years. Ram just figured it was a few cents to save by not implementing it I guess. I did not get that but do use a faraday pouch. I started with that because I noticed that if my Fob was within distance of the truck, the trucks dash and uConnect would periodically wake up. Probably not an issue for a truck that is driven frequently. But because my truck can sometimes sit for a few weeks without use, I did not want the wake up that was happening very frequently to impact the battery. I put the Fobs in the faraday and not the truck does now do that.
 
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