From the article: He eventually found ads for what were labeled “emergency start” devices. Ostensibly, these devices were designed for use by owners or locksmiths to use when no key is available, but nothing was preventing their use by anyone else, including thieves.
A local area police officer told me that there had been a burglary of a locksmith shop and the only thing taken was a couple of electronic devices for starting cars that could only be purchased by licensed locksmiths.
Reminds me of this
My Mazda with a smart key was stolen from my driveway about a month ago. I had the keys inside with me, but they drove away with it a Friday around 3:30 am, according to a neighbor that saw someone get in my car. Whomever stole it came directly for my car. I suspect they either had programmed a key or cloned my key or had one of these devices. I’ve found programmers on Ebay and Amazon for around $200-$300.
If they programmed a key into my car or cloned it, I think it may have been at some valet parking in December. I attended a bunch of holiday dinners and events with clients and colleagues, and of course, your address is in the glove compartment with your insurance and registration papers, so they can clone your key or program a new one and then then go steal it whenever enough time has passed that it won’t be so suspicious.
The car was recovered about three weeks later, there was a non-original key inside that starts and locks the car and works just like the factory key. They put 2,000 miles on it, and were apparently living inside my car, it was full of dirty clothes and socks, cigarette ashes and fast food wrappers. It was beyond flithy and stank horribly of Synchromesh oil, I recognized the smell immediately because I use the same Royal Purple gearbox oil in my other car. I found puddles of the oil in the trunk and the carpets were ruined. If you are familiar with it you know how pungent the smell is. I suspect they stole my car because it’s an unassuming family sedan that won’t look out of place anywhere, and that they spilled the oil on purpose to mask the smell of drugs or something that they were smuggling. They did hang two of those LIttle Trees air fresheners which only made the stench much worse.
Otherwise I can’t explain it. Even the cop that came to my house to file the report said that he had never heard of anyone stealing a Mazda. I had just got it in October…
I had it deep cleaned and that removed the BO and food and smoke smell, but it still stank of the oil, so I’m in the process now of ripping the carpet and replacing everything that was contaminated by the oil and washing every surface it touched with hot water and PIne-sol. It is much better now but some of the smell still lingers.
That sucks dude, does your insurance cover the damage or are you just on the hook for cleaning it up etc?
I spilled a milk jug of oil in the back of my golf after a cleanup day. Carpet cleaner got it out and pretty much back to normal. Gearbox oil is nastier though.
Unfortunately my insurance only covered getting all keys erased at the dealer and having a new key programmed into the car…by the way, avoid Mazda of Richardson if you ever need to have a Mazda serviced. They insisted I need everything from a new subframe to alignment to tires to reprogramming and aligning the radar / lane departure camera, all for the modest amount of $4,400 or so. They sent me a video of my car on the lift and their guy shows a couple of scratches in the subframe and says “The subframe is damaged, I recommend replacing it”.
Funny, though, they didn’t say anything about some plastic trim that needs replacement. The asshole that stole my car ripped apart a few parts, I guess he was checking if the car had a tracker.
My car has 41,000 miles. I told them in writing that I only wanted the key programmed and a new cabin air filter. They have been calling me every few days to ask “when I want to bring my car in to get the subframe replaced”.
I had new tires installed early in March and an alignment performed at that time at NTB, and I just drove to visit my parents in South Padre and the car seems to track fine. I’m planning to use our lift when I return to see if there’s anything wrong with it…I very much doubt it.
Car dealers are hurting badly and it’s only going to get worse. I’m not surprised they are trying desperately to wring money out of you. I suspect more than a few will be out of business before too long.
Wring… Wrong… Both could be right.
Its possible they had a signal repeater and used that to make your car thing your closer. That’s if you have passive entry. They then started the car using the same thing. Then took it to someone with a programmer. I only say that became wouldn’t they have chosen something different if they had access to multiple cars if it was the valets. Also a repeater is a whole lot cheaper and 65 to get a key fob programmed. Either way im sorry that happened to you. If you need key fob programmed, i can help with that
Thanks, just seeing this…I may take you up on that offer. The reason I suspect the key had already been cloned or someone had the other key is that apparently they went straight for my car…but who knows. I much prefer the old style of key with a transponder that you had to put in the cylinder and twist to start the engine…I don’t really feel the wireless key is that much more convenient.
I can also see how many keys are programmed to your vehicle