How technology just saved my Christmas...

I just had a really exciting night in a bad way and felt I should share. I just bought a car a month or two ago. Nothing too flashy - Just a 2016 Hyundai Veloster. Previously, I never got the technology packages or anything but I did this time and I'm thankful for it.

The wife and I were doing some last minute grocery shopping and I parked my car on the roof parking lot of this small grocery store. It was a fairly busy grocery store so I remembered where I parked because I got a spot RIGHT in front next to the elevator. So we shop around for 30 minutes and then head back to the roof and my car is gone. I've never had a car stolen before and I'm freaking out so while the wife is getting an uber to get our groceries home, I'm figuring out my BlueLink app to track the car. I finally see that the car is heading out of range of me being able to track it so I couldn't see it on the map anymore but I could see the status, remote turn it off, remote turn on the alarm and horns, etc. I ended up locking the car, turning it off, and turning on the alarm on the car and by the time I got home 15 minutes later, the cops had located my car. The idiots who stole the car had left it sitting in the middle of a semi-busy street with the lights on, all windows down, and the open so it was pretty easy to spot.

Oh, and I got nice little alerts when they set off the alarm again while getting out of the car with the location of where it happened:

So yeah... if my car had disappeared on Christmas Eve, my Christmas would have been screwed. Thanks to technology, I located it, scared off the thieves and got it back quickly. Plus the cops aren't going to put it in the stolen car registry so the title is still good. From now on, I will be buying the technology package EVERY time dammit!

On a funny note, they tossed everything in the car. ALL of my Cisco boxes from the trunk were in the front seat, clothes were on the floor, they emptied the contents of the glove compartment onto the floor looking for valuable stuff. They probably didn't realize those brand new ASAs, 3850s, 3702s, etc were worth something and instead they only ended up taking some pocket change and a $5 fake bracelet that someone had me wear for a wedding.

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Comments

slinuxuzer

Truly awesome story, and absolutely hilarious that they left gear worth that much there. Hope the cops catch up with them

Dollarhyde

This is a really interesting story. Luckily technology has gotten so much better that we are able to turn cars off remotely. I think that is really amazing, as long as someone else does not turn your car off in the middle of the road.

That is really funny with the ASAs 3850s, those 10gb switches...

I am glad that your Christmas was saved by technology and I hope it will do well in the future too.

philz1982

Glad to hear things worked out for you, it sucks that douchebags try to ruin people's stuff. Hopefully a camera got a shot of them and they get prosecuted.

Iristheangel

There's been a few Defcon talks and demos on remotely hacking into cars. The reality of having everything connected means that there is the potential to hack it as well. In this case, I was able to get my car back fully intact and didn't have to register a 2 month old car as stolen thanks to it. It would have SUCKED to have a salvage title on a car because someone decided to steal it for Christmas.

Funny thing is that I purposely do NOT buy super expensive car brands for the reason that I don't want it to be a car thief magnet or have parts of it stolen. Oh well... Even my little Hyundai isn't safe anymore :P

OfWolfAndMan

It's awesome when the new tech comes together for you! Great to hear everything turned out ok.

Unfortunately, I can't fit into that car though even if I did want some cool tech like that. I am 6'6", so I can't be picky

Dollarhyde

Iristheangel wrote: »

There's been a few Defcon talks and demos on remotely hacking into cars. The reality of having everything connected means that there is the potential to hack it as well. In this case, I was able to get my car back fully intact and didn't have to register a 2 month old car as stolen thanks to it. It would have SUCKED to have a salvage title on a car because someone decided to steal it for Christmas.

That is exactly the case which can be bad. It is probably going to go worse as more cars with that technology start to come out. However you are a pro IT person, I mean CCIE. I think that mindset can definitely help secure your own vehicle, so nobody will be able to take advantage of your own vehicle. I assume you will keep track of all known vulnerabilities and fix them yourself; however other people who have no idea about technology can be at a major disadvantage.

capwap

Iristheangel wrote: »

Funny thing is that I purposely do NOT buy super expensive car brands for the reason that I don't want it to be a car thief magnet or have parts of it stolen.

Same here. I always buy cheap cars...but mostly because I spend all my money on computers and whisky.

danny069

Awesome story! Glad you got your car back and those Grinches fled with pretty much nothing. Merry Christmas!

xnx

I know what I would have taken..

varelg

Iristheangel wrote: »

... Even my little Hyundai isn't safe anymore :P

I am glad things worked well for you. And as far as going for "lesser" brands or old cars to avoid theft, my co-workers old Toyota and '98 Honda Civic got stolen few years ago, so driving old car or more modest brand doesn't mean it won't be stolen.

Iristheangel

@Varelg - I did a little research on it before trying to decide which kind of car brand to buy. I'm not overly paranoid but I am cautious so I prefer cars with 100K mile warranties and ones that have a lower likelihood of being stolen. Not surprising. Honda and Toyotas actually top of the list for car brands that are stolen (link). I believe it's because of the ability to customize and the parts can sell for pretty high amounts. My friends who have nicer cars (BMW, Lexus, Mercedes) more have issues with people trying to steal parts of the cars than the actual car most of the time (i.e. the rims, wheels, etc). They find people trying to tamper with their cars all the time.

Oh well... that Christmas adventure is over and I'm glad it ended well with me getting my car back and no salvage title! The only inconvenience is that they took my garage door opener so I'll be up on a ladder in the garage rekeying the door opener

cyberguypr

Great story. I don't even let my wife drive my car so the thought of someone else taking it and driving it is extremely painful. Glad everything worked out OK.

the_Grinch

Glad you got it back! I'd be interested to know how they actually took the car as I thought that car utilized a key with a chip?

Iristheangel

@Grinch - It's one of those Touch Start with Proximity Key cars. The key has to be in a specific radius of the car in order to start but it doesn't have to remain in the car by any means. This is one of those situations where the thief got lucky given where I parked. Below is the picture of the grocery store where I parked:

If I had parked in the normal parking lot, I probably would have been out of range and he would have been just pressing the start button over and over again with no success but it was a packed parking lot because of Christmas eve so I parked on the rooftop parking lot. Given that I and the keys probably remained within 100 feet of the car most of that time, they got pretty lucky and could turn on the car. If he or she had gotten to their destination or had turned off the car at any point and I was out of range, they would not have been able to turn it on so when I used the BlueLink app to turn off the car - BTW, when the car is in mid-drive, it slows it down similar to if you were running out of gas and brings it to a safe halt prior to shutting down the engine - the thief was probably unable to get it to move again. That would explain why it was sitting in the middle of the road in the turn lane.

I was taking a look at my phone logs and the police blotter yesterday. Kinda funny... Between the time the thief probably stole the car to the time that someone called in to state there was an abandoned car in the middle of the road was approx 40 minutes. One could state from the above that technology definitely factored into this given that they turn on the car but it's still possible to start a car without a key and I'd rather get the car back without damage to the steering column. That and the fact that if my old 2011 Elantra I used to own was stolen, I probably would never have gotten it back this quickly - if at all - since I had nothing in terms of technology package built into it.

Here's what the mobile app looks like for the car:

The Map part is only useful if you're within a mile radius of the car with your phone so that didn't help as much. The App did help me figure out the car was stolen pretty quickly when I could remotely check the status of the car and saw that the engine was running. Plus being able to stop the car, turn it off, lock it, turn on the alarms, etc is fun (not so much for the thief). The funny thing is that the map limitation is bypassed the second the alarm goes off because you get an email alert with the GPS location of where the alarm went off. Sort of a cool thing to keep in the back of my mind if this ever happened again.

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danny069

Wow 100 feet seems like a long ways for a car to be able to start. I rented a dodge journey for the holiday and it doesn't start with the key in my pocket right outside the car, I guess some cars are different since you have a technology package.

Iristheangel

No clue how other companies do it. This is the first time I bought the technology package. I've been buying Hyundai for the last 3 cars just because of the warranty being superior to other cars I've owned. I don't usually invest a ton in them just for the fact that I know I'm trading it in the second it starts to creep near that 100K mile magic number (usually 3-4 years for me). Glad I spent a little more this time because it certainly just paid off. One useful thing with the technology package is that if I did get in my car, start the car, and got all the way across town without realizing I left my keys at home, I could still turn the car on and off or lock/unlock it with the mobile app so I'm not SoL in that event.

techfiend

100 feet seems like a large security issue, car could easily be stolen from a garage while you sleep. My Dodge doesn't start unless the prox key is inside the vehicle.

Good idea to not buy flashy cars in that neighborhood. I'm in a good neighborhood and may go Mercedes next time. I know they're solid cars and their drivers are getting a much better reputation lately.

Iristheangel

I looked at Dodges when I was looking for cars. The 5 year/60,000 mile warranty was a bit of a turn off.

The 100 feet thing I would agree with but I'm not overly worried about someone stealing it in my sleep. My house's main bedroom sits over the garage in my house so it would be near impossible to open it without me knowing or waking up. Assuming your alarm is turned on in the car and you're within 100 feet, if someone were able to break in to hit the Start button, I would assume that the alarm would wake you up anyways. I'd rather them steal it with a Start button than try to hotwire it with a regular ignition. This can easily damage the steering column, wiring, fuses, etc and even if I got my car back in an hour like I did, I would be paying a large amount of money to fix what they did.

techfiend

Do you see any benefits of the long range? Knowing me I'd forget the fob in the house and be screwed when I go to start it up at the destination. Maybe the fobs should be integrated with mobile devices but that could open another can of worms.

Steering column fixes are a big mess and usually take longer than expected. In case of theft it should be covered by insurance but you end up paying for it in the long run with a higher premium.

The prox fobs are a good idea, it's nice to have the car lock/unlock when you get to a certain distance and start without digging for a key. Dodge's fobs are kind of uncomfortable in a pocket, a little bigger than vw's. They could be a lot smaller.

Iristheangel

@Techfiend - I can see one. If I lost my keys and I am in a rush to a client's location, starting up the car if it's in range would be useful or if someone stole the keys and you can't immediately take your car to the dealership. I can restart it at my destination using my mobile-app regardless of whether my keys are in range or not but that's probably the only use-case. Ideally, I agree the range should be shortened.

kj0

My Holden must have the fob within 2 metres to unlock the car and it must have the it inside the car at all times to operate the vehicle. The other day I didn't have pockets so my wife was holding it with my wallet and phone. I pulled up and was waiting for the garage door to open and she hopped out which turned the car off. She had to come back so I could restart the car to put it in the garage.

Slightly more secure is the fact that you are at the boot of the car with the fob, you cannot unlock the side doors.

tpatt100

Dumb question, but when you activated the shut off is it a gradual shut off, like does the car stall and then comes to a stop?

I remember reading that what makes cars more likely to be stolen is not their value it's how common the car is because the car parts sold separately to mechanics is worth more than the car itself. They buy the parts at below market cost and charge market cost for repairs to insurance companies. Not sure how true that is anymore but I remember seeing it on the news before.

techfiend

Years ago I heard Camry and Accord were the most sought after by thieves. Common cars with relatively high parts prices.