[BarePaw]

My car was stolen last night from my locked garage in Browne's Addition in Spokane. I can't offer any kind of reward (it's insured anyways so it's not the end of the world), but if anybody happens to see a dark green 1998 Subaru Outback wagon with the license plate 979-MNR, could you either call the Spokane PD, or let me know? Thanks.

Stolen from a locked garage in Browne's Addition in Spokane, WA. Lic# 979-MNR. If found, please contact Spokane Police Dept.

[BarePaw]

I'm not really sure. I share the garage with others in my apartment complex, so somebody probably left the door open. It's also possible that a former resident didn't return a key. I had a hide-a-key on the car, but so did most of the other cars in the garage, and mine was hidden better. Also, mine not the nicest car in the garage. The paint is peeling off the roof, a characteristic I thought would be a great theft deterrent.

[jimmymac]

Last night a coworker of mine had an Explorer stolen from her locked garage in Snohomish County. This was a single family home. The cops suspect the buggers used a RF device to exploit the garage door opener. (Keys in the ignition made the rest of the job pretty easy.)

[polecatjoe]

That stuff sucks- the penalty for car theft is so light it isn't much of a deterrent. Sorry to hear about your rig...

[BarePaw]

The police officer I reported to said that car theft in Spokane has incresed from 5 per week to 25 per week in the last 2 years. He said they usually drive them until they run out of gas, then dump them somewhere. I guess that means there is still hope of finding it.

[Backpacker Joe]

LoJack is the answer to any stolen vehicle.... lojack

[captain jack]

Lojack is cool. Unfortunately it's not available in Spokane yet. Lojack pays for all the tracking and retrieval equipment in the police cars, so they only do major markets right now. It's amazing how complacent a door makes us, thieves know this too .

[mgd]

Now I'm starting to see these cars everywhere. Two in the last 3 hours.

[BarePaw]

[Rob Jordan]

[Justan]

I've had 2 cars stolen. One from my driveway during daylight and one from a repair shop. For the cars we park outside, the club has stopped further iterations of vehicle theft but not from being broken into. One car of ours has been broken into something like 5 times in the last 10 years, including post club use, and had 4 radios and other stuff taken. But since using the club, the car itself has not been stolen again. Thieves the world over are after the easy targets....

[Gaius]

I use to work on Lake Pend Orielle for the Navy and stolen cars would be dumped in the lake off of the Cape Horn road. There is a section of the road that skirts the top edge of a cliff that ends in the lake. The cliff area didn't have any jersey barriers. As we were heading up the lake in our boat we would run by this cliff area. Occasionally there would be more car debris (mufflers, bumpers, glass, etc.), more than usual, that is. We would call the Kootenai county sheriff and they would send out a dive team. Sure enough, there was always a car. The Navy would then send out a barge then to recover the car/engine. It always seemed strange to me how they would choose this place. Kinda out of the way.

[Locutus]

[Jeepasaurusrex]

A piece of heavy chain with a big padlock on it thru the wheel and around the seat frame really slows em down. So does a Ruger .44mag.

[Cleatuss]

Sorry to hear about yer ride bein' jacked BarePaw. I don't know how I could possibly resist replying to this thread. To be honest with you I'm utterly surprised I've waited this long!!! I've been touched by the evil hand of mankind twice! Yes, that's right, twice (2 times!) I've had a vehicle stolen - from trailheads!!! One was a Toyota Celica GT(before I was the world-renowned backpacker I am today...) about five years ago, and then the second was an Isuzu Rodeo last July. I'll tell you what though... maybe it's just my laid back personality, but after a couple times it's more of a nuisance thumbing a ride out of the woods than find a new vehicle. Boy have I got stories to tell about that... I digress... Ok, so with having had two vehicles savagely appropriated I've spent many eons pondering and researching possible solutions. I came up with a system that if my ignition was tampered with then a trap door would open on a box beneath the drivers seat to release four extremely rabid and hungry badgers. But after talking to my brother I decided that three highly venomous rattlesnakes may be better for the job. (Rattlesnakes trump Levis any day of the week.) But after long hard thought I decided it would be best to fill the box with a colony of fire ants. Unfortunately finding someone to create and install this system wasn't easy - no so much. Plus the detective handling my case wasn't real keen on the idea of me sitting on rattlesnakes... My factory alarm triggers and ignition cutoff, but I wired a rocker switch to my fuel pump so that unless someone knows where my switch is... they're going nowhere. The hardest part is getting used to hitting the switch each time I exit and enter the vehicle. I forget every once in a while so when I go to start my Xterra it sounds like a 1981 Yugo that has no oil in the system... after a while it'll be second nature. A hidden kill switch is the way to go, and mine only took me about 15 minutes to install. Forget the club, it's useless. It's a deterrent, but it can easily be disposed of with some freon or a hacksaw to the pedal or steering wheel - depending on which club you get. The second act of piracy lasted a couple weeks, but a high-speed pursuit ensued and my extremely "modified" Rodeo was recovered after being crashed into a field in Snohomish. The kat that stole my vehicle basically got away with a slap on the hand and his birthday taken away! Vehicle theft laws are far too lenient in Washington if you ask me. Maybe I could rig up a claymore under the driver's side to take out everything below the knees... Seriously though, my friend's dad sent me an outstanding article on vehicle security options if you might want it.