dudeinthepnw

My Jeep was stolen on Saturday afternoon from in front of my apartments. My son was sick and we were going to the store to get him some meds and art supplies for a school project. With him being sick, I went outside a few minutes before we left and started the Jeep up to let it warm up. Came back out not even 5 minutes later it was gone! Couldn't f'n believe it. Filed the police report right away and then started a post and blasted it out all over facebook to every local group I could find. Ended up being shared over 1000 times and had thousands of eyes on the watch for the Jeep locally thanks to Social Media. Tonight about 8pm, I got a call from the police saying they had recovered the Jeep in a church parking lot of all places!

Naturally I'm stoked that the jeep was found and that it's still in one piece. Even all my tools and stuff seem to be there from what the officer told me. They even left behind a bonus meth pipe! How sweet!

Anyways, the cops seemed to think they were going to continue using/driving the jeep for a while, there were stolen plates from other Jeeps inside mine. My keys also weren't recovered from the Jeep. I'm an idiot and never made a spare. I'd probably still want to re-key it though since they still have a key. I'll also be installing a hidden kill switch as soon as I get it back.

I've never had re-key an entire vehicle. Any suggestions/advice? Should I try to make it a JY thing? Resources/links to where I can get what I need?

awg

2 basic options

* speak to a locksmith, preferably mobile, and see how much...no security chip in '95 key so should be easy

* obtain a lock set with keys from wrecker..1 x ignition, 2 x door, bit of a pita to fit

papablista

yea what he said ...lGlad you got it back.....

gat

I just wanted to express how great it is to have it recovered and quickly. Be sure that you don't just replace the two doors and ignition. The ignition is for convenience mostly unless you believe the thieves likely to bust a window on an older Jeep to try the old key in the ignition... The lift gate should also be replaced with the two doors. I'd believe that the theives are likely your neighbors or friends thereof from a theft at an apartment complex.

fb97xj1

Re-key everything seeing as the keys are now missing, because they may be back to try again. An alarm, or even a kill switch are good ideas. Or all of the above, if you want the added security. Was there a house key on the same fob? Do you keep your registration and insurance card in the vehicle like most do? That may sound paranoid to some, but you cant trust anybody these days.

awg

steering wheel lock slows them a bit. I would add a kill switch

remember they were meth heads, so they are likely to be not to organised. home CCTV pointing at your car is cheap these days

ask around local meth heads who did it, and mention their is a $50 for info and you want to shoot them..this will send a strong message not to come back

I had a ridiculously sh!thouse car at one stage, it had so many things wrong with it, including broken door locks & ignition switch, so I had it obviously hot wired

after climbing in thru the window, they hot wired and drove off...however what they didnt know is it would stall on a sharp bend AND the NSS was dodgy

they left it in the middle of the road at 2.00am with the doors open

The Cop who rang me was not impressed when I told him to just push it to the side of the road,,,he wanted me to come and attend it...I lied and said i had no way to get there mate

The same car was subsequently stolen again, and never recovered

DCWinterXJ

So happy you got it back man! not gonna comment on the keys, do what you must. I will say that there are small gps units you can buy and hide in the jeep. Maybe rig up a charging setup somehow. But there are many different ones nowadays. You may have to purchase a subscription for like 5 to 10 bucks a month but you can access your vehicles location in real time from a cellphone or computer....just sayin....another route besides an alarm. But a loud *** alarm always helps!
Looking forward to better days for you my friend!

RockinRonnie

Glad you got it back and in one piece !

I would change the locks for the piece of mind if nothing else!

dmill89

X2, and if you can't get to it right away when you get it back from the cops pull the ASD relay and/or coil wire incase the thieves try to take it again

dudeinthepnw

Jeep is home - It could have been in a lot worse shape than it it was, but they stilled messed some stuff up. Yanked the rear sound bar out of the roof and destroyed the surrounding trim in the process. Some dash trim is messed up, there was tweaker blood on the center console, they took all my tools that were there. They stole my nearly brand new battery and replaced it with a small little honda sized battery. It smells, it feels grimy and gross and just felt tainted to drive it when I drove it home.

Got home, parked it, pulled the battery out of it for the night. Also pulling the fuel pump/asd relays, kill switch will installed asap, talked to a locksmith about re-keying it. On a hunt to see if I can find the stuff locally from a JY or something and have the locksmith swap it out tomorrow.

Some pictures here.
http://imgur.com/gallery/VIrc9DZ

boxburn

It just makes you wonder with the interior damage, why? Not that I agree with it but can understand that stealing and joyriding it could be fun for them etc but pulling on some interior plastic for what gain?

Anyway, I wish you all the best with getting it back to how you had it.

PatHenry

They're drug addicts. They are literally desperate for money to buy more drugs and think they can get money for stereo equipment and since they don't care at all about the vehicle, they'll just pull the speakers out the fastest way they can.

It's unfortunate that the police didn't watch the vehicle after finding it so they could catch the dirt-bag and charge him with GTA and drug possession. Considering the POS that stole it was likely to come back (with the fact that his meth pipe was in the vehicle)...

It's not all that surprising that it was found at a church. Addicts frequently use churches as a source of obtaining charity (free food, possibly cash) and a lot of substance abuse programs are held at churches. They could be taking part in such a meeting or going to the meeting to make contacts for buying/selling drugs. An addict that is using might have court ordered participation (frequently a condition of probation), so despite them having no intention of getting sober, they would still need to attend. Also there's the (false) belief that parking at the church will reduce the chances of having the vehicle looked at as suspicious.

boxburn

I didn't even consider the likely crusty dash speakers to be a target.

Xjayingit

EEVEE

what a shame it makes you disgusted to see your jeep in that condition i bet