True story…
I knew a guy whom I later found out, made arrangements to have his car taken so he could report it stolen. Before the car was stolen, someone stole the battery out of the car. He then had to buy a new battery so the car could be stolen. Needless to say, he was upset. At that point, he was convinced by a few of us who found out, sell the car for what it’s worth. Friend or no, we knew the scam and he would be reported. This stuff does go on a lot. Nothing to do with this post for sure, but car theft sometimes has a willing help from the owner.
The Astro and Safari were available as cargo vans without rear seats and windows
Okay. Thank you everyone for your input about my husband’s GMC Safari. We have since secured our neighbor’s garage for the next vehicle we buy. My husband also ordered a type of steering wheel block that goes around the wheel and locks it. He already bought one for me for my Acura Integra. But his comes from Italy (as does my husband) and he’s going to bring it back from Italy when he goes there in January. Any thoughts on this?
Like was said, its pretty easy to just cut the steering wheel. Best is a kill switch that only you know where it is to turn the fuel on. You’ll just end up with a cracked window and a dead battery as they try crank the engine to start it.
Like this?
If someone wants a vehicle bad enough they will get it, or at least attempt to, no matter what precautions are taken. They might even resort to posing as fake car repo guys and simply hauling the car off on the hook.
About 8 or 9 years ago the county here lost a near brand new John Deere tractor along with the mower attachment and it hasn’t been seen since after it was taken from the side of the county highway.
Many years ago at a large trucking company terminal in OK City an entire 40 foot trailer full of coffee was hauled right out through the security gate in broad daylight; with the coffee never being seen again or catching the driver who hauled it. No word was mentioned about how deeply involved the gate guards were…
Just kind of shows that if someone wants something they will get it.
I agree with @ok4450
Years ago, there was a Porsche that was featured in a car magazine
Anyways, somebody must have really wanted it badly, because it was stolen
Some guys showed up and flatbedded it out of there
Fat lot of good the alarm, steering wheel lock, etc. did them
And you know what . . . the car was stolen from in front of the shop
So somebody probably saw it happening and thought it was a legitimate tow job
The suggestion of the kill switch reminds me of a story. Hope you’ll forgive if I post this humorous incident: Years ago I installed (in an amateurish quick and dirty way) a kill switch in my Ford truck. A few years later I was hauling some lumber home from the lumber store, and the bed was full and still 5 or 6 more pieces of 2 x 6’s to put in, so I put them into the passenger side of the cab instead, butted up against the floor near the 4wd lever, the other end sticking out the window. I failed to notice however that one of these pieces of lumber was sitting on top of the wire I used for the kill switch, and it shorted out, starting a fire in the cab, which started the wood on fire. Yipes! Fortunately I was able to put the fire out. And at that point decided the kill switch idea had run its course so I removed it and all its wiring … lol …
@db4690, many years ago (many) the Chevy dealer here had moved from downtown to a divided 4-lane on the west side of town where they apparently knew expansion was going to occur.
The lot sits a bit low on the terrain and there is only one entrance/exit into that dealership with a tiny bit of a bird’s eye view of things.
At one time they had 2 of those 1969 Camaro Z-28s on the lot with the hot little DZ code 302s in them.
One Monday morning it was discovered that overnight someone had pulled the motors/transmissions from both cars and took the wheels to boot; leaving the cars on blocks.
This was obviously done with a winch truck by several people and it’s amazing that someone could get away with that while working within a few hundred feet of a traveled roadway and all of those overhead lights blazing away.
A little technique and some brass goes a long way I suppose… 
Several years ago a co-worker had some Boyd-Coddington wheels on her Chevy Astro, one day without anyone noticing (still not really sure how) someone jacked up the van on 2 jackstands total and stole the wheels leaving the van’s front end on the curbstone and the rear high in the air.
Now THAT, Doug, is a brain teaser!
I’m gonna have to figure that one out…
At the time the store didn’t have any cameras in the parking lot and this was on the very edge of a large lot. We learned to be more vigilant from that point on.Since she parked in the basically the same spot every day someone had to see those wheels and decide to take the chance of getting caught.
Wouldnt be that hard to do,without going into explanation,theres several ways it could be done-hate a thief.But Karma usually bites,sadly enough a lot of the Guys I knew in jail,seemed predestined ,to return-Kevin
A local lawn service gets his vehicles painted hot pink to bring attention to them. The trucks are immediately recognized when parked at a house and would be recognized if seen at a location they didn’t belong. Employees often take the trucks home overnight with no concern for inappropriate use and who could steal such an easily identified vehicle? Maybe zebra stripes would be as successful. But thieves likely try to avoid attention.
A local lawn service gets his vehicles painted hot pink to bring attention to them.
What’s the name of this service… “Mary Kay Lawn service”
I found a link showing the trucks
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.315501741920.158668.315181186920&type=3
ewwwww
Dodge trucks. 