Car Thieves

Brett Dikeman brett at cloud9.net
Wed Aug 20 22:17:50 EDT 2003


At 1:24 AM -0400 8/20/03, Casting Fool wrote:

>An aunt sent me this one.  True or false?  A problem with Audi's and/or VW
>buses, or not?
>

>It seems that car thieves have found another way to steal your car or
>truck without any effort at all. The car thieves peer through the
>windshield of your car or truck, write down the VIN number from the
>label on the dash, go to the local car dealership and request a
>duplicate key based on the VIN number.

Uh, no.  Both times I've needed radio codes looked up, I had to
present the radio itself, along with my registration and driver's
license, and the guy compared the two before looking up the code.  I
would expect at least that for a key made.

What IS true is that some Audis came with little metal tags imprinted
with the ignition key code; from that code, any locksmith or dealer
can create a new key.  Audi specifically tells you NOT to keep the
tag on your keyring or in the car.  I think they also need the VIN #
to confirm, not sure.

Interesting story- Chevy Corvettes(or was it Camaros?) used to be
VERY high on the most-stolen list.  They added an immobilizer
ignition key, and it dropped like a rock to near bottom of the list
that model year.

Funny thing is that the Acura Integra(which both my
integra-owning-friend and I are pretty sure has an immobilizer key as
well) is/was #1 on the most-stolen list.  Either we're wrong, or the
system sucks and people have found how to bypass it...

Covering the VIN plate won't do you much good anyway these days; many
state registration stickers are computer printed now, and have the
VIN number right on 'em.

B
--
----
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/



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