DALLAS, Texas — Thieves hate time. Thieves hate noise. Thieves hate attention.
Those are three critical things I learned after someone tried to take my 2020 Chevy Silverado from the parking garage of my apartment complex toward the end of 2023. Yes! I am a property crime stat. Where's my badge? Anyway!
Those three things led me to a line of questioning for police and other vehicle theft victims that determined auto manufacturers aren't precisely gagging to stop thieves from boosting vehicles in silence.
Let me explain. Don't sue me yet, Stellantis, GM, and Ford!
I got lucky last year when thieves picked my truck to steal. Some weeks before, a neighboring truck owner with a similar set of wheels had his 2022 GMC Sierra stolen and gave me a personal heads-up because it looked identical to mine.
His name was Tanner Bragg, and when I saw him in our parking garage, I had only one simple question: How could thieves steal a newer model truck like mine or his?
I even traveled back in time to a discussion I had with a dealership salesman. You know, before I drove off the lot, blaring 'Like a Rock' by Bob Seger. I remember asking about the factory alarm and even getting a demo. The bottom line is that the alarm will go off if your fob isn't nearby and someone tries opening the door.
Is it a foghorn that everyone in a ship channel can hear? No.
But the horn is supposed to go off, and the lights are supposed to flash because thieves hate noise, right? They HATE any attention shown to them during a job.
Still. Bragg gave an answer that surprised me. I'm not usually surprised, but what he said gave me pause.
Bragg had stopped a group of thieves from stealing his truck months before they returned and ultimately finished the job. He caught them in the act while heading out for an errand—they dropped a diagnostic tool that dealerships use to connect to the vehicle's onboard diagnostic (OBD) port so they can reprogram a new key or software.
"I went out in the garage, and I saw them, and as soon as they saw me, they just took off," Bragg said.
That--and his horn didn't work.
The horns on most newer GMCs, Silverados, Rams, and F150s are behind the truck's grill and can often be ripped with a hook or even your hand.
"Somebody in traffic pulled out in front of me, and I went to honk the horn, but I didn't hear anything. I put it all together and talked to police about it again, and the detective said that's how they're doing it," Bragg said.
So, let's recap: thieves disable the horn, break into the cab, gain access to the OBD port, program a new key or software, and take off in minutes.
It was a lot to digest in a few minutes. My takeaway? I needed a quick deterrent. I felt like Kevin McCalister in Home Alone when he uns into incompetent burglars Marv and Harry for the first time, and he defiantly states, "When those guys come back, I'll be ready."
A crude anti-theft device in the form of an industrial-strength chain wrapped from my steering wheel to my brake pedal column with the highest security-grade Master Lock did the trick. I wanted to get a "club" steering wheel lock, but I saw a lot of YouTube videos in which thieves would just bend them and rip them off.
With a chain wrapped to the brake pedal (I went with a PEWAG Security Chain, which is more difficult for bolt cutters and takes a while for a circular saw to cut through), it would act as a steering wheel lock but with better material.
My girlfriend thought I was insane.
But you know what? Trucks have increased in price since 2020, and I got a great deal on mine during the pandemic when it felt like they were giving them away. It's the only vehicle I've ever owned that's appreciated in value after I purchased it.
Well, one morning, I hopped in my truck to start my day, and the dashboard had a notification where the speed limit typically displays: "THEFT ATTEMPTED."
I went to honk my horn—silence. I also noticed that the keyhole in my driver's door had been punched.
However, my truck was still where I parked it! Thanks, Delta Rigging, and Tools in Hurst! #CHAINGANG.
Now, I had to fix my horn, which was a perfect opportunity to change its location.
2023 was the worst year for auto theft in Dallas
Thieves love targeting trucks in Texas because the risk-to-reward ratio is incredible. They either use the vehicle to commit other crimes, sell it online, dupe buyers out of thousands of dollars, or chop it up and resell it for parts.
After Bragg's truck was stolen and his insurance wrote him a new check that he used to purchase a new vehicle, a sheriff's office in California contacted him to tell him that his truck had been found when a buyer had bought it online for roughly $30k in cash.
When they went to register it, it came back as stolen, and the buyer had to give it up to law enforcement.
"I actually didn't get the worst part of the deal," Bragg said.
In Dallas, 2023 was a banner year for auto theft. More than 18,000 vehicles were stolen an all-time high.
WFAA has also covered several instances over the previous year where the theft of a motor vehicle, several of them involving trucks, ended with the owner confronting the thieves and being killed.
Those numbers aren't as high in 2024. This time last year, there were 15,412 thefts; as of the end of October this year, the number sits at 12,179.
Still, motor vehicle theft is the second highest reported crime behind simple assault. The data troubled outgoing Chief Eddie Garcia before he left for an assistant city manager role in Austin. He told WFAA before announcing his departure for the capitol city that the department is reporting stolen vehicles more efficiently to the National Crime Information Center.
That way, vehicles are found through Flock Safety cameras, and regular police work more often.
"They're being utilized to commit more crime, often violent crime. They're getting chopped up and sold in different parts and being shipped outside the country," Garcia said. "We're seeing it all."
Still, he underscored that officers can't be everywhere to prevent a theft. He stressed that auto manufacturers should collaborate more with police, learning how thefts occur more frequently and how the flank of security designs is being exposed.
"We'd love to have officers on every corner but that's where manufacturers could hop in and fill the gap," Garcia said. "If I have a new track of homes being built, and the front doors don't come with locks, and those homes are getting burglarized, wouldn't you sit down with the homebuilders and ask them if they can put locks on the doors?"
Horns used to be located elsewhere
Mitchell Automotive in Ennis helped me fix and relocate my horn for less than $200, so it wouldn't be so easily accessible to thieves. The owner, Gary Mitchell, was a lead mechanic for a dealership in Ennis for over a decade.
He told me that horns weren't always up behind the grills of trucks or other vehicles.
"Horns for years were hidden up behind the headlights for some reason, they've recently made the wiring where it's right under the right front of the grill," Mitchell said.
Jeremy Rattan is a mechanic in Mitchell's shop and has 21 years of experience as a mechanic at various dealerships in North Texas.
"We had one customer come in and tell us that his car got stolen in Dallas, and he was able to recover it himself--and when he found it, he told us that his horn didn't work, so we reconnected it and relocated it," Rattan said. "This all started to change around 2014-2015, I feel. We started seeing them behind the grill, not the headlight or someplace else."
Mitchell and Rattan reconnected my horn and hid it behind my headlight, and I didn't notice much of a difference from before. Mitchell said the auto industry is always trying to stay ahead of thieves but thinks the gap isn't as wide as it once was.
"These guys are taking hooks or whatever they can, and they're just yanking that wire. Once they kill that horn, they can open the vehicle, and no alarms go off. You would think the auto manufacturers would find a better way to prevent this from happening," Mitchell added.
GM and other manufacturers respond
WFAA contacted Stellantis (which makes the Dodge RAM), Ford, and GM about this issue. Stellantis, Ford and GM all responded, however, media representatives from Stellantis and Ford didn't directly address WFAA's questions.
A Ford media representative told WFAA that "this is more of an industry question" and that WFAA should follow up with the "Alliance for Automotive Innovation" on the topic.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation is an advocacy/lobbying group for car and light truck manufacturers in the U.S.
WFAA reached out to that group but never heard back.
Stellantis told WFAA that its horns are packaged in multiple configurations and didn't respond when we asked if the company was concerned about rising thefts or was thinking about changing its configurations.
A representative for GM responded with the following:
How can you protect your truck?
Look. I'll level with you. If thieves want to take your vehicle, they'll find a way. No car is truly 'theft-proof.' But the factory alarm, in my opinion, shouldn't be that easy to disable either. When someone tried to take my truck, I wondered why no one was talking about this outside of online message boards.
If this is such a pattern, why did I have to hear about this from a neighbor at my apartment complex after his truck was stolen?
The location of a horn and its easy disabling are a very small part of the growing problem of auto theft nationwide. I won't cure it by doing this story, but I at least want to get the word out. So, if you're wondering how to protect yourself, I have a few suggestions.
First and foremost, get an AirTag or something equivalent to that and hide it somewhere undetected in your truck. If it gets stolen, it's possible you can at least track it.
Even though I don't like the 'club' steering wheel lock, it's a visual deterrent telling a thief that stealing this will take time. They'll just move on to the next vulnerable vehicle, which is horrible to say, but at this point, telling a potential thief not to waste their time is a significant part of the battle.
If you know a good mechanic, installing a kill switch is an incredible option. In addition to my AirTag and steering wheel chain, I have a custom starter relay in my fuse box that only responds to the ignition start button if I toggle a key beforehand. You can find them online for over $100; mine works well.
Here's another simple thing: remove the starter relay fuse every night. A thief probably won't keep a bunch of spare starter relays on them. Once they try to start your wheels and it doesn't crank, they will likely take too long to figure out why and leave.
Lastly, you can always install a fancy alarm. There are a bunch on the market, but they are often pricey.
All I knew was that I couldn't have peace of mind until I installed the kill switch myself.
Whatever helps you sleep, I would suggest doing it.