Ford rental car broken into at TTC

[Lori]

First of all I hope that everyone can skip telling me I shouldn't have left anything of value in the trunk of my car, because I know that already. I really just wanted to point out to other travelers something that happened so you don't make the same mistake. We had an older model ford rental that we picked up and drove several hours to Disney. We didn't put anything in the trunk while on or near Disney property. We locked car remotely and left and would not have even noticed the car had been broken into if we had not been cold when returning to the car and going to trunk to retrieve something. There were no visible signs of break in. The police told us another ford a couple of rows over had also been hit earlier in the evening. I googled car robbed at disney and found another site where someone had posted very similar story to mine and at least one other person said same thing happened to them. All Fords, older models. The police told them that thieves either had remote keyless entry or hard key to break in. Just a warning, I hate to see it happen to anyone else.

 

[jcb]

Lori,

Thank you for posting. I'm so sorry this happened to you while on vacation. It makes me want to buy cars where the remotes can be disabled.

 

[lugnut33]

Thanks for the heads up.

And LOL at the preemptive strike against people blaming you for the break in.

 

[Lori]

Thanks for the heads up.

And LOL at the preemptive strike against people blaming you for the break in.

Well, a girl has got to try.

 

[Yvet]

I'm sorry this happened to you.....

What is considered an older model Ford??

 

[Lori]

Usually when we rent we get newer vehicles, this was a Crown Victoria that had 30,000 miles on it. It was at least a couple of years old. Not sure exact year. It looked like a police car.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Interesting! Do you think that older model cars have very similar keys or something? I wonder how this could work.

 

[Lori]

Sadly we discovered as we were returning the rental car that the remotes seem to work for all of their similar ford cars. One of the rental people came out of the office and clicked the remote to find the car he wanted and several of the fords beeped at the same time. It just made me angrier. The police said they could have grabbed the code since we locked it remotely. They suggested locking it from inside the car so the code can't be grabbed. But after returning the car I would say the remote just works for a lot of the ford cars.

 

[mikelan6]

Sorry this happened to you.

I wouldn't leave anything in my Model-T Ford either. They don't look very reliable to me.

 

[Lori]

Sorry this happened to you.

I wouldn't leave anything in my Model-T Ford either. They don't look very reliable to me.

Lol, you are so right! I do appreciate you all going easy on me and the kind words.

 

[Maleficent53]

First of all I hope that everyone can skip telling me I shouldn't have left anything of value in the trunk of my car, because I know that already.

Never leave anything of value in your car! sorry-couldn't resist!

Sadly we discovered as we were returning the rental car that the remotes seem to work for all of their similar ford cars. One of the rental people came out of the office and clicked the remote to find the car he wanted and several of the fords beeped at the same time. It just made me angrier. The police said they could have grabbed the code since we locked it remotely. They suggested locking it from inside the car so the code can't be grabbed. But after returning the car I would say the remote just works for a lot of the ford cars.

True - I just saw a warning about this a couple weeks ago on our local news. Someone at a mall remotely locked their car and as they were walking away heard the click as it unlocked. They went back and it was unlocked. Apparently there is a device thieves can use to intercept your signal and get into your vehicle after you leave it.

Also, both of my sisters had mustangs (years ago) and their keys worked in both cars - interchangeable. They found out by accident when one picked up the other persons key and started the car up!

 

[Phoenixblue]

I am sorry you had to deal with this. Seems to me you would have been hit no matter what, since they seemed to have been walking around looking for a car to open.
A good warning for anyone who ends up with an older rental car, an good warning for everyone on being able to steal the remote codes - lock the car without the remote! I wouldn't have thought of that one, I usually hit the lock on the door once everyone is out - but that is because with getting kids (and DH) going, it gets crazy and we have forgot a few times to lock the car.
So I have tried to make it a habit of hitting the lock button on the door once the kids clear the car. I will make sure to not forget that now!

 

[lugnut33]

Sadly we discovered as we were returning the rental car that the remotes seem to work for all of their similar ford cars. One of the rental people came out of the office and clicked the remote to find the car he wanted and several of the fords beeped at the same time. It just made me angrier. The police said they could have grabbed the code since we locked it remotely. They suggested locking it from inside the car so the code can't be grabbed. But after returning the car I would say the remote just works for a lot of the ford cars.

OK, wait a minute, stealing key fob codes is not as easy as that officer described it. I think he needs to do a little research:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/lockcode.asp

 

[kaligal]

Something is off here.

Fords don't just open up for anyone with a beepy thing for some other Ford, lol. That is absolutely inaccurate.

If you leave something unattended, you run the risk of it being stolen...but that doesn't mean that victims deserve to have their stuff stolen. They are still victims. They should be able to leave something unattended and not have it stolen.

 

[disneydad78]

Sorry this happened to you.....

 

[doconeill]

I was reading something recently, I forget where, where people found out that even hard keys have more duplication that most people think - and found out by accidentally getting into someone else's car of the same model and color...wish I could find it now.

 

[FireDancer]

OK, wait a minute, stealing key fob codes is not as easy as that officer described it. I think he needs to do a little research:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/lockcode.asp

It depends on the technology of the system. Older systems used fixed codes and always sent the same signal making them easy to grab and re-use. More modern systems use rolling codes and grabbing the signal does no good. The strength of the algorithm used to roll the code is important though so a future code can't be deduced by analyzing an already sent code.

All that being said, this problem has been fixed for at least 15 years so if Ford was using either fixed or weak rolling codes it isn't because the technology isn't there, it is that they didn't use it.

Anyway, sorry that happened OP but thanks for bringing it to people's attention.

 

[SamSam]

2 years ago (Christmas time) a group of my friends (10) rented a van to drive 3 hours away for our annual Christmas trip. We all had been shopping and before eating dinner decided that a few of us would run all our packages out to the van. Well, we ran out and put the packages into the back of what we thought was our van.

Fast forward, after dinner all of us head out to go to our van and the women in the lead were going down a different isle than those of us that had taken the packages out earlier. We all look at each other in total shock as we realize that we had put our packages in someone else's van. Yep, we did and that van was no longer there. We went to customer service and filed a report but were pretty sure it was a lost cause. And, yes, the key we had worked on the other van.

Here's the Christmas story part. It turns out that a woman had rented the same type van to take her daughter and friends to celebrate a birthday. They discovered the extra packages after they arrived home ( an hour away). She not only called the shopping district 3 days in a row, she actually drove over there and finally found someone who found our report. If that's not all sweet enough, it turns out her husband has to be in our city (3 hours away) for business and he brings our packages to meet us at a designated place.

What a great Christmas story, I am amazed at this woman's determination to find us. Most people would have called once, but she kept going until she found us. Love this woman!

Okay, off on a tangent here but it relates because my rental car key did work to open her rental car.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

2 years ago (Christmas time) a group of my friends (10) rented a van to drive 3 hours away for our annual Christmas trip. We all had been shopping and before eating dinner decided that a few of us would run all our packages out to the van. Well, we ran out and put the packages into the back of what we thought was our van.

Fast forward, after dinner all of us head out to go to our van and the women in the lead were going down a different isle than those of us that had taken the packages out earlier. We all look at each other in total shock as we realize that we had put our packages in someone else's van. Yep, we did and that van was no longer there. We went to customer service and filed a report but were pretty sure it was a lost cause. And, yes, the key we had worked on the other van.

Here's the Christmas story part. It turns out that a woman had rented the same type van to take her daughter and friends to celebrate a birthday. They discovered the extra packages after they arrived home ( an hour away). She not only called the shopping district 3 days in a row, she actually drove over there and finally found someone who found our report. If that's not all sweet enough, it turns out her husband has to be in our city (3 hours away) for business and he brings our packages to meet us at a designated place.

What a great Christmas story, I am amazed at this woman's determination to find us. Most people would have called once, but she kept going until she found us. Love this woman!

Okay, off on a tangent here but it relates because my rental car key did work to open her rental car.

What a happy ending but crazy that this can happen! I guess I'm going to start locking my car from the inside now. Sheesh!

 

[Lori]

2 years ago (Christmas time) a group of my friends (10) rented a van to drive 3 hours away for our annual Christmas trip. We all had been shopping and before eating dinner decided that a few of us would run all our packages out to the van. Well, we ran out and put the packages into the back of what we thought was our van.

Fast forward, after dinner all of us head out to go to our van and the women in the lead were going down a different isle than those of us that had taken the packages out earlier. We all look at each other in total shock as we realize that we had put our packages in someone else's van. Yep, we did and that van was no longer there. We went to customer service and filed a report but were pretty sure it was a lost cause. And, yes, the key we had worked on the other van.

Here's the Christmas story part. It turns out that a woman had rented the same type van to take her daughter and friends to celebrate a birthday. They discovered the extra packages after they arrived home ( an hour away). She not only called the shopping district 3 days in a row, she actually drove over there and finally found someone who found our report. If that's not all sweet enough, it turns out her husband has to be in our city (3 hours away) for business and he brings our packages to meet us at a designated place.

What a great Christmas story, I am amazed at this woman's determination to find us. Most people would have called once, but she kept going until she found us. Love this woman!

Okay, off on a tangent here but it relates because my rental car key did work to open her rental car.

I am glad this had a happy ending. It is interesting that a couple of people have now mentioned keys working in the wrong cars. It is crazy!