Hello All,

I'm a frequent F-150 Online follower. I visit the site or try to once a day or every other day. I'm not such a frequent forum poster but also do check them. I would like to say very nice site to both the administrators and the members who really keep it going. I thought I would share my story briefly on here and there is more of a detailed story on my personal site if your interested.

I own a 2003 F-150 XL 4x4 4.2L V6 Manual. The other night(Wednesday) I came home at around 6pm and was in for the night. I went to sleep and woke up the next day at 7:00 getting ready to go to school and was out the door at 7:15. Now I went out to see my radio pulled right out of the center console. The wires and all were hanging out. They also stole the coins that I throw in the cup holders(maybe $2 total). My iPod and Radar Detector were not taken from the glove box.

Now I'm pretty sure it was my neighbors because there are footprints in the snow from their driveway across our front yard into our driveway and the only other prints in our front yard are from our dogs. I will just say they have a history with the police and stealing things before(like ATV, and driving it into the pond, fully submerged, but thats another story). They couldn't match the shoe prints and didn't see anything more and couldn't really continue and of course they all declined knowing anything about it. I do not have my hopes up of ever seeing my radio again.

I had a false sense of security leaving my truck in my driveway unlocked. I also have a Viper 5002 alarm system installed on it. That night it was broken into it was neither locked or alarm armed because I never really had before because of the false sense of security I had leaving it in the driveway. Needless to say I have always thought its safe there but apparently not. I have been in the habit of leaving it unlocked and unarmed while in the driveway. From now on though I have learned I guess that even where I think its safe, anything can still happen. As I speak it is sitting in the driveway locked and armed.

I guess I thought I would just share my lesson I have learned and the experience for others to maybe learn from as well. I have learned my lesson the hard way and from now on, no matter where I'm at I will be locking and arming my truck. I would hate to see this happen to any other Ford truck owners.

There are two links to this. One is to the full story of what happened. The second is to a gallery with pictures of my truck and one of the albums is the break in. Feel free to leave comments about the article of what happened or pictures here or on my site, either is fine.

Detailed Blog Post About Break In

Photo Gallery Of Truck - *Album about the break in is called "Break In - January 28th, 2010*

Later,
-Russ03

 

Sucks to hear that man. Hope you eventually find the person resposible..

 

Sorry to hear, one kind of person I just can't stand is a thief

 

If I were you, I'd be beating on the neighbor's door.. hope you catch them

 

His neighbors probably need something other than their door beaten on.
I'd get a German shepard and let it stay in the truck at night. I had a friend that specialized in Camaro, Firebird salvage parts and had a huge old warehouse for his buisness. He had a G.S. that he had gotten from the pound for a watch dog. When I would go back in the warehouse looking for parts (very crowded), I would always forget about that dog, and it would wait until you got right to it before it would challenge you (you wouldn't see it hiding around the corner) and although it was always on a chain in the daytime, EVERY hair on my body would stand on end, and I don't scare easily of anything. I could just see that dog chuckling at night when he thought of all the years he had taken off peoples lives that day.

 

That sucks man! At least they didn't get the expensive stuff. And now you can upgrade your radio/cd player! There's a bright side to everything!

Wow, that's a special kind of stupid right there!

You live in the Chicago area and you leave your truck unlocked?? You have/had far more faith in humanity than I! I try to never leave anything unlocked (except maybe my tailgate and bed cover when nothings in there), and we live in a low crime part of town, in a place where there isn't much crime anyways. You just can't trust people anymore. Especially when there are more and more people "down on their luck" and looking for an easy fix.

Another option is to leave something visible in your truck, wait up and see if they come back to take another shot at it. If that happens, a camera is your best friend.

X2 on the dog. I've got a G.S. mix and she lets me know anytime somebody walks past our window.

- NCSU

 

That sucks man! Same thing happened to me last December. A guy broke into the truck sitting in the driveway but he wasn't quiet about it, and it was around 9:45 pm. We kept hearing car doors slamming, went outside and there he was! He stole a portable DVD player, binoculars, ford truck manual, and a box of business cards. He took off when we came out, but luckily our neighbor was the sheriff of our county at that time...he caught him! The guy ended up in jail (where I worked as the jail nurse at the time LOL) and has since been sent to prison...

 

About the dog story that is pretty funny and smart. German Shepards can be very scary dogs if they feel threatened or become protective. I have a 11 year old Black Lab that is very protective of our house/family. I wish there was a cop closer but we are outside city limits so we have to rely on county and they are not around very often but are coming by more.

It was a aftermarket radio actually. It was a Alpine iDA-X200(about $300 when I bought it). That's what really sucks is I have to invest in another aftermarket radio.

I live about 1-2hr. outside Chicago in McHenry, IL. But your still right I should never have gotten into the bad habit of leaving it unlocked. This has really been a eye opener as to how little I can trust some people.

 

Sorry to hear that...coming from someone who has had a vehicle stolen and another one broken into 3 times.I'm still in favor of the stun gun alarm system...lol.

 

Sorry to hear about the loss man. I live in a neighbor with 3 deputies, and two reserve officers, and I still lock up everything, just paranoid by nature I guess. Hope that justice takes its toll on your neighbor, and your property is returned, but this wont return the trust for your neighborhood I am sure.

 

It really sucks, but you can't trust anyone in this day and age. When i was living back home in the country a few miles out of a town of 1,200 people where i knew almost everyone, I would still lock my pickup in the garage, which was also locked, which also had 3 dogs guarding it lol. I don't trust anyone, not even people i consider my best friends, you just can't, always have to be cautious.

 

not everyone in IL live near the Chi town area. there is a sate here not just chi town.
with a town of 40,000 people in i leave my truck unlock every where i got but wall mart and those places

 

About what XtremeBawls said, I'm now going to have to get in that habit of locking and arming it everywhere because then I will be more eased and it is sad that you can't trust anybody. This truly has opened my eyes!

You have way more faith in people then I do anymore. Just be cautious is all I have to say.

A buddy of mine who works at a Audio/Video shop(where I have my work done for my radio/lights) had his Civiv broken into while he was on vacation but he found out it was his friend and he broke into his house, used his tools in his garage to break into his car and steal his radio, speakers, subs and amp. He also made himself lunch while inside.They were able to prove and prosecute him. I was told this after the break in and I went back to have them check out the damage.

The point of that story is a person who you consider a best friend can turn on you in a instant. And this happening to me just reinforces that saying that you can't trust anybody, even people you consider your best friend I guess.

 

Yeah it's a sad deal that people you would potentially risk your life for might be the ones who turn there back on you...needless to say there are few people I would risk my life for, but there the ones to really appreciate.

 

I havent had my car broken into at my house but one night my brother and his wife came over for dinner. both there cars got hit. I always try to lock my cars now. The mach I is always in the garage locked. Sorry the had to happen..