Stolen. Graphite 135 Vert NYC Region

[BrokenVert]

No. It isn't my car.

I just got pulled over and sat on the side of the road for 20 minutes. Apparently a Graphite 135 vert fitting the description of my car has been stolen in the past few days. I just had to prove to 2 very scary looking cops that it is indeed my car.

So if you see a suspicious looking Graphite 135 on LI or in NYC dont hesitate to report it.

[NYC6]

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by NYC6

[x97Melbourne]

seems fishy...kind of a hard car to steal with the computer coded key.

i wonder if it was some rouge valet or a crazy wife. sorry..."Crazy" is kind of assumed

[Satalite]

What terrible luck that you matched it perfectly...

[1speedbike]

Originally Posted by x97Melbourne

seems fishy...kind of a hard car to steal with the computer coded key.

i wonder if it was some rouge valet or a crazy wife. sorry..."Crazy" is kind of assumed

crafty thieves nowadays look at the VIN sitting right in your windshield. with just that, they can get a copy of the keyfob from any dealership, and then your car is as good as theirs. i've heard that now they can even use a remote reader to get your keyfob's "identity" and program that into a separate key. scary shit

[esses]

What you described is actually old school, circa 1995.

Today, its not hard to spoof the RFID in your comfort access key or root the linux kernel running the wifi, bluetooth, GPS, and cellular signals your car sends to use your navi, phone, sirius, and BMW Access. Ive seen people use a smartphone to throw TPMS codes as a prank. All of those systems are hackable.

The original SGM is a rare color on a 1er, hopefully that helps them catch the thief before the parts are stripped and sold on ebay in some other country.

[chowbox]

you guys really think they'd do all this? this is all good in theory. But to be honest, i'd just tow the thing away with my tow truck. For $10k you can buy yourself a wheel lift tow truck and steal all the cars you want. nobody would bat an eye at a tow truck towing a European car away these days.

I run three service stations so i know this is a fact. I've had people try to hire my trucks to get back at their ex's and what not. i won't be part of it. but if their asking me the most straight laced dude in town you know damn well they're hiring more shady folks.

[RimasRS]

They wanted to see your car closer so that was excuse

[m_thompson]

Originally Posted by esses

Today, its not hard to spoof the RFID in your comfort access key or root the linux kernel running the wifi, bluetooth, GPS, and cellular signals your car sends to use your navi, phone, sirius, and BMW Access.

Um, its QNX not Linux...

[Sylon]

I wanted to say that it would be pretty hard to steal without the key, but there was that article about a couple blackhats that unlocked and started a brand new Subaru Outback with nothing more than a cell phone. So I don't doubt it.


My dad taught me the mentality that if thieves want your car bad enough, regardless of what it is and what security barriers it has, they will get it. The only thing you can do is make it as complicated as possible for them to take it, in hopes that they will just move on to something else.

[Judge]

Originally Posted by chowbox

nobody would bat an eye at a tow truck towing a European car away these days.

They'd probably smile and say "Good riddance, @$$hole!" thinking he was illegally parked in two spots.

[DriveHard]

Originally Posted by Sylon

I wanted to say that it would be pretty hard to steal without the key, but there was that article about a couple blackhats that unlocked and started a brand new Subaru Outback with nothing more than a cell phone. So I don't doubt it.


My dad taught me the mentality that if thieves want your car bad enough, regardless of what it is and what security barriers it has, they will get it. The only thing you can do is make it as complicated as possible for them to take it, in hopes that they will just move on to something else.

This si so true..

Anti-Theft systems were designed to protect from the rookies / joyrides... Not the Pros...

on the other side of that argument, even a pro if he had a choice will pick an unprotecetd car rather than have to spend any additional time having to defete a protected car. This all goes down the toilet when thieves are looking for paticular cars to fill an "order" for some third world country or something like that..

[FJUNO78]

God forbid my car was stolen, I wouldn't even want it back.

[fourtailpipes]

Originally Posted by chowbox

you guys really think they'd do all this? this is all good in theory. But to be honest, i'd just tow the thing away with my tow truck. For $10k you can buy yourself a wheel lift tow truck and steal all the cars you want. nobody would bat an eye at a tow truck towing a European car away these days.

i had a previous silver bimmer stolen from the parking lot outside my office a few years ago by this method. there were numerous witnesses, but when questioned by the police, they thought nothing of it. alarm was going off and all. towed away from a busy corporate office park in an expensive neighborhood in the middle of a weekday. unibody found a week later, having been left on a scenic overlook on a highway near philly. totally stripped, obviously, but it still had a terrible christmas neck-tie in the back seat that i had intended to return.

[Jatran661]

i thought bmw assist can track peoples stolen car. Why would the cops need to do this?

[dtwyim]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

No. It isn't my car.

I just got pulled over and sat on the side of the road for 20 minutes. Apparently a Graphite 135 vert fitting the description of my car has been stolen in the past few days. I just had to prove to 2 very scary looking cops that it is indeed my car.

So if you see a suspicious looking Graphite 135 on LI or in NYC dont hesitate to report it.

Originally Posted by Satalite

What terrible luck that you matched it perfectly...

Could somebody be playing a prank on you? MY 2008 N54 SGM vert is a pretty rare sight.

[1speedbike]

Originally Posted by Jatran661

i thought bmw assist can track peoples stolen car. Why would the cops need to do this?

all you need to do in order to disable BMW assist is to remove the sharkfin, which thieves nowadays can do without even a scratch to the surrounding paint. lojack is better because it uses one of 20 or so random hiding spots in the car to hide the tracker, so the thief would have to 1) know all 20 spost and 2) one by one go down the list and look for the tracker. but a crafty thief will eventually find it, it's just a matter of the police hopefully finding him first.

[Pangloss]

Originally Posted by fourtailpipes

... but it still had a terrible christmas neck-tie in the back seat that i had intended to return.

[MikeinAlexandria]

I don't think any BMw dealer n the country would sell a key for a car for which you did not have the registration and/or title. At least they shouldn't. The main reason cars are stolen these days is the resale of parts. They way to stop car theft? When catching the thief, is simply to remove an arm. With that as punishment, few thieves would risk it. I seriously doubt any new BMW has been stolen lately by driving it off, unless it was car jacked. Even then, you can call BMW Assist straightaway, and they will track the car, with the police online, and when it is in sight, they just shut it off remotely.

[and 1]

Originally Posted by Sylon

I wanted to say that it would be pretty hard to steal without the key, but there was that article about a couple blackhats that unlocked and started a brand new Subaru Outback with nothing more than a cell phone. So I don't doubt it.

My dad taught me the mentality that if thieves want your car bad enough, regardless of what it is and what security barriers it has, they will get it. The only thing you can do is make it as complicated as possible for them to take it, in hopes that they will just move on to something else.

+1

my dad used to say "locks only keep honest people honest"

[Barry45RPM]

Originally Posted by chowbox

...nobody would bat an eye at a tow truck towing a European car away these days ...

Nobody bats an eye at anything anymore unless they are directly affected (have to walk home or have been hurt).

That being said, I'd raise an eyebrow at seeing an expensive European car with one end lifted in the air (conventional tow) rather than on a flatbed "tow"... but once the dust settles, in NY the owner will be in a new ride sooner than you can say "which container is my car in".