Most of you that know me know I drive a big ol' F-250 diesel to haul my boat around. Well, ownership of said vehicle nearly changed hands this weekend to the narcos.
Came into town Friday afternoon, got a room at Playa Inn, went and got the boat out of storage, cleaned and gassed it, then dropped it off at Safe Marine to head out in the morning. Went to La Curva for dinner with the wife, back at Playa Inn about 9:30. Stopped over to talk to Dave and have a drink at Capone's. Back in the room about 11:00 or so. We had a room at the front of the hotel, right along Sinaloa and the truck was parked in the hotel parking directly beneath our room.
Get up to go fishing and head down to the truck in the morning, get in, go to put the key in the ignition and... WTF? Why isn't the key working? At this point, I'm only half-awake, no coffee yet, mild hangover, and it takes a minute for it to click -- the key isn't working because the ignition has been completely punched out. I look at it, then look down and start picking up pieces of the ignition switch off the floor.
Right about then, you get that sort of sick to your stomach feeling. We check the rest of the truck. Absolutely nothing missing. Expensive fishing gear in the back? Still there. My Captain's bag with GPS and electronics for the boat? Still there. Passports and Mex papers in my document bag in the console? Untouched. They wanted the truck and didn't give a damn about anything that was in it.
So, went into the hotel, called a locksmith. Figured out that they punched out the door lock on the passenger side to get in. Literally smashed it to pieces. Then, smashed the ignition, but broke a key off in it and were screwed (or interrupted) at that point. The locksmith was excellent and had a new ignition switch installed in under an hour. The hotel reviewed security tapes (they do have working cameras and security patrol). The video showed nothing, other than me getting something out of the back of the truck before I went up to bed for the night at about 11:00.
My truck has an alarm, but apparently I forgot to reset it. I usually turn it off when we're loading and unloading stuff, or when I'm working with the boat because I constantly set the thing off as I'm in and out. Still, the truck was securely locked. In over 20 years of staying at Playa Inn, I've never had anything go missing - they generally have pretty good security.
Lessons learned: 1) Always remember to reset the alarm (duh). Complacency on my part almost cost me my truck. 2) The truck will be getting a secret kill switch. The locksmith told me that he could steal my truck in under a minute, even with the alarm on, so don't think you're safe with an alarm and a Club on the steering wheel. He also pointed out that my truck is the truck of choice for narcos - F-250, 4x4, BFG off-road tires and diesel. 3) I was damned lucky.
Just passing this along to make everyone aware - if it happened to me, it can certainly happen to you!
Came into town Friday afternoon, got a room at Playa Inn, went and got the boat out of storage, cleaned and gassed it, then dropped it off at Safe Marine to head out in the morning. Went to La Curva for dinner with the wife, back at Playa Inn about 9:30. Stopped over to talk to Dave and have a drink at Capone's. Back in the room about 11:00 or so. We had a room at the front of the hotel, right along Sinaloa and the truck was parked in the hotel parking directly beneath our room.
Get up to go fishing and head down to the truck in the morning, get in, go to put the key in the ignition and... WTF? Why isn't the key working? At this point, I'm only half-awake, no coffee yet, mild hangover, and it takes a minute for it to click -- the key isn't working because the ignition has been completely punched out. I look at it, then look down and start picking up pieces of the ignition switch off the floor.
Right about then, you get that sort of sick to your stomach feeling. We check the rest of the truck. Absolutely nothing missing. Expensive fishing gear in the back? Still there. My Captain's bag with GPS and electronics for the boat? Still there. Passports and Mex papers in my document bag in the console? Untouched. They wanted the truck and didn't give a damn about anything that was in it.
So, went into the hotel, called a locksmith. Figured out that they punched out the door lock on the passenger side to get in. Literally smashed it to pieces. Then, smashed the ignition, but broke a key off in it and were screwed (or interrupted) at that point. The locksmith was excellent and had a new ignition switch installed in under an hour. The hotel reviewed security tapes (they do have working cameras and security patrol). The video showed nothing, other than me getting something out of the back of the truck before I went up to bed for the night at about 11:00.
My truck has an alarm, but apparently I forgot to reset it. I usually turn it off when we're loading and unloading stuff, or when I'm working with the boat because I constantly set the thing off as I'm in and out. Still, the truck was securely locked. In over 20 years of staying at Playa Inn, I've never had anything go missing - they generally have pretty good security.
Lessons learned: 1) Always remember to reset the alarm (duh). Complacency on my part almost cost me my truck. 2) The truck will be getting a secret kill switch. The locksmith told me that he could steal my truck in under a minute, even with the alarm on, so don't think you're safe with an alarm and a Club on the steering wheel. He also pointed out that my truck is the truck of choice for narcos - F-250, 4x4, BFG off-road tires and diesel. 3) I was damned lucky.
Just passing this along to make everyone aware - if it happened to me, it can certainly happen to you!
