In 2023 there has been an epidemic of stolen Chevy SS, especially in Houston, TX, Northern California and now Southern California.
We cannot speak for the laws in other states, but here in Los Angeles County, the District Attorney George Gascon is soft on crime with a no cash bail policy for all nonviolent defendants. This lets carjackers get away with what they do because even if they are arrested, they will be let out the next day. So of course, they do it again.
The San Francisco Standard wrote that "The latest data shows that the number of cars stolen so far this year in Oakland is the highest the city has recorded in each of the past eight years. In 2022—which saw the second-highest number of annual car thefts in that eight-year period—Oakland recorded 9,672 car thefts." We think 2023 will break that record by the number of stolen cars we have been told about directly.
Just this year we received many requests from owners who had their cars stolen to about their stolen vehicles: ATS-Vs, Pontiac G8s, and Pontiac GTOs, but the most requests were from Chevy SS owners.
We call this theft, SS on SS Crime in Oakland, CA! Remember Oakland's recorded 9,672 car thefts? This was one of them. Caught on the owners complex camera, these thieves actually stole this Heron White Chevy SS while driving, yes, another Chevy SS which was also probably stolen.
We spotted a few stolen Chevy SS's in a Facebook groups like these here below.
It was also confirmed in this same posting that the car was a GM (thus the SS) and the San Bruno Police Department confirmed that "it was actually that same type of vehicle targeted 0 there has been another uptick lately..."
This Chevy SS theft attempt here was actually caught on video while leaving the scene.
This attempt was in Richardson, TX. According to the owner of the white ss, a black 3rd gen Cadillac CTS-V pulled up in an iHOP parking lot where the owner was easting and stated the “V parked in front of it & they had already disable my key. They were already in it trying to start it. I seen them from inside the iHOP & came out just in time to scare them off”
Apparently the thieves did not use the repeater antenna method on this attempt and they just tried to jimmy the lock.
The owner noticed this when the tied to stick his key in the door and it would not open the door anymore.
According to the Richardson, TX Police, videos from iHOP and a gas station next to it show plates of the V but came back as plates form a Cadillac XT5. The video also show the thieves branding a gun from the back seat while the window was rolled down as they were driving away.
Allegedly this same V has been spotted in other thefts around the Dallas, TX area. The Richardson Police stated they are taking this serious due to guns being use & and a minor in the parking lot area at the time of the gun being brandished, which will be considered an aggravated robbery.
If you see this V call the Richardson, TX Police Department. Call them even if your Cadillac has had your plates stolen. This seems to be the MO of these thieves using stolen plates from the same make cars AND even color as their get away cars.
There has been no update to this as of yet since this was very current to when this was written.
How bad are these thefts? Even the same day we posted this original story, ANOTHER SS was stolen hours later in Hollywood, CA.
These thieves broke the window and used the reprograming key method though the OBD2 port. Allegedly hours after being stolen, the Perfect Blue Chevy SS was spotted and police were led on a high speed chase around Los Angeles county (and obviously out ran the police) the SS was found dumped hours later.
Per the owner, thankfully the Chevy SS was retrieved by the owner at the impound yard without any major damage besides the broken window.
Not all stories come to a happy ending with a caught thief or catching them in the act.
All three of these SS below were totally stripped within weeks of each other. Two were stolen in Northern California.
The owner of the white SS who wished to remain anonymous stated “I had to park my car outside for 3 nights to work on my other car and they stole my SS. If I was 1 min faster I could have caught them.” This exact car is up on Copart USA now HERE
We would not be surprised if these thieves repurchased this car as salvaged and then put them back together with the parts they stole.
The owner of the rare Jungle Green SS was stolen from Livermore, CA and was found in Oakland, CA 3 days later according to the owner. There is not much information on the Slip Stream Blue SS which if we recall, was in TX or at least we don't remember exactly since so many have send us images of their SS stripped!
As you can see all three were recovered but totally stripped.
We even spotted this SS in this video where a Porsche owner spots a Chevy SS (which he calls a Malibu) that was Stripped over New Years in morning.
Looking over where this Porsche drives on their Instagram, this Chevy SS was spotted somewhere within Angeles Crest Highway in SoCal. The Porsche owner returns hours later to find out whatever was left the first time on the SS, the thieves actually came back to steal what was left on it the first time.
Which brings us to this story which bought a lot of attention after we posted this on social media; Below is an video of a Chevy SS that was stolen right in front of the owners residence.
It looks like the thieves were initially in a white or silver Toyota Avalon or a Mitsubishi but people later identified it as an early 2000's Chevy Mailbu. Go figure, SS are always mistaken for Malibu's maybe the guy wanted a real SS lol!
The owner said they possibly did something to the alarm after they busted one of the driver side windows. They said it just honked a couple of times and that’s literally when they started the car which got their attention and when they opened their front door the thief was driving away. Some have stated they gain access to the VIN and just programed a Key Fob.
License plate on the stolen SS is WUTSSIT. It was a Sliver Ice Metallic SS that was stolen back on Oct 7, 2023 at about 12:30am in Placentia,Ca
You can visually see a Solo Exhaust license plate, the front brakes are slotted and drilled rotors and the car has brand new tires. The SS has headers and a solo catback system, so the car was loud.
After posting this up on our Instagram and Facebook pages, a tow truck driver spotted the car going west on the 91 freeway getting on the Golden State 5 North a few hours later. The driver said he noticed the car had a broken window on the driver's side. Later someone actually spotted the thief's instagram story whose IG was @whostrippingimtrippin_ "stripping" in the name? hum? We guess that's the thief huh? (of course that account has been deleted now). Yeah not too smart by posting what you do on Instagram but what would you expect from someone like that? Nevertheless they were trying to sell the SS for 4k.
Just note to self. The correct spelling of bring is BRING not being. But you get what the thief was trying to do.
The car later was tracked to a home in South Gate, CA thanks to our social media posts that reaches thousands! The owner contacted the South Gate Police department, however, by the time the Police got there the car was long gone. The Police said they couldn't do anything about it because the car was not there. Good job there "Protect and Serve" no wonder these criminals continue to steal them. If they did it once they will do it again.
A week later we were tipped off that the car was spotted being stripped in the Vermont Square area and S. Harvard Blvd, South Central Los Angeles area.
Multiple witnesses stated the suspects crashed their own SS in a LA takeover along with a Dodge charger and we presume these thieves used the parts for their own car. Other witnesses stated they saw a tow truck take it down the street where other witnesses spotted it in front of a U-Haul location.
The SS was eventually recovered but it looked like this:
Since this above SS was stolen we have received a multitude of SS owners stating their SS's were stolen.
To top this all off we have seen allegedly on Instagram stories thieves in TX and CA paying $500 for info on locating and pinning information on your TRX, Hellcat, ZL1, CTS-V and yes Chevy SSs. So yes, they are looking for your car to steal.
This video here shows either thieves attempting to steal a SS or are taking photos of it to show someone where to steal it!
The moral of this story is, don't leave your SS in the street or unattended anymore. Not even in your driveway! We understand that some people have no choice, so we suggest you have some deterrents on your high performance cars.
What Can You Do?
We are not exactly sure how each of these SS's were stolen. However there are many rumors going around on how to. One of the most logical seem to be duplicating the key. The thieves just buy a new key and then get a programer for $500 to $1000 dollars and plug it into the OBD2 and wahla, they have a key for your push button start car.
So how do you combat that? One simple way is to disconnect your battery at night. Sounds like a pain, but you know back in the day, cars had keys and not key fobs lol! So use your key to open and close the door then reconnect the battery. This quick disconnect switch below can attached to your negative terminal and be turned on or off quickly.
You can get it HERE
If you are worried about your car loosing it memory when your battery is disconnected you can always use one of these.
This will keep enough voltage continuity to the engine CPU and radio when the battery is disconnected so your car doesn't have to go though the whole CPU cycle and you won't loose your radio presets. Though you might go through a lot of 9v batteries lol!
You can get it HERE
One of the most advance theft preventions has been put together by Accelerated Racing Solutions. It is a Tune for Anti Thief. Check this out!
You can contact them at info@acceleratedracingsolutions.com
As in a few of the cases of stolen SS above, If they are using the OBD2 key generator and program method you can always relocate your OBD2 port and hide is somewhere further up into the dash. it's not fool proof but as you can see with the guy who still has his SS and didn't get his SS stolen... all he needed was to buy more time. That relocation can by that time.
That comes to locks. Yes that one SS that was not taken had a brake lock. Remember the CLUB back in the 1990s?
Well, that might not be such a bad idea anymore. Given those also could be removed by thieves cutting the steering wheel, Freoning the lock and many other destructive ways. But again these devises are just a way to slow down thieves and now days they probably don't even know what it is anymore it's so old skool.
You can still get those HERE.
There is also the brake pedal lock secures your clutch/brake, which prevents the thief from starting your car. Sometimes this is better because if they are casing your car, see a steering wheel lock and really want your car, they will come prepared to cut it. However this pedal lock can often be over looked when thieves are casing a vehicle to steal. This device takes the opposite approach of not being so visible, until they break into the car. This is probably something one SS's had that prevented the thieves from stealing his car. This one here is a heavy duty version and is a good deterrent to keep car thieves away from your car or again, just to slow them down from stealing your car.
This one here is made by Opssopi and you can get them here for around $65 to $79 depending on the time of year. You can get one HERE
At one time we even had one of these called a DiskLok. Many people have never seen these since originally these were from the UK.
Kinda overkill, but again, another way to slow the thieves down. This device covers the whole steering wheel! Back in the day there were video of guys trying to cut them with grinders and taking a very long time to do so! The manufacture claims it is the strongest steering wheel immobilizer around which not only provides preventive steering, but also from thieves stealing your air bag. The down fall of this device is very cumbersome and is very hard to store since it is so big. You can still get them HERE
If you are more adventurous you can always use a steering wheel quick release like this.
Known in the "Import Honda Ricer" world, this can make your steering wheel removable. Though you might looks stupid carrying around your steering wheel every where you go, BUT you will have a piece of mind no one can steer your car. Now it's not totally fool proof and if they have been casing your car prior to stealing it, we have seen thieves use vice grips to do so. lol!
Though there are not any made for the SS yet. These are available for the GTO HERE and the G8 HERE. Of course you need a steering wheel and an adapter hub but again a good anti theft device.
This idea below might seem kind of dumb, BUT can work.
What is it? They are wheel chocks. Often used to keep the car from moving when working on it. These are very good at prevent the car from rolling or moving. Given the thieves can just remove them and steal them. But it is highly unlikely they will spot them right away since most of the time they are stealing cars in the dark and these are black and hard to notice if placed in the very inward part of the tire. Like other prevention devices these are a good way to slow them down. You can get those HERE
There is another Anti Theft devise called Carlock
According to the manufacture the Carlock anti theft car device is "better than an alarm". They state it is a real-time tracking system and car alarm system. It is motion sensored and monitors your vehicle and alerts you of suspicious activity even if you are halfway across the world away from your car. This unit is all managed through an app on your Android or iOS device.
We see there are pros and cons to this devise pros are it has a lot of features like alerting you on your phone when your vehicle is moved, when the engine starts, if unusual vibration is detected & even if the device is disconnected! And most of all it acts as a GPS device.
However the cons actually out weigh the pros. The main con is you have to subscribe to a service which is $9.60 a month. We guess that is not much to pay for the investment of your car but it is another monthly fee to add to your already monthly services. Another downfall is many thieves access the OBD port on our cars to duplicate new key fobs. So they will actually see that unit and pull it out. There are ways to relocate the OBD port and we guess you would probably get a warning that your car is being tampered with but over all once it is pulled out, that unit and service are no longer useful. The last issue is if this company stops updating the app and say the IOS is updated on your phone the App will not work anymore which has been our experience with other App based plug in OBD units.
You can get the Carlock HERE
Stop them directly at the source with this OBD2 Port Locking Tool
This OBD port locking tool. This is tool is made from billet 6061-T6 aluminum, and is designed to completely lock out your OBD port from being accessed.
This OBD2 lock avoid duplicate keys being made, and ECU programming or overwriting. Anytime the vehicle is out of your hands this protects you from key cloning via the OBD port. This port locking tool will not allow a would-be thief to hook up to the car’s OBD port to duplicate a key. The OBD-LOCK cannot be removed without physically destroying the OBD port if you do not have the proper tools.
More information on this is HERE
Lastly do you remember LoJack? Well you can do that just by using your AirTag. the problem is if you leave that inside your car the thief can hear it. Well, we have a product called the MavTag.
This 6061T6 billet aluminum AirTag holder will hold an Apple AirTag in it and it comes with o-rings to make it water proof so you can mount it almost anywhere on the outside of your car hidden from criminal's eyes and protect it from any weather hazards.
We are not saying to take matters into your own hands by following your stolen car. We do suggest you work with your local Police Department by using the AirTag location to recover your vehicle.
Given there are the nay sayers saying you can locate an AirTag with an App or if you have an iPhone and it will ring. However you can always disable the sound on an AirTag and if you hide it well or with MavTag holder you it can make it almost look like part of the car (which is the best thing about this holder). Again all you need is to buy time. Many have used this method, it's affordable and it is a great piece of mind.
You can get the MavTag HERE
As most say... if they want your car they will take it. Hell they can tow it away if they wanted too. The best we can do is try to prevent it! In the meantime keep your SS's inside and locked up safe!
