Sentry Mode not working during break ins / Removing rear seat latch

[srsaliba]

Quarter panel window broken into for the third time this year!

I have aftermarket locks on the back seats from Tesla_Raj and stickers on my windows and Sentry Mode yet my rear quarter panel window was broken again today for the third time since i took delivery of the vehicle on 12/27. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of selling my Model 3. I live in Oakland, CA and just cannot comfortably use the vehicle normally without having to always be paranoid. I simply cannot afford to keep replacing the rear quarter panel every month or two. This is not what i envisioned with having a new car. I have driven Audi's, Acura's, other EVs and other hatchbacks in Oakland for the past 16 years and have never experienced smashed windows like this. The video recording doesn't really help in Oakland as the police force here is basically non-existent and they do not investigate vehicle break ins.

Just venting... but what other solutions do i have besides selling? Dying to know if those leaving seats down have experienced break ins at all?

Also, what's the best avenue for selling my mid-range Model 3 to find interested buyers? Posting here on the forum somewhere?

 

[mhan00]

Leave your seats down. That’s basically the only way. The thieves just want to check to see if you have anything valuable in your trunk. Locks won’t do anything since the sticker/decal might be fake for all they know and they can’t verify the lock is real until after they break the window.

 

[JeffK]

Yeah, leave your seats down. There's no reason to break your windows if there's clearly nothing in your trunk.

 

[Fernand]

Elon has tried to help you by not displaying identifying insignia.

I honestly think that people who bling the car and add Teslaware
aftermarket flash are attracting luddite haters, thieves. I've even
thought of applying some Kia or Chevy or other camouflage insignia,
partly as humor, partly as protective talismans. There have been
some lovely deliberate key'ings captured by Sentry Mode.

I saw a really dirty Model 3 next to me at the Alameda Supercharger.
I was wondering what slob would treat a new car that way, when
a very hip yuppy-looking young couple came back to the car. Huh?

Then it dawned on me that it was very very smart. I've seen people
with $10,000 bicycles (yes, they exist, no autopilot even) applying
a camouflage grunge bike kit that they bought on-line somewhere,
and that makes the bike look entirely not worth bothering with.

I know that part of the pleasure is having a car that looks as nice
as it drives, but given our environment, maybe we need to get
smarter, until the epidemic catches up to other brands as well.

Maybe some entrepreneur will market a high-tech bucket-o-slop
we can quickly rinse off for Sunday Pride drives.

For now, maybe always keep the back seats down, throw some
Dollar Store and Walmart empty bags in the back, remove or
chrome delete anything that suggests Tesla, let it get dusty.

 

[BluestarE3]

Here you go:
Saturday Night Live - Chameleon XLE - Streamable

 

[Freerster]

Being in law enforcement for 25 years I can tell you that sentry mode is just a false sense of security just like living in a gated community that dose not have a gaurd at the gate and roaming gaurds. Its nice to have to warn off the non professional theif. Professional theives know that it is a non violent crime and the police are not going to investgate it. Yes your going to catch thieves on camera but the pros are going to hide their faces because the know the cameras are there. Pros are going to do a smash and grab that take less then 30 secs and like others say nobody thinks twice about an alarm or loud music even it being Bach. All I am saying is that don't leave valuables in your car. It is sad that it comes down to that.

 

[silentsnow31802]

Maybe someone should start making plexiglass replacements

 

[Fernand]

Maybe it's Bernie Sanders, who thinks TESLA is the 666 mark of the 1% Beast!

Looking at some of the dungaree and MAGA caps contingent that was gawking
at my using Summon in a parking lot in Petaluma, I wonder. Maybe we ARE!
As the others huddled together and pointed, one of the braver yokels came up
and grinned: "Ya got a remote control on yer car?"

But what kind of One percenter are you, if you can't afford to replace a stinkin'
window, now and then?

 

[voip-ninja]

Possibly the first evidence of the sentry mode feature working?

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Tesla-records-its-own-break-in-helps-SF-police-13753594.php

Hopefully word will get out so stupid people stop being stupid and breaking windows. One can only hope

These aren't "stupid people". They are criminals who have gone through the risk/reward analysis and decided that breaking into cars is a better gig than working at a fast food restaurant since the enforcement in the San Francisco Bay area is seriously lacking.

San Francisco has the 11th largest police department in the United States. Maybe they need to re-set their priorities.

 

[RayK]

Maybe someone should start making plexiglass replacements

I've detailed my plan to do just that elsewhere here but as far as I can see, that would mean that Tesla itself would most likely be the one to offer that option. There's several pieces of trim and mounting hardware that seems to be pre-bonded to the glass that makes it difficult to transfer those pieces to the plexiglass. I would love to be proven wrong on that point. I haven't been hit yet but I do have both glass assemblies sitting in my garage. I'll try to post some pictures of them in a little bit.

 

[RayK]

Here are the pics. Sorry for the slight blurriness in a couple of them but I was trying to rush out of the house when I took them.

Full image of the "inside" side of the window:

The white blocks are styrofoam that's been stuck there by the factory or service center. They are easily removed.

Close-up of the plastic post shown in the lower left above:

Note the glue/epoxy that holds the post onto the window, in addition to the chrome trim that's on the reverse side.

Close-up of post from lower right:

And the third post in the upper left:

Finally, the reverse or "outside" side of the window:

The round white reflections and the oval gold trim next to the left styrofoam block is from the light/ceiling fan above my dining room table. The grey plastic piece that sticks out at the lower right is pretty fragile. I broke the one on the other window when I put it into my trunk 2 minutes after buying it. You can see the broken off piece at the top of this picture and in the middle of the window in the first picture above.

Now that I think of it, it might not be possible for an automobile manufacturer to legally substitute polycarbonate for the automotive safety glass. There's probably some NHTSA rule about it. Whether that prevents an owner from swapping out the windows, I don't know...

 

[MXWing]

What concerning is when Sentry Mode goes off playing "Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", pedestrians are going to think it's another dumb ass playing loud music. My area I get a lot of drivers playing their music full blast. Also the music will just drown out glass breaking for the thieves. I'd much prefer the traditional alarm sound, or at least give us the option to choose.

Out of all the dumb things I read on the Internet, this might be the dumbest.

 

[flashflooder]

What concerning is when Sentry Mode goes off playing "Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", pedestrians are going to think it's another dumb ass playing loud music. My area I get a lot of drivers playing their music full blast. Also the music will just drown out glass breaking for the thieves. I'd much prefer the traditional alarm sound, or at least give us the option to choose.

that particular song will make anyone pay attention, and as an added bonus you get to capture the intruder's goofy spooked face.

 

[kl118]

Leave your seats down. That’s basically the only way. The thieves just want to check to see if you have anything valuable in your trunk. Locks won’t do anything since the sticker/decal might be fake for all they know and they can’t verify the lock is real until after they break the window.

I personally don't think leaving seats down is any more effective than something like the drop lock. If thieves are not paying attention to the red drop lock that is visible from outside the car, they probably won't not looking to see if the seats are down either. I've seen some posts of sentry mode videos of thieves ducking low beside the car and smashing the quarter panel window without even looking into the car first. I have the drop lock which gives me some piece of mind that when I do have my laptop bag in the trunk, for example, it at least won't get stolen by somebody smashing the window not knowing they wouldn't be able to get the seats down.

 

[Fernand]

We could buy a cheap electric fence circuit and connect it to the car body.
Nothing lethal, but very unpleasant ;-) Drag a big-ass chain as the path
to ground ;-)

Well, I just dropped my seats. Now just need a "no valuables in car" sign
to display in the trunk area, with a bail bondsman's advert on it. Or a
"property of MS-13" decal, with fluorescent tagging.

I haven't been hit yet but I do have both glass assemblies sitting in my garage. I'll try to post some pictures of them in a little bit.

What does it cost per window assembly, and where can you get them? How hard to install?

 

[RayK]

What does it cost per window assembly, and where can you get them? How hard to install?

Cost was $207.10 (incl. tax) per window and I got them from the Santa Clara (CA) Tesla Service Center back in late January.

The part numbers are 1098758-00-F for the right hand side and 1098757-00-F for the left.

They had them in stock when I just showed up to ask some questions about the window. I have not tried to figure out how to take off the existing window and fit the new one. From looking at the plastic pins it would seem to be an operation of pulling off and pushing on. There's the grey plastic tab which I guess fits under/into the adjoining section of chrome trim.

 

[henrymax]

it records and works great in that sense. the alarm just never goes off when the rear quarter window is broken. my sentry mode actually recorded thieves working a parking garage this weekend. one looked into my car with a flashlight but moved on. sentry was able to record that when he came close to my car. my front view recorded 3 of them looking into cars for 5 minutes. that hatchback in the front looks to have been smashed but a car came into view and blocked the angle.

at the very least, the alarm can put em on alert, potentially saving other cars from being bashed in. There were instances of multiple Teslas having their rear window broken in the same lot since none of them had an alarm go off. And plus, you would get a notification.

Was that the underground garage in Japantown in SF?? My quarter window got broken about 2 months ago in Japantown on the street right outside the garage, and ever since then I decided to park inside that garage, and I guess now it doesn't seem to be a safe spot anymore....

 

[Fernand]

What about something like this on the little window? Maybe from a distance it says "already robbed" ...

Waterproof Bullet hole Glass Window Broken Shot Auto Car Vinyl Decal Sticker | eBay

Or do like in Italy. Pay the neighborhood punks to protect your car.

 

[O Dub]

Maybe like hoping an OpEd in the New York Times will affect policy.

I wonder if many people with lowered back seats have had their window
smashed? Seems like an easy fix if it works.
-
How about putting valuables in Dollar Store bags?
-

Nope. The one and only time mine has been broken was when I was parked on a main street, and the back seat was down. Albeit the other seat was not down but there was a carseat there so you couldn't lower the seat without first removing the carseat. The window that was broken was on the side where the seat was already down. Of course I had nothing in the trunk but as with most thieves, they didn't think to look first before breaking

 

[O Dub]

Relocating the latch release lever to, say inside the trunk, would require a bit of effort.

There are some aftermarket gadgets that will mechanically block the release levers from being activated; another is a metal shield that covers the opening behind the rear seats to the trunk area. For any of these deterrents (including relocating the latch release as you're suggesting), there needs to be signage or other visual cue to let the would-be thieves know access to the trunk would be difficult. Otherwise, they'll smash first and then learn they can't flip down the seats. That may safeguard your trunk contents, but the window would have been smashed already.

Visual cues like a bright red locking mechanism on the latch + sticker on windows that read SEATS LOCKED?