Tesla Sentry Mode in Action

[Merle]

San Jose (and entire Bay Area) is turning sour. Having being victimized about 6 months ago with a similar smash and grab (SUV) in a parking lot with video cameras, and then the bag ransacked and dropped off in a Target parking lot (a couple miles north) with more video cameras about 10 minutes later...

You can't get the cops to come out. In SF, the people there have given up on the smash-and-grab reporting incidents, and this reduces the crime numbers that get officially reported to the police making the city seem safer. Oh sure, you fill out an online report, but that's the extent of it when there's no other details you have (private businesses won't give you footage, they want the cops there).

Sorry, but when you lose time, money and valuable equipment (with your files and work in progress that you didn't save to the cloud) it's frustrating. Then you have politicians who won't lift a finger to prosecute crime (including vagrancy and homelessness) and actually work to prevent good technology (facial recognition) from helping.

Tesla video cameras are definitely a good start. Place them on Youtube, we see the license plates and can always call the cops. But if the cops and politicians won't do their jobs...

 

[rmfpdx]

Break ins happening to everyone in the Bay Area. They attack everything from a Model 3 to a Bolt to a Prius. Heck people even get their bikes stolen.

I went to grad school at Berkeley in the 90s. I remember watching in astonishment and disgust one day while waiting outside next to the bike rack in front of the Berkeley city library downtown and watching a large parade of high school students walk by. Evidently school had just let out. As they passed the bicycles, almost every single student grabbed and pulled on the bikes, apparently to see which ones were unlocked and could be easily stolen. This is just one small example. Theft was rampant and out of control there. I lived near Alcatraz and Telegraph. If you wanted something gone, all you had to do was leave it at the curb and it would be gone within 5 minutes. My car was in a locked garage. Yet it was stolen twice and broken into three times while in the locked garage. So glad I don't live anywhere near there anymore.

 

[Mirlen]

Herd immunity. As long as 90% of Teslas on the road have Sentry mode and the general public is aware, then you’ll be safe.

Not with the current California thinking of not prosecuting these idiots.

 

[Glamisduner]

glue a razor blade to the seat fold down latch, that way you can get a DNA sample.

 

[Msjulie]

Believe me you don't want to get a notification every time someone walks or drives past

The only time I did get a phone alert was when someone backed right into the car; we were at an outside restaurant and I also just heard my car's horn go nuts.. Lucky it was just a slow inept-parking event, no damage to anything.

Agree on every time someone walks/drives by but then I ask why should that trigger an alert at all? I can always silence my phone; if a real thing happens, I'd like to know the actual time etc so I can decide which video to hunt through..

 

[Msjulie]

You can't get the cops to come out.

An acquaintance had their iPhone stolen and using Find-my-phone tracked it to a location in San Jose. Police said sorry, we don't have the time to go get it ... what? Sigh

 

[rpreuss]

I'm not sure I've seen any reports outside of California. Maybe it's just the sheer number of Teslas running around there.

My Fusions (2010 Hybrid and 2017 Energi) both have small windows in the way back and fold down seats to the trunk. Nothing new, and I never heard about break-ins until I got my Tesla and browsed these forums.

 

[Rich A.]

Glad all are safe

I proposed in another thread that the little window should be openable from the outside. Put a hinge on it. So thieves can open it, pull down the seats, look in the empty trunk, and go on their way, without causing damage.

What if the trunk isn't empty? That's pretty much the point of having a trunk, isn't it?

 

[WolfHero]

I've always felt Tesla should put more into advertising. Some more commercials explaining that Teslas are always recording.
Thus creating more of a deterrent for these type of things.

However, these guys know what window to break so you would figure they would know their being recorded..

If this is common knowledge, these people will just put on a mask before getting close to your car. Now you won't even be able to get their face on camera. I would rather they don't know about it.

 

[groovidad]

I'm curious.....I know many of you have had tint installed. Did you have the rear 1/4 window tinted? I'm thinking the tint "may" add a level of preventing a shattering of the glass and "may" keep the fractured window in place, slowing down the punks until they actually punch it out(?) Then again, maybe the tint film is so thin it would just rip and split as the glass shatters. The reason I bring this up is I had a Toyota Matrix years ago and had tint on all windows. Someone threw a rock at the drivers side window and it shattered BUT the tint held most of the glass in place, much like how windshields have the clear membrane imbedded within the glass to keep the flying glass from peppering the driver and front passenger. Thoughts.....

 

[l&blue]

The alarm should have been triggered with or without Sentry. I wonder it was not triggered.

 

[arnolddeleon]

The alarm should have been triggered with or without Sentry. I wonder it was not triggered.

One of the reasons they like going after these smalls windows is they tend to not trigger alarms.

 

[KenC]

What if the trunk isn't empty? That's pretty much the point of having a trunk, isn't it?

What?!? You put stuff in your trunk? No wonder thieves are breaking windows to steal it. /s

 

[nrechtman]

If the cops would actually do their jobs, they could set up an catch these assholes easily in a bait situation

 

[RonJoven]

So if they break that small window, pop the seat down and see something very nice in the trunk, then how do they break into the car and open the doors or trunk?

 

[Glamisduner]

So if they break that small window, pop the seat down and see something very nice in the trunk, then how do they break into the car and open the doors or trunk?

I imagine they break the larger window and unlock the door, but that causes alarms to go off, so they can get anymore cars.

 

[BluestarE3]

So if they break that small window, pop the seat down and see something very nice in the trunk, then how do they break into the car and open the doors or trunk?

After seeing there are goodies present, break the adjacent rear passenger window, dive in far enough to snag the item out of the trunk and retreat back out of the car. No need to open the door, which would set off the alarm. On to the next car, rinse and repeat.

 

[SMAlset]

So if they break that small window, pop the seat down and see something very nice in the trunk, then how do they break into the car and open the doors or trunk?

From the accounts and photos I've seen, on some cars they will break the rear passenger window and climb/reach in and pull things out that way. One Model S owner I spoke with dashcam footage, had the guy realizing what he wanted would be easier to get through the liftgate window so attempted several times to break his rear window. Had a hard time and probably was afraid of attracting too much attention so then went back to work on gaining the items through the rear passenger window. The owner said he ended up with a broken triangular window and passenger rear and a damaged liftgate window and a hefty repair bill. There's plenty of regular dashcam videos on TMC that have been posted to give you a good idea of how they do it.

 

[scohtay]

glue a razor blade to the seat fold down latch, that way you can get a DNA sample.

Seriously, has anyone used those plastic inserts for the seat latch to make it impossible to fold down the seats?

 

[Glamisduner]

Seriously, has anyone used those plastic inserts for the seat latch to make it impossible to fold down the seats?

I imagine they would break your window then not be able to fold the seat down . The people going this stuff are not the brightest bunch. Tempted to try razor blades though, just use a leather gloves for the start latches. . Probably get arrested for it and end up paying the criminal.