Jimmi Jammer and Gate Keeper install and attempted theft story

[andreb]

About two months ago I had parked my truck one street over from my house (parking on my street can be tough for my big truck) and while it was there (in front of a church, parking lot across the street) someone tried to jam open my passenger front door handle and gain access to my truck. I load my laptop bag from the passenger side when I head out for work and noticed a small shred of plastic hanging from the door latch surround. Nothing in my truck was missing so I assumed the would-be thief was interrupted in the process and moved on to another target.

Since my family never knows what to get me for Christmas I asked for the Jimmi Jammer products to secure my truck and add another layer of security. I know there are lots of pros and cons around the installation of these devices and I can see both sides of the convo. I would personally rather have a stronger perimeter defense and keep the bad guys out then let them get in and deal with the consequences. Unfortunately my job, SHTF mindset and military training has taught me to be prepared which means I carry a lot of "stuff" in my truck and its that "stuff" that I mainly want to protect and ensure it remains mine.

I got sick over the holidays so I didn't get a chance to install them earlier but the event that transpired on the night of 1/12/18 put the install as a priority...

So it's almost 10 PM and my truck is parked in front of my house. Its a reasonably well lit, one block street and we live in the middle of the block. My wife and kids are all up in the living room that overlooks the driveway and where my truck is parked. I'm on the couch with them and the kids are rowdy from a movie they just watched (no school on Monday) so they'll be up late. I get a text on my phone and think its odd so i decide to check it. Now normally I would not at this time but something urged me to.

I bought the SkyLINK service with my truck and thought it was pretty cool until I realized its an annual subscription so I never renewed but apparently the "low battery" warning still works. Funny, I thought, I didn't leave anything on in my truck and it all shuts off automatically so unless something is wrong with the battery it should be fine. I figured I'd better go check just in case so i grabbed my keys and went downstairs to investigate.

I walked outside across the front of my truck and turned to find the drivers door ajar, hmm. I then notice the hood was popped! I swung the door open and took a quick look inside, nothing missing that I can see, everything seems in place. In my mind I ask "what's that smell." I close the door and move back to the front of the truck and open the hood. Sure enough, there is the problem: my battery cable negative leads are cut! This just happened too! Quick scan around, nobody on the street - crickets! Hmm, i need a flashlight. I go back upstairs and come down through the garage, grab a flashlight. On the way through the house I tell my family that someone just tried to steal my battery so they all follow me into garage and outside.

Shining the flashlight under the hood confirms the negative cable/s is totally cut from terminal. I can't believe this! At least I stopped it. So I go back to the drivers door. The door is now closed and locked, funny I don't remember locking it and it certainly can't lock itself without power. I use my key to open the door and climb in placing one knee on the seat. Check glove box - all there/good. Check center console (it was unlocked) stuff missing, my SCT Flash Tuner with SVC tune installed is gone, some other stuff. So now I am really pissed. I have stuff in the back seat area so I pan the flashlight over to the rear saying aloud now "what's that f'n smell" and come to find a blue sweatshirt in the back passenger foot well. Hmm, that's funny, I don't own a sweatshirt like that and neither do my kids. Then it moves!

So the guy who's trying to steal my shit is IN my truck!! He's hunkered down in a fetal position but has his gloved hands covering the back of his head. I now pretty much start yelling as loud so I can alert the neighbors. My son is in the garage where my weapons safe is and he knows how to access it so I yell as loud as I can for him to "get my gun." At this point the thief turns his head up to look at me and his eyes are a foot wide. I quickly exit the truck from the drivers side and go around front to hopefully meet my son with my gun and I'm thinking how I can detain this guy? Well he's moving pretty quick now and bails out the passenger rear door so I give chase with a flashlight and Crocs on...

My wife is now calling 911 and I'm halfway down the block chasing after the guy. He makes the corner and drops his cel phone (i'll go back for that later) and I pursue for another block or so then he peels down the hill into the neighborhood. Did I mention I was in Crocs? Not the best choice of footwear for chasing thieves. Plus I'm armed with a flashlight, a 2xAA one at that and no cel phone. He's moving quick too and I'm no slouch so I figure I'm not catching him and if I do, what am I going to do really. I head back to the house and now the neighbors are out with my wife who heard me yelling, glad they care enough to come out and see what's going on.

The cops show up surprisingly quick and take a report. He also dropped his wire cutters and some gift cards (probably stolen) so they collect the evidence. I give my best account of what happened and get a slight nod of approval for the "get my gun" comment. They leave, I brief the neighbors on what's happened. Not much more I can do tonight so I secure the truck and take the family inside. My wife is freaking out and the kids are rattled but we eventually get them to bed. I spend the night on the couch with my gun locked and loaded and one eye open until dawn.

 

[brc misfit]

Hi neighbor. I feel your pain. My wife's M3 had it's passenger side window broken out at peets parking lot. This ***** getting out of hand. Love the,"get the gun",comment. Do you live by Robin Williams old house.?. White gen1.?.

 

[RaptorMaryland]

I had a early 4 am flight, (I was in Navy Flight school) and come out to walk the dog and saw a guy by my room mates car with a device to open the car door.

All I did was say "Rover get him", and the dog took off after the guy, and the last I saw them they turned the corner with the dog on his tail.

Dog came back, and I went off to work.

You need a big dog.

 

[smurfslayer]

I’m glad you’re ok and the damage is relatively minimal.

LOTS of object lessons here, and I hope you’ve had a chance to reflect.

 

[andreb]

Now, I told you that story to tell you this one...

The next day I get a chance to check my truck out better. In the back seat I find one of my reusable shopping bags with all my stuff in it! The thief had also disconnected the kids booster and car seat from the LATCH mounts in an attempt to get behind the rear seat. Guess I caught him before he could figure it out. Good thing because that's where I keep some real good stuff. I also discovered the horn wires were cut. This makes me think the guy know's F-150's, what he's doing to a certain extent and maybe even has targeted my truck before. This would have been the second time my truck was mysteriously entered into and cleaned out. Maybe he's the guy who tried to jam the door handle open initially?

The net result was no items lost in the theft attempt, 10 minutes to splice the horn wires back together and $90 to replace the battery cable. You have to buy the entire harness which includes the positive cable and a bunch of other wires. I'm sure its going to take me a couple hours to remove and replace properly. There is only a small nick in the paint under the door handle so I can touch that up. There is also some abrasion marks across the front trim panel that is above the bumper. They look like they'll buff out.

I had to travel that week for work so I took my truck and parked it at the airport. I spent this weekend cleaning out the truck and installing the Jimmi Jammers. As best as I can tell the thief first slid under my truck, reached up between the bumper and frame and cut the horn wires. The cheap rubber trim panel Ford chose to enclose the front with failed a long time ago when I hit it with the pressure washer He then pried the lock out, opened the door, jumped in and popped the hood, cut the battery cable then went back inside to take what he wanted. He cut the horn leads in case the alarm went off and he cut the battery so the parking lights woundn't flash or the interior light would be on. His mistake was leaving the hood propped open although I would have certainly investigated but I wonder if he thought I wouldn't, that's why he stayed hidden in the truck.

My mistake was not grabbing my gun the first time I went downstairs! I feel like I have to sign up for a year of SkyLINK now since they sort of saved my stuff. Not sure what I would have done if I detained the guy but I do own handcuffs. The real question is what would the police have done, who knows!? I could be in jail right now for brandishing a weapon or unlawful arrest and detainment, I have heard so many crazy stories about this. I still can't believe the guy was actually IN my truck! He's either super professional or stupid. Maybe a little of both? He seemed to know his way around an F-150 pretty well.

What better time to install the things I got to prevent this in the first place! Overall the Jimmi Jammers are very easy to install. You don't need to remove the door handle and only remove one nut. The drivers door is the hardest as you need to remove the lock rod. The door splash guards are held on with some industrial strength "booger" glue. I found that if you stretch it a bit and cut the web with a blade it leaves a little on both the door and the shield and they stick back together easily. If you stretch the glue to the point where it peels off then you're left with a long string to deal with and it won't stick back on mostly.

The Jimmi Jammers are pretty simple and I could have cranked them out in the shop fairly quickly but at $108 for all four doors its barely worth the effort. Plus the guys at Jimmi Jammers seem like cool dudes and everyone needs to make money. The only part I'd like to see re-designed is the "set screw" used where the Jimmi Jammer meets up to the door by the latch assembly. Its a sharp sheet metal screw and it will deform/dimple the drivers door metal if you over tighten. The passenger doors seem to be double layered in this area so it wasn't a problem there. Just go easy and watch the sheet metal with a flashlight. Stop when you see or feel the metal move. There is a warning about this in the install instructions. The kits also come with some pretty nice inside window stickers to alert thieves.

I see lots of posts about how some people think if theives try to jam your lock and get blocked by the Jimmi Jammer they'll just break your window or keep trying and damage the door, etc. I hope the window stickers along with the alarm expansion I just did http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f12/ford-dl3z-19a361-vss-perimeter-alarm-system-install-tips-59744/ convince them to move onto an easier target.

 

[andreb]

Hi neighbor. I feel your pain. My wife's M3 had it's passenger side window broken out at peets parking lot. This ***** getting out of hand. Love the,"get the gun",comment. Do you live by Robin Williams old house.?. White gen1.?.

When I was a BMW mechanic we always joked BMW = Break My Window. Sucks and love the M3 almost as much as my old 1971 2002 ;-) I'm up in Miraloma. Yeah this break in shit is crazy. We are mostly insulated from it up here but crazy shit is going down everywhere these days. Tuxedo black, '14 with Veteran's plates.

---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:35 PM ----------

I had a early 4 am flight, (I was in Navy Flight school) and come out to walk the dog and saw a guy by my room mates car with a device to open the car door.

All I did was say "Rover get him", and the dog took off after the guy, and the last I saw them they turned the corner with the dog on his tail.

Dog came back, and I went off to work.

You need a big dog.

Nice! Our home is ~1200 sq ft. with two kids and no backyard. I love dogs but owning them in this city is crazy and not the best for a dog like that IMO. My dad said I should go to the pound and get the meanest, nastiest dog I can find and let him sleep in the Raptor. What a surprise that would have been!

 

[andreb]

When I installed the Jimmi Jammer on the passenger front door I figured I'd remove it to clean up the damage. The paint damage is mostly covered up by the handle surround. I put a new bead of silicone around the handle when I replaced it. You can see where the screwdriver or tool he used was inserted under the handle surround, just like they describe on the web site. Bad design by Ford and obviously easy to exploit. Looking closely at the marks on the LH side where the handle pivots from it almost seems like something hot/heated was used to displace the plastic smoothly rather then force it out of the way. This may be the reason there was so little visible damage initially. This further proves the guy knows his way around an F-150 and perhaps was one who attempted the previous break-in.

 

[andreb]

To wrap up this "hardening" project I also installed the talegate keeper. Very simple solution and the slickest of them all IMO. The factory puts enough Locktite on the Torx bolt to hold the entire truck together! Use an extension on your ratchet to clear the tailgate and you'll get a straight shot at the bolt. There is no locating pin on the keeper so center it where is doesn't rub on the tailgate pivot then tighten. I reapplied Loctite as well. They include a Torx bit to throw in your tool box just in case you ever need to remove the tailgate and you're away from home.

 

[RaptorMaryland]

To wrap up this "hardening" project I also installed the talegate keeper. Very simple solution and the slickest of them all IMO. The factory puts enough Locktite on the Torx bolt to hold the entire truck together! Use an extension on your ratchet to clear the tailgate and you'll get a straight shot at the bolt. There is no locating pin on the keeper so center it where is doesn't rub on the tailgate pivot then tighten. I reapplied Loctite as well. They include a Torx bit to throw in your tool box just in case you ever need to remove the tailgate and you're away from home.

Is this the gate keeper you put on?

https://www.amazon.com/Tailgate-Security-2015-18-2017-2018-SuperDuty/dp/B076MGWJQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1518439494&sr=1-1&keywords=200750+gate&dpID=41KMN6X9xqL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[andreb]

Is this the gate keeper you put on?

https://www.amazon.com/Tailgate-Security-2015-18-2017-2018-SuperDuty/dp/B076MGWJQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1518439494&sr=1-1&keywords=200750+gate&dpID=41KMN6X9xqL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Nope!

This is: Tailgate Theft Prevention, get a Gate Keeper

I bought it from a link on their website. Same price I saw on Amazon and its from an authorized retailer so its the real deal. There is a warning on the web site about fakes, knock-offs and unauthorized retailers.


Edited - I went back and looked at the item on Amazon. That appears to be a legit version from Redline but the version for the Gen 1 Raptor attaches to the bed not the gate so I'm incorrect above.

Carry on!