Jeep and Ram Owners in Houston Targeted by Laptop-Wielding Thieves

These fob vehicles do not require a key to unlock the steering column. Only the fob in proximity.

Lots of cars no longer have a locking steering column. Having a transponder key meets the required anti-theft regulations in and of itself. So those locking steering columns have been going away.

@Scoutdude This makes me think of the old anti-theft trick of Jeep CJ owners. Weld some chain to the metal dashboard and a single link to the manual transmission shifter. Make sure that the chain was just long enough to keep the transmission stuck in a high gear when padlocked together. Security for your convertible, door-less transportation.

The Wrangler uses a standard key with Sentry Key built in. It's not the FOBIK that Chrysler uses for other models.

@Scoutdude My Golf SportWagen has both a proximity key and a steering lock. The steering lock is engaged / disengaged electronically, and you can hear it. It's weird that the JK Wrangler hasn't had a steering lock, I believe, since 2009. You have the only vehicle on the consumer market that is designed to operate with its doors completely removed...and one that's available with a manual transmission, so that there's nothing preventing anyone from putting the vehicle into gear or rolling it down a hill...and there's not even a steering lock to stop them? Ridiculous.

@PrincipalDan The way most people weld, that anti-theft device would soon be thwarted. Better have someone who knows what he / she is doing weld the chain.

@SC5door Well, I don't believe the Wrangler even has a steering lock, but if it did, it would---like you say---be mechanically engaged / unengaged via the key blade.

@Kyree But that steering lock would cost them an extra 25 cents per vehicle and since it isn't required by law they are going to save that 25 cents per vehicle. As some may have figured out I own International Harvester Scouts. The Scout is the finest vehicle that GM ever had a hand in bringing to market. In one of the many ways IH was well ahead of its time was that they assembled vehicles with as many parts from outside suppliers as possible. The vast majority of those parts were from then divisions of GM. Delco-Remy, Rochester Products, Guide, Packard Electric and Saginaw. The steering column came from Saginaw. At some point IH decided that the Scout II needed a tilt steering column. Somehow in the negotiations they agreed to leave out the spring loaded pin and toothed plate that made up the locking mechanism for the steering wheel. It had to save Saginaw 7 or 8 cents per unit. However since it was going into a MPV, as they were classified at the time, it didn't required a locking steering column since MPVs were considered trucks. So that 79 Scout with a tilt wheel doesn't have a locking steering column but if it has the fixed column it does have a locking steering column.

@Scoutdude The Wrangler is probably one of the most profitable vehicles on the market considering what it costs to build it, versus what people pay for it. And its particularly susceptible to and desirable for theft. FCA could do right by its hordes of loyal Wrangler fans and install a steering lock, standard. I mean, seriously, of all modern cars not to have one... And interesting about the Scout, BTW. There were some other automakers that pretty much borrowed off-the-shelf components from larger firms. TVR was one of them. Really, Bentley and Rolls-Royce did it up to the 90s, when BMW and Volkswagen got their hands in the pie.

@Scoutdude FCA hardly builds the Wrangler anyway. It's all done in the Toledo Supplier Park using tooling that has been paid off forever ago.

@Adam Tonge They need to have a big corporate poster right in the lobby of FCA. Things To Not Do: 1) Change the Wrangler.

@Scoutdude And the picture should show a Wrangler with rectangular headlamps with a red bar diagonally across it.

@Kyree, and every Wrangler that is stolen is an opportunity for more profit. Either it is never recovered or stripped beyond repair and the previous owner will need a replacement. Or it is recovered but missing its doors, wheels and tires, damaged other parts, but not enough to write off. Either way each theft creates an opportunity to sell either a replacement vehicle or replacement parts. And that is why there are regulations requiring a minimum level of anti theft equipment.

@ Kyree. The Scout parts thing has led to some interesting interactions at parts stores. The one time that stands out in particular was when the headlights were starting to act up, the sun was dropping quick and I was ~20 miles from home and had to be somewhere. I figured out that it was the dimmer switch and headed to the closest parts store. I told the guy at the counter "dimmer switch 1972 International Scout" He responded there is no way we are going to have ANYTHING for that. I told him that while I can't say what is actually on his shelf at this point and time I guarantee that there is a spot on the shelf for it. He argued some more and I finally got a little loud and told him to look up the F!@#$%^ part number. He finally did and when he came back with the switch in his hand he said I can't believe we have one. I told him of course you do it is far and away the most common dimmer switch ever made as it fits GM cars from the 60's until they started moving do the steering column stalk. Of course with the internet I always walk in with the part number and with a smart phone I can show them that their inventory system shows that they have one in stock.

Had. They're gone.