Nagoya man driving stolen Lexus RX steals Lexus LX

NOMINATIONToday 09:03 am JST

Funny thing is here in Japan, luxury cars seem to be the ones stolen the most. 

Stolen expensive cars in Japan are often sent to overseas and sold there.

Cargo shipping lines just take them and are under no obligation to check if they are stolen or not.

Somewhat a legal loophole.

Toyota should give him a job testing the security of their top-end line of cars. Obviously, the security is crap!

Funny thing is here in Japan, luxury cars seem to be the ones stolen the most. A friend's husband had their BMW stolen in Kobe Port. Back home in L.A., people don't steal the luxury cars as much because they are easy to notice and are equipped with tracking devices. Thieves always prefer the old Hondas and Toyotas becaue they are easy to steal and parts can used on many other models. Then they can overcharge their customers at their daytime mechanic gig.

@vending machine music

They should help locate a lot of stolen products. And a very good chance it is actually the thief’s Apple device, or their families that gives out the initial location.

You can also leave an old iPhone in the car with the cheapest prepaid SIM card/plan you can get. ‘Find My’ can be set up to alert a you ASAP as soon as it moves.

I do that on my dirtbike back in my country when out and about. Put it in a water proof case, tapped it up and put a Yamaha sticker on it, have to remove the seat to put it in and out but worth it as you get instant and continued updates in your bike (hasn’t been stolen yet)

Matsuda (Mazda) stealing a Toyota… lol

Apparently under the fender this a port to access the car"s electronics, which allows them to take control of the thing. Should they not secure that fender with a good old mechanical lock? It is not like the owners routinely want to take off the fenders.

arrested 37-year-old restaurant owner Shogo Matsuda for his suspected involvement in it.

Restaurant business is being hit hard during pandemic.

Put an apple air tag or tile in your car in the trunk.

super easy to hide and in kanto will get a hit very easily.

my buddy who owns a high end rental company does this and has no problems locating his cars quickly

Stealing these cars seems about as difficult as hacking a Japanese website or app like Line -- not at all. Surely they can up the security on such overpriced vehicles, even as a paid option.

Newer model keyless BMWs and Mercedes can be stolen wirelessly. What’s your point? Anything can be stolen and the manufacturers are by nature of the game, always one step behind the thieves.

As others pointed out, these guys already had a detailed knowledge of the security systems, and most likely were insiders or had inside information. Also a few (relatively) inexpensive security upgrades could have sirens howling and automatic text message alerts sent to owner the moment anyone even touches the car.

The problem with modern car is they are a victim of there own success, keyless entry, is the easiest car to steal, orther cars are dead easy to, in the UK some insurers wont insure range rovers, beacause they have a keyless entry ( like some other cars) the way the crooks do it is simple, the key fob/holder is sending out a signal to the car, this signal locks the doors or tells the car that the owner is near and to open the doors and start the engine, but crooks can buy a receiver to collect that key code, once they have it, the electronic device can transmit the same code back to the car when ever its needed, so the crook presses a botton on his magic box and the doors open and hey ho your car is stollen without smashing a window. they can in this instance use the OBD reader port, it is harder to steal a car with the old fassioned key, beleave it or not. BMWs are slightly harder to steal, as each time you blip your remote that code changes, unlike other cars where the code does not change. in some cases crooks just walk upto your house to get that code as your in bed your remote is still transmitting so they dont have to brake into your house.

Restaurant business is being hit hard during pandemic.

I would love to be hit hard by the pandemic and recieve 40K daily.

I have been hit harder than most people yet despite zero support so far

never crossed my mind to steal. The guy is a thief naturally and probably lived

above his means.

Why steal when you can go out and buy one?

In addition to the usual alarm devices, immobilizers, etc. I added a good old-fashioned steering wheel lock to my Supra RZ. I know nothing's perfect, but I figure the more I give the thief to do, the better my chances are of my car not being stolen.

@expat

The problem with the BMW GPS Tracking is that it can be easily deactivated with a few clicks i(Settings-GPS Tracking and unchecking the “check-box”).

I have BMW F01 2015 and I amazed how easily it can be deactivated without even asking you for any pin code or sending you some notifications that the function was deactivated.

Whem you register for your phone to be able to use BMW Connected/My BMW apps, you have to confirm the pin code that is sent to the vehicle before you are allowed to do anything else.

But deactivating it, just a few clicks away. When I had my car for a service, they gave me the new BMW 5 Plug In Hybrid (touch screen, 3D view and so on), of course I was excited and right away connected my iPhone, confirmed pin code and started using it right away.

The funniest part of it was that for more than a year and a half (when someone else was driving/owning it), I was able to see where they were, vehicle’s service overdue notifications and so on, until someone deleted my iPhone. Because there is no way to know who are how many phones are associated with the vehicle (the only option BMW ConnectedDrive Portal gives is to delete all the phones), so someone was wise enough to delete all of the associated connections), so what’s the point of having a GPS Tracking if anyone can easily deactivate it once the engine is running and no pin code or any notifications are sent to the current owner?

@expat

One more thing I forgot to mention about BMW’s security flaw.

We can update BMW Software by entering vehicle’s VIN on the BMW’s Update website.

Emter VIN, save it to the USB stick, plug it into the center armrest (or glovebox) and go to the settings to complete it. As easy as it can be, right?

Well, once I decided to uninstall the update (roll back to the previous version) to see if the problem I was having released to the update or my iPhone getting too old

The problem wasn’t related to the update so I decided to install the update software again, but I couldn’t find the USB stick I have saved it before. So going to BMW update website and entering VIN, gave me something like Congratulations! You have the latest software available for your vehicle.

So, I went to the dealer to update my software (the problem (at least that I found and bothered me the most, was older version showed you password in plain text [recently typed words or something like that], while the newest version excluded the password you have preciously typed and showed only email addresses that you have typed), but since I have already updated my software and then system registered my vehicle as having the latest version, neither one, dealer, calling customers service and so on could update my vehicle

Goung to settings and clicking the update BMW service/date is useless since it should then system and show that my vehicle needs to be updated.

so, finally I ended up spending weekly trying different VINs similar to my vehicle year and options on then website until I finally found the same update I have downloaded before.

Callled customer service and explained them the security risk (showing previously typed passwords in plain text)). The thanked me but they didn’t fix that security problem. In general, I really love BMW customer service, but many things I wish they could take more seriously..

Perhaps accustomed to a certain ‘Omotenashi’ offered by some rental car co.’s; IF your ‘reserved’ edition is ‘not to satisfaction’, a complimentary ‘upgrade’ is routinely given?

Stealing these cars seems about as difficult as hacking a Japanese website or app like Line -- not at all. Surely they can up the security on such overpriced vehicles, even as a paid option.

Prefer Lexus over Audi, BMW & Mercedenz. Made good choice.

Aren't those super expensive cars equipped with hidden GPS devices so they can be located in no time?

Jacobo

It's called Instant Upgrading. LOL

In a well working economy such as Japan, average people are (1) not as desperate as in, say, the U.S. where theft seems an easy path to food or rent and (2) how often are major replacement parts necessary in Japan whose 'used' cars are in more demand in places in the world than its new ones because they are still 'perfect' after a Japanese car owner buys a new one, and (3), how long would a 'chop shop' be able to operate with no demand for the parts? There is no market for chop shop parts in Japan so new (but 'used'), shiny cars in Japan find their way to the Mideast, Russia, perhaps even China and the U.S.. In this case, as snowymountainhell, above, pointed out, this guy seemed to think it was his 'rental' car and wanted an upgrade...

This is news?

Really?

He stole two expensive lexus’ from most likely 2 rich people?

oh well.