All Episodes

January 20, 2026 16 mins

Thieves got a thing.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Think about your car for a second. Remember when and
it still goes on. But remember when everybody was having
their air bag stolen. And again it's not over like
I understand that, but like that was a big thing
for a while and everybody was getting their air bag stolen. So, yes,
it still goes on, but it's not what it was.
Same thing with catalytic converters. Everybody was having their catalytic

(00:22):
converter stolen.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Still goes on. I understand that, but it's not as
prevalent as it was. Maybe everybody had them stolen. Do
you see what the new one is? A new car part?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Do all cars have this?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That's a great question. That is a great question.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm gonna say yes, most majority, overwhelming majority.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is it something on newer cars?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Definitely on a newer car, but I don't know how
far back they would go. Okay, a car radar sensor
which is usually tucked behind the front plate or the
automaker emblem.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
On the car, which helps with.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Features like cruise control and collision avoidance.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Those are now being stolen and it's just that little sensor.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
H So they'll get in there and they'll steal it
because they can get up to about one hundred and
fifty bucks per censor that they steal. Now, what does
that mean for you to replace? Usually two to three
thousand dollars?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
And is it are they doing it like on the
slide to whereas you wouldn't know it's missing or is
it real obvious.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
If it's just tucked away behind the plate, you probably
wouldn't know. Like cruise control, I get because a lot
of times won't Like some cruise control will alert you
if you're getting too close to the car in front
of you. But is this radar sensor the same thing
where like like some cars have this. If you're pulling
into a parking spot and you get too close to

(02:06):
the wall, it starts to beat. Yeah, Or if you're
too close to like the right hand side, if you're
turning in, it'll beep.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
How about detecting if an oncoming vehicle is headed your
way and the brights need to be shut off?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Is that the same radar sensor?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I see what you mean where it's automatic, where the
lights will go automatic high beams.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I don't know what this I don't know everything that
this sensor controls.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
And like, if yours is stolen, do they make a
mess of your grill or can they get it out
pretty cleanly?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
That's I was wondering if it's behind the plate, I'm
assuming it's pretty clean.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
How is it behind the plate?

Speaker 4 (02:52):
I feel like it just wouldn't the plate would be
a barrier for that sensor. Aren't these the sensors that
if there's some snow, you get the alert that your
sensor is.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh, it's not activated. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I have no idea, but it says Kristen, when you
see if somebody who knows about the sensors, please the
car radar sensor eight sixty six to Elliott eight six
six two three five five four six eight usually tuck
behind the front plate or the emblem. One guy from

(03:30):
the National Autobody Workers says there's so many bells and
whistles on cars, especially now that people don't realize they have.
Thieves get up to about one hundred and fifty bucks
for reselling the part for you.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's going to cost you thousands of dollars to replace.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yep, hard to forget that part.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
But I'm with you, how do you know if it's
gone right?

Speaker 5 (03:56):
It.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Does it take catalytic converter? You can you can hear
the difference bag.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
They cut open your your your your dash, your dash
or your steering wheel.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Does it take somebody getting that alert on a perfectly
fine weather day to wonder what is going on with
my car's front radar set?

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I don't think you would get the alert. I think
you would get nothing because it doesn't sense anything.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
If it's not connecting, you're not getting any sort of
heads up.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
I bet not, Oh, I would bet not. But you
know when I would get it in cruise control, when
I ram into the car in front of it.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Back to what Diana and I were wondering, does it
leave what I know, the front of your car a mess?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I was gonna say, I hope so, because that way
know it is. But then I don't want to have
to repay repair body damage.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
This sucks. I've never heard of this.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
I never heard of it either, like the part itself, No,
but I.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Mean think about it, think about how many like there
are some cars where on the what on the not
the rear view mirror, but the side mirrors. Yeah, they've
got sensors in them. Yeah, but is it all feed.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
From that one in the front. I don't know where
am I going line to? Someone will know? Hi, Ellie
in the morning. Hey is this me? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (05:18):
Hi?

Speaker 7 (05:18):
Who's this? This is Naesser out of Richmond.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yes, sir, what can you? What can you do for me?

Speaker 5 (05:24):
So?

Speaker 7 (05:24):
I do autoglass repair and recalibration for a living, and
I actually deal with a lot of the sonar, radar
and lane warning demarker's sisters, excuse me in these vehicles, right,
And the sense of you're talking about, yes, does end
up being behind the bumper or the emblems of it
all depends on the mediate vehicle make it model, of course,

(05:47):
But a lot of your crash sensors are actually through
the windshield and that little camera that you have behind there, right,
And uh, I'm not really sure how people are stealing
these off of many vehicle being that a lot of
them are actually catched behind the bumper or behind the end.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
But if it's behind if it's behind the bumper, in
a lot of cases, can't you just reach up under
there or slide under? I mean, my people were climbing
under cars to cut out the catalytic converter. So climbing
under the car is not a foreign concept for somebody
stealing parts from under your car. If it's behind the
bumper and I climbed under the car, would I be

(06:27):
able to see where it is?

Speaker 7 (06:30):
Ohen Some vehicles, yes, but more common than not nowadays
with all the cover plates and stuff like that nature,
it's a lot more difficult to get to. And half
of them you can't even honestly see from just looking
directly under the buffer because the wires are hidden and
tucked in everything of that nature.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right. What about when I just bash out the emblem.

Speaker 7 (06:52):
Oh, you're definitely gonna get it and probably distorted. Just
show your emblem on something like a new Honda Pilot
or a Honda a cord.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Right, So that's additional, buddy good.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
I just wanted to make sure I was still getting
it into the body shop. All right, dude, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Thank you, my friend. Where am I going? Line eight? Hi?
Joli in the morning.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
Hey, this is Travis.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Hey, what's going on? Dude?

Speaker 8 (07:15):
Elliott?

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Hey?

Speaker 5 (07:16):
So I bought an F one did the Lightning in
twenty twenty four, and it was like the base model
and I wanted to get Ford has adaptive grouse control
and lane centering right. So I installed my own radar
in the front bumper and it then enabled that feature.
But so I'm well familiar on how it do, where
the radar is, how it installs. But basically I had

(07:39):
to take a part in my entire front bumper. It
took about four hours from me to do. The radar
itself was six hundred bucks, and it sits behind a
plastic piece of trim in the metal bumper just to
the I guess if you're looking forward, they're looking at
the front bumper and be on the right side of attack.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Gotcha.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
But I had to totally take apart the bumper. You
don't just get to it from the outside. It's like
a whole ordeal.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Could I just pop that plastic and get to it though,
so I did not.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
I think if you if you didn't care about necessarily
taking care of it, you probably could just pop it
out and break it out and get to it that way.
But there are bolts on it. There's four bolts in
every corner and a pretty elaborate wiring that runs through there.
So I don't know how easy it would be to
get a tool in there to unscrew those bolts. Interesting
you had the right tool that you know, some sort

(08:29):
of angle wrench thing, maybe you could do it, but
it would not be easy.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
By the way, kudos to you for installing your own sensor.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
Yeah, well I had a lot of YouTube help and no, dude.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Whatever, it worked. Good for you. Hey, I appreciate it,
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yes, Tyler, I went to YouTube to find out how
quickly the best people, the best thieves can do this
radar sensor, and it says most can do it in minutes.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
The best can do it in seconds.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Oh yeah, I believe that.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Like they always said that about stealing a car, like
somebody who's good a professional car thief.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, they're in and out. They're in your car and
gone in seconds.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
That's not good.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
No, so these end Listen, I understand what the guy
is saying that for him it took a while, but.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
He was also trying to maintain the car's value.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, I don't care what the car's front end looks like.
I just bashed. I took a sledgehat in your car.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
No, but it looks like on YouTube. You don't have
to destroy it. You don't have to take a baseball
back to it.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
That if you have.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
It's not even a screwdriver, so not even a special
to a screwdriver.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
You can get it done.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Can I get to it easier if I pump pump,
if I pop the hood?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Have you ever tried to change certain lights? Sometimes they
are so in the pain in the ass when you're
going through the hood.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Pain in the ass. But you know what, be easier
just bash it out and have somebody else to do
it and then.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Change it from the outside.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Hi, Elliott the morning. Hi is yeah, Hi, who's as Hey?

Speaker 6 (10:08):
My name is Rogan.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes, Rogan? What can I do for you?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
So?

Speaker 6 (10:12):
I'm a mechanic and I used to work for Volkswagen
at a dealership. Yes, sir, and Volkswagens the most German
vehicles actually have their sensors pretty easy to get to,
and some of them you can actually see from the
outside of the vehicle. They're not even covered up.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
How do you what do you mean you see it
from outside the vehicle or you have to know.

Speaker 6 (10:32):
So on like like twenty fifteen to twenty eighteen, Volkswagen
gtis in the very center of the bottom grille where
normally like you would see like the radiator and everything right,
there's a whole cut out there and it's just a
square sensor sticking right out in the open. And even
on the newer cars they put it behind the front

(10:54):
logo front emblem. All you need is a plathead screwdriver
and you just smack that off real quick and then
it's like one or two push tabs and that thing's
coming out and you have it. Oh my god, I
which is I think it's funny because the German cars
it's the easiest to get to, because most of the
Japanese cars and American cars have it more covered up

(11:16):
or in the windshield. But now the German cars, which
usually don't have a lot of theft, are going to
start seeing that because those sensors are in such easy areas.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Hey, can I ask you this?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Like and I like we were saying, I don't know
how far back, but if this goes back to twenty
fifteen to twenty eighteen, almost every car has some kind
of radar sensor in it.

Speaker 6 (11:35):
Correct, most do, I would say, but at that time
it wasn't as prevalent. It would be more of like
the higher trim models that would have it.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, right, But I mean now we're ten years ahead
of time. Probably everything. Everything's got to radar sensor on it.

Speaker 6 (11:52):
Everything does at this point. But at least you can
still drive the car without it. You're not going to
have your adaptive cruise control, you're not going to have
your your lane assists that sort of thing. But when
it comes to like pulling into a parking spot and
getting that beeping, that's a whole separate system, Gott and
it's it's more of a comfort system than a safety

(12:17):
system because it is secondary. So you'd still be able
to drive the car. You would just get a bunch
of warnings on the dash saying like, oh, your your
assists are unavailable at the moment because it's not getting
that sensor.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
One last thing when when you keep talking about like
lane lane assist, is that where like if you if
you go to change lanes without turning your signal on,
the car vibrates.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, worst feature.

Speaker 6 (12:43):
And those are usually different sensors. So those ones are
normally the ones in the windshield, and those keep you
in the.

Speaker 8 (12:50):
Lane versus doing adaptive.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
Cruise control where it keeps you a certain distance from
the car in front of you.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
I got you.

Speaker 6 (12:56):
That's a different sensor, and that's what people are stealing.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, the the rattling of the car. I know it's
if I doze off and I start to veer off.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Horrible. I don't fall asleep driving. Horrible feature.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Can you change it to alert you in a different way?

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, how about don't?

Speaker 6 (13:16):
Oh that's his that's his answer for everything.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Just don't.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
No, No, it's not.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
It's not the vibrating of the steering wheel that bothers here.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
No, but some of them, like if you go to
if you go to turn, I was in a rental
car that did this once.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
If you go to get from the middle lane to.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
The right lane and you don't signal, it like looks
you up. Well no, sometimes you shake, but sometimes it
locks you up.

Speaker 8 (13:39):
Well.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I need to get over there quick.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Because I haven't said.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
No, they don't know I'm coming. Let me go to
line seven. Hi Elliet in the morning. Hey Nick, Hey,
what's going on dude?

Speaker 8 (13:57):
Not much? Man? How are you? I work on I
work on cars all the time.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
But we're going to body shop.

Speaker 8 (14:01):
Man, those things are so easy to steal. Hey, thanks,
not even lying. Give me give me like a little
priv bar in about two seconds and I can rip
those things out. Screw the screws and the screw drivers
and the bolts and all that stuff. I'll just rip
that thing right out. One hundred and fifty bucks in
my pocket.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And it's that it's that easy to do, not just
on the German cars, but on on almost everything toyotas.

Speaker 8 (14:24):
Toyotas right behind the emblems. The emblems themselves are like
probably one hundred bucks. So that sensor can read through
it and everything like that. What's I rip it out to?
You're gonna see like six hundred codes and lights on
your dash too. Plus once you replace the sensor, you
gotta have a mask. I come out and calibrate it.
That's probably about another five hundred bucks.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Does he know about it?

Speaker 8 (14:48):
So easy?

Speaker 6 (14:49):
Right?

Speaker 2 (14:49):
I mean?

Speaker 8 (14:50):
I mean, I mean, if it gives me a problem,
I'll rip your whole grill off and then take that.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Thick Yeah right, I mean what am I dick? Language? Oh?

Speaker 8 (14:57):
Sorry, that's right, Tyler.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Tyler has a question for you.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Some people have mentioned that you can buy sensor guards.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Have you heard of that.

Speaker 8 (15:07):
I've seen some. There are some that put like a
little plastic piece over it, but it's not it's not
anything that's like a metal bracket stopping me from doing anything.
If they put any metal in front of it, it's
going to mess up the sensus.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah right, I'm just gonna say because like a lot
of the emblems, like I don't know that people, whether
they realize it or not, but a lot of that
is like smoked not smoked plastic so that.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
You can't just see through it but it's clear. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (15:35):
Yeah, well, I mean most of the emblems are covered up,
but like the stuff they're making them out of, it
has to read through that to see, you know, the
car in front of it and stuff. And we got
a lot of guys that will come out here to
recalibrate those things, and they have all kinds of problems
doing it. It's got to be at the right angle.
It's got to be all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
And like you're saying the like, like for catalytic converters,
people were going under there and essentially just putting metal
all low for the bottom of their car.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
But you can't do that on these sensors.

Speaker 8 (16:04):
Yeah, you can put the metal down there all you want.
I already got a solves.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
That's good. That's another good point.

Speaker 8 (16:13):
You can try all you want. Man, little motivation,
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics

Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics

Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.

iHeartOlympics: The Latest

iHeartOlympics: The Latest

Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.