How to steal a rental truck.
So you need to rent a truck but don't want to pay for it. You're a cheap bastard aren't you? But in any event this article was written just for you. With a little luck and a bit of thought and effort you can borrow that truck for free OR you can keep it, it's all up to you.
First you need to find your trucks location. Try to pick a place that is closed on Sunday, just call up and ask them if they are open on Sunday if not go check out their location. Why a place closed on Sunday you ask? Well it's simple. Places that are closed Sundays frequently just have the customers leave the trucks and the keys. Where do they leave the keys? Frequently in a cheesy weak little drop box that will take you about a minute if you're slow to pop open, that's where. Look for a drop box for keys near the front door. If there's no drop box or it's the chute type that goes into the building move on to another location. On the other hand if it's the usual cheesy piece of crap that these rental places typically use, you my friend are in luck. The cheaper and weaker the box looks the better. This is also a good time to check out the general setup. Any cameras around? How visible is the drop box location from the street or anything else for that matter? Is there a damn police station across the street? Is there a house that might belong to the owner or some other interested party right next door? Are the trucks in the open and not behind some monster of a locked gate? Now having identified your target and generally scoped it out, if all looks well, go back on a Sat night or a Sunday. By Sunday afternoon the lot will start to really fill up with trucks, especially at the end of the month when everybody seems to move, the keys to which are, you guessed it, in the crappy little drop box. Note that if you plan on picking up your truck Sat night you may wish to bring a small flashlight to try and shine into the drop box to see if you can see any keys in there yet, or you can just smack the thing and see if you hear anything. These places are for the most part cheap and their drop boxes are very often made of thin gauge steal which can easily be torn apart with a crowbar or decent sized screwdriver. For that matter the locks on them are frequently cheap wafer tumbler locks that will literally pick open with a paperclip in a few seconds. If your drop box is of better construction with perhaps a better lock on it don't worry there is a ton of information on compromising locks all over the web just do a little research. Here is a crash course on picking these El cheapo locks. First identify the lock. The ones you are looking for are called wafer tumbler or disc tumbler locks. If you run into a pin tumbler lock I am going to be covering drilling of them in an upcoming post. There is plenty of picking info all over the freaking web. They will look like the locks on desks and cabinets and things of that nature. As you look in the keyway you will see the discs/wafers which will simply look like one end of a small essentially rectangular piece of metal either protruding from the top or bottom of the keyway. If they protrude from both sides of the keyway you may need an easier target or double sided picks. Do a google search for double sided picks if you need to. The good news is these locks are usually VERY easy to pick open. Why people insist on leaving the keys to sometimes literally hundreds of thousands of $ worth of equipment in boxes protected by these dime store wonders I have no idea but they frequently do. To capitalize on this without damage to the box you will need two tools. The first is your pick. Ideally it will look like ===========/\ or ===========() and be small enough to slide under the wafers without disturbing them. This particular pick is usually referred to as a rake or half diamond or a ball pick in the case of the latter example. If you don't have one don't worry you can easily make it. Just search on lockpicks on the web for lots of pictures to use as a guide. While you are searching you might decide to just buy a whole set of the damn things. They are cheap enough.But then, we've already established, so are you, or you would just rent the damn truck like everybody else. If you are too lazy to make the pick and too cheap to buy them a paperclip will work almost as well. You will also need a tool to exert turning force on the lock, a small screwdriver or L shaped tool shaped like this ___________________| will work fine. Note that some so called lockpicking experts will insist that you need a proper tension wrench which works with a light torquing force in the keyway. They are wrong. You don't need that for this type of lock and frankly it usually gets in the way more than it helps. If you bought the pick set one of the hook picks will work great for turning the plug. Now with your turning tool try to move the locks plug either clockwise or counter clockwise, you can use the tool to push or pull whichever feels best to you, one direction will typically have a very positive feeling stop to it and the other will appear to give a little bit. The way that gives a little bit is the way you want to try and pick the lock. Now putting a LIGHT turning force on the locks plug in the correct direction move your pick up or down against the tumblers while moving it in and out basically raking it against the tumblers, using the paperclip angle it up a little so that the tip strikes the tumblers, if all goes well you will feel the plug (part of the lock that turns) give a little and then move to the open position. If it doesn't give after 30-60 seconds of trying release tension and start over. Obviously you should practice and become proficient at this before visiting the rental yard to pick up your truck. If you are standing around there F'ing around with the damn thing and the cops pull up they will have a lot of nosey questions the way cops often do in those kind of situations. Besides you don't want to be there all damn night you've got furniture or some other stuff to move. Note that if you are planning to take the truck during the day an interesting variation would be to simply pick the lock late the night before then remove it and replace it with your own similar lock to which you have a key. These locks usually secure to the inside of the box with a simple nut which can be removed in a minute or two. This way you could be gone quickly in the daytime instead of jacking around with the box and attracting a lot of attention you really don't want. Doing this will also really make the rental people scratch their heads when their key won't work Monday morning, which may be good for an amusing mental image depending on your own general disposition and sense of humor. Hopefully by force or eloquence you will quickly be in the drop box and not answering some cops nosey questions, now take out the keys. They will usually be marked in some way as to what truck they belong to, but if not you can always take them all and try each in turn on the truck of your choice. If that nosey cop should happen to cruise in to the place while you are looking for your truck throw away those damn keys. If he finds them on you he will really have a bunch of questions. It would also be helpful to visit the yard right after it closes for the weekend and make note of what is on the lot. That way you will know that anything new that is there when you come back to pick your truck up was dropped off with it's keys in the drop box. You don't want to be trying to find the keys to some damn truck that's been there all the time which are locked up in a safe or some other damn place in the building. If you are just borrowing the truck remember to bring it back before Monday morning when the next shift arrives. If you want to show what a nice guy you are fill the damn thing back up with gas so the poor sucker who dropped it off won't get slammed with a charge for it, it's bad enough you will be sticking the poor sap with the mileage you put on the truck but that is hard to avoid and I suppose must be considered collateral damage. If you are keeping your new toy, well just don't bring the damn thing back at all. Remember if you picked the lock your truck will probably not be reported stolen until Monday morning when the place reopens so enjoy till then. If you forced the box keep in mind that the next customer to drop off keys may well call the place and notify an answering service or something of the damage in which case the theft could be reported early. And don't be a jerk off, if you are going to keep the damn truck do the decent thing and leave the box unlocked or at least take the rest of the keys and toss them somewhere so it will be obvious to the rental place that the previous customer probably did not steal their truck. This is simply being considerate of others.
Helpful hints:
- If you are getting a bad feeling like you are about to get busted you probably are.
- Wear gloves. Yes the police really will try to lift prints. You need to wear the damn gloves.
- If it's 70+ degrees out you will look suspicious walking down the street wearing gloves.
- Pay attention to your surroundings. If something doesn't look right it probably isn't. It doesn't cost anything to walk away.
- You have to be careful where you keep and how you use a stolen truck. I suggest you carefully research changing VINs.
- Be very careful what you carry with you. If in doubt toss it or you will wind up taking a burglary tools collar if they can't get you for anything else.
- Don't carry a weapon. You are trying to steal a truck. That isn't worth hurting anyone over.
- When you do something illegal don't brag about it. People will think you are a crook and turn you in, or they will be jealous that you got something for nothing by having more balls than they have and turn you in, or they will assume there is probably a reward and turn you in, or they will get pissed off at you over something stupid and turn you in, or they will just get bored one day and yeah you guessed it turn your ass in. If people comment on the big shiny yellow truck which is suddenly parked in your yard, well first move the damn thing around back, it's too visible, you might also want to consider painting it, then bitch and whine at length about the payments you are making on it, that will make them less suspicious of it's origin.
OK you read it. Now what you do with it is up to you. As always I am not responsible for any damn thing that you do and this article is for informational purposes only. And if youre renting one of these things you had better damn well check out where they want you to leave the keys.
Compromising an SFIC system and an article on drilling the sentry safe are coming up.