Does anyone have a GPS tracker on their Maverick?

[Fish Chris]

If so, what one ? We want to put one on my GF's Mav right away !
A little late for my Prius It got stolen from in front of the house last Sunday. We found it the next day, completely stripped of traction battery, (probably the cat converter... hard to tell the way it was parked and a flat tire) dash destroyed, etc, etc. Engine compartment stripped, 12 volt battery, etc.
But believe me, I want to put some sort of tracker on my new one from day 1 !
Btw, my Prius had an alarm as well. It might have been drug onto a flat bed, and I don't believe my alarm has a tilt sensor.

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[paneubert]

Your Maverick has what essentially is a GPS tracker via the FordPass App. You can track its location whenever it is running. I suppose if you need a tracker that will send a signal when the truck is powered down, you would need to buy one that has its own power source I suppose. There are many of those on Amazon. Going to usually have a battery that lasts a couple years and will come with a monthly service fee. Or be expensive up front and come with the service for a set amount of time.

Another option (and cheaper) is to toss a "Tile" or Apple Air Tag in a hidden spot. This would rely on the Tile or Apple Air Tag being in range of an Android or Apple phone, but there are millions of those on the street and the odds of someone with a phone being in range of the "Tile" or Apple Air Tag long enough to send along the location to you is high. Hell.....the person who stole the truck probably has a phone on them and will essentially "tattle on them".

https://www.amazon.com/tile/s?k=tile

https://www.amazon.com/tile/s?k=air+tag

 

[AutobahnSHO]

Only issues I can think of with tile or Air tag is making sure it's not hidden in a fender or other place where signal is blocked, or where criminal finds and throws out.

 

[paneubert]

Only issues I can think of with tile or Air tag is making sure it's not hidden in a fender or other place where signal is blocked, or where criminal finds and throws out.

This is true. The other unfortunate thing is the Apple Air Tag will notify the thief on their phone that there is a tag tracking them. The phone realizes that a tag is traveling along with the phone and is like......woah woah woah, do you know there is an Apple Air tag that is keeping pace with the phone? Haha. But you would have a window of time where you could at least know where it was at before they found and tossed/broke the tracker. I don't believe the "Tile" has this sort of notification to the phone that is reporting the tracker location to the network. So while there is a larger network if you go Apple, the "sneakier" method is using a Tile.

 

[jsus]

Your Maverick has what essentially is a GPS tracker via the FordPass App. You can track its location whenever it is running. I suppose if you need a tracker that will send a signal when the truck is powered down, you would need to buy one that has its own power source I suppose. There are many of those on Amazon. Going to usually have a battery that lasts a couple years and will come with a monthly service fee. Or be expensive up front and come with the service for a set amount of time.

Another option (and cheaper) is to toss a "Tile" or Apple Air Tag in a hidden spot. This would rely on the Tile or Apple Air Tag being in range of an Android or Apple phone, but there are millions of those on the street and the odds of someone with a phone being in range of the "Tile" or Apple Air Tag long enough to send along the location to you is high. Hell.....the person who stole the truck probably has a phone on them and will essentially "tattle on them"

Can't rely on tracking via FordPass if the vehicle is stolen. Nothing prevents a thief from disabling that within the vehicle, and you need to be in the vehicle to reactivate. It's not intended for locating stolen vehicles, only misplaced ones.

AirTags require an iPhone to be near the vehicle to report back its location. In a reasonably populated area, the chances of that are pretty good. However, after enough time of a thief with an iPhone driving around in a vehicle with an AirTag, where its registered owner's iPhone is not present, the thief will be alerted to an unknown AirTag traveling with them. This could lead to the thief tearing the vehicle apart to locate your hidden AirTag. Again, AirTags are not intended for location stolen items.

 

[Fish Chris]

This is true. The other unfortunate thing is the Apple Air Tag will notify the thief on their phone that there is a tag tracking them. The phone realizes that a tag is traveling along with the phone and is like......woah woah woah, do you know there is an Apple Air tag that is keeping pace with the phone? Haha. But you would have a window of time where you could at least know where it was at before they found and tossed/broke the tracker. I don't believe the "Tile" has this sort of notification to the phone that is reporting the tracker location to the network. So while there is a larger network if you go Apple, the "sneakier" method is using a Tile.

Are you sure about this ? I thought I had read that their was no way for the thief to see they were being tracked....
But even if their were a way to tell, if you have it hidden well enough, do you really think they will take a LONG time looking for it ? Or, just get the heck away from it as fast, and far as possible ?

 

[Fish Chris]

Can't rely on tracking via FordPass if the vehicle is stolen. Nothing prevents a thief from disabling that within the vehicle, and you need to be in the vehicle to reactivate. It's not intended for locating stolen vehicles, only misplaced ones.

AirTags require an iPhone to be near the vehicle to report back its location. In a reasonably populated area, the chances of that are pretty good. However, after enough time of a thief with an iPhone driving around in a vehicle with an AirTag, where its registered owner's iPhone is not present, the thief will be alerted to an unknown AirTag traveling with them. This could lead to the thief tearing the vehicle apart to locate your hidden AirTag. Again, AirTags are not intended for location stolen items.

Okay, but isn't Tile, the same thing for Android ?

 

[paneubert]

Can't rely on tracking via FordPass if the vehicle is stolen....... It's not intended for locating stolen vehicles, only misplaced ones.

AirTags require an iPhone to be near the vehicle to report back its location...... Again, AirTags are not intended for location stolen items.

Spoken like a true lawyer. Haha. I kid, I kid. I know Ford themselves give the "this is not for tracking stolen vehicles" disclaimer. And I am sure Tile and Apple say the same.

I've always been of the opinion that if a thief is smart enough to know to disable FordPass after jacking my vehicle, they probably deserve to have my truck. The percentage of auto theft that is done by dumb ass people is high. Joyriders, druggies, punk kids, etc... Those that are professional thieves are probably also going be the same thieves who get it totally stripped and thru a chop shop within a couple hours of theft anyway. Even a hardwired and hidden GPS tracker will be disabled by then.

 

[paneubert]

Are you sure about this ? I thought I had read that their was no way for the thief to see they were being tracked....
But even if their were a way to tell, if you have it hidden well enough, do you really think they will take a LONG time looking for it ? Or, just get the heck away from it as fast, and far as possible ?

With the Air Tag, they can tell the tag to start screaming. I am pretty sure. It is like @jsus said, if the iPhone detects an Air Tag following it, it will tell the iPhone owner "they" are being tracked. It gives some options to even help find the tag.

Which is why I use Tile.....

 

[paneubert]

"What to do if you get an alert that an AirTag, Find My network accessory, or set of AirPods is with you"

The Apple version is automatic.

See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227


For Tile, it appears the thief would need to opt in, and it would take some time to "scan" for a Tile tracking them.

"Tile is rolling out a "Scan and Secure" feature in its Android and iOS apps to help you detect unwanted tags. Use it and the app will check if any suspicious Tile tags (or Tile-equipped devices) are traveling with you. The process can take up to 10 minutes, but you won't need a Tile account or hardware."

 

[jsus]

Spoken like a true lawyer. Haha. I kid, I kid. I know Ford themselves give the "this is not for tracking stolen vehicles" disclaimer. And I am sure Tile and Apple say the same.

I've always been of the opinion that if a thief is smart enough to know to disable FordPass after jacking my vehicle, they probably deserve to have my truck. The percentage of auto theft that is done by dumb ass people is high. Joyriders, druggies, punk kids, etc... Those that are professional thieves are probably also going be the same thieves who get it totally stripped and thru a chop shop within a couple hours of theft anyway. Even a hardwired and hidden GPS tracker will be disabled by then.

Not like a lawyer, just like someone who doesn't want people to rely on these methods of tracking stolen items. You could get lucky and get your stuff back, you could end up confronting the thieves and ending up worse off, or you could just find that the tracker has been disabled. It's not foolproof, so if you're going to rely on that, at least know going into it.

Okay, but isn't Tile, the same thing for Android ?

I can't speak for Tile without researching it better, which is why I didn't mention it. Don't really have any suggestions for you other than to understand what you're getting yourself into.

 

[paneubert]

Not like a lawyer, just like someone who doesn't want people to rely on these methods of tracking stolen items. You could get lucky and get your stuff back, you could end up confronting the thieves and ending up worse off, or you could just find that the tracker has been disabled. It's not foolproof, so if you're going to rely on that, at least know going into it.

I can't speak for Tile without researching it better, which is why I didn't mention it. Don't really have any suggestions for you other than to understand what you're getting yourself into.

Totally get it and I agree.

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