Although at the end of the day objectively any vehicle is just a hunk of metal to get us from point A to B I had a very deep bond with my 95 dodge ram, it was the most reliable vehicle I had ever owned... I found out last night it got stolen from what I thought wasn't a bad neighborhood to live in and the people attempted to rob a bank with it by ripping the big ATM out of the ground with chains, it didn't work, and they fled, still ongoing case and I'm going to call back for a detective in a few days. The wrecking yard told me at the very least the ignition was broken, and I see some glass where they broke the window to get in from its parking spot, and it had been backed into a pillar. The cold callous wrecking yard said it'd be about $500 to get it out, when I don't even know its condition at this moment or if it's even drivable if they burned up the transmission or what...I'm so sorry old trusty, you deserved better than this...it never left me stranded, heat and air still worked at ~226,xxx miles...

 

Never had a vehicle stolen (knock on wood) and I'm sorry to hear that! My junk of junk in very attached to and treat it like a Ferrari. Wouldn't know what I would do if it was stolen

 

That's too bad but be thankful you found it! I've been robbed several times and never had a prayer seeing my stuff again. Insurance will pay plenty to repair it. Take the check.

 

I plan on getting one of those steering wheel theft lock things. Insurance person is supposed to call later today to go over stuff (technically). Another insurance person told me they can work out that price with the junkyard where it's sitting right now too, I guess to where I don't have to pay to get it out if it's worth it, I don't know if they burned up the transmission or what. Beyond absurd I have to even pay to get my own stolen vehicle out. Cops said they couldn't find me even though everything is registered to this address I've been at for awhile, they went to many year's old addresses instead. I told them I want to press any charge possible on the people.

 

If you have comprehensive coverage on your truck, insurance will fix it or buy it from you. Steering wheel locks don't work on someone like stole your truck. A hack saw will cut the wheel in short order and off it comes. I've been known to put hidden switches to cut off the fuel pump before. They didn't want your truck, they wanted to use it. People like that will go to nice quiet neighborhoods as rough ones have everybody watching.

 

Yep. The nicer the neighborhood, the more crime.

 

Oh, I dunno about that. I live in a very nice neighborhood. Great neighbors and generally quiet. There's also a very high percentage of people with prior police or military training and also a high ratio of fire arms ownership. There's trouble nearby, but rarely around here. We had a peeping tom a few years back that spent the night in a tree with a German Shepherd and Pitbull waiting at the base until the police showed up. About 2 hours later after someone thought to call them.

 

I live out in the sticks. EXTREMELY low-crime area. Mainly because EVERYONE owns a gun, and don't bother calling the cops, until its all over and done with. They just come to pick up the corpse.

 

insurance didn't end up covering anything so I paid to get the truck back and have disabled and removed a few major systems on it so it's inoperable unless I personally want it to be now. Does seem like they burned up the transmission in it, doesn't seem to have the same power as before, it can still do for driving around town though, they backed into some pole and dented the back bumper. They broke one of the back sliding glass doors to get in, must have either been someone very skinny or a girl that was helping them to slide through...found out mine wasn't the only truck stolen that night from my place, another truck was too they found at the bank(don't know its model or anything). So with two trucks with chains they weren't able to pull out the bank atm out of the ground LOL.

there is a problem now though, randomly the blinkers won't work, cluster doesn't light up with the green arrows and I physically looked outside and the front nor back lights were blinking. I got them to work randomly starting the truck up maybe twice when out and about today.

when the blinkers won't work, the ABS light, LOW WASH light, and AIR BAG light stay on. They broke the ignition switch outer black plastic shell thing, I can take pics tomorrow in the daytime if it'd help anybody help me diagnose this.

the random blinkers not working thing is a major major problem I don't want to get pulled over for that. My passenger seat also doesn't go as far back as the driver one now.

edit- if it helps any, when the blinkers won't work, the windows won't roll down unless the truck has been turned off, ignition switched on then they will. When the blinkers are working, windows work as they did fine before....so systems must be related

 

Replace the ignition switch, that sounds like the problem.