Well the Safe Survived…

Ugh! That sucks OP. I have the Toyota safe as well. I keep my car registration in there along with other go bang things. Good to see it was tough to open even with a lot of time.
My wife's RAV4 was broken into a couple of years ago parked on our street in the SF Bay Area, CA. Nothing much to take, but they did take the registration paperwork with insurance cards AND the valet key from the console. Forgot we even had a valet key. Traded that car in the following weekend.

 

Reminds me of how I figured out something was up. I typically use the Toyota app to start my truck before I leave in the morning. If I leave the tailgate down or unlocked it will tell me it can't start. Well Yesterday when I hit start in the app, it said it wouldn't start because the hood was open. That's not something I would ever accidently do.

That's another level of mystery to the whole ordeal. No idea why they would have popped the hood. It was still latched too.

Also they had stepped on a packet of ketchup in my floorboard. I didn't have any ketchup packets in the truck so they must've brought their own.

 

As far as I can tell, the registration and safe key are still in the safe. I can't actually tell if anything was taken because I can't get it open.

They took weird stuff too. Radar detector and duck calls were only things of value, but they also grabbed my phone charger, a bag of pickle sunflower seeds, a bag of floss picks, a clear pad lock to practice lock picking, a spray bottle of glasses lense cleaner, and a foam boat throw cushion.

Luckily, they left me with a stepped-on packet of ketchup and an extremely pungent odor of cigarettes that I can't get out of the truck.

 

Make sure when you speak w/your insurance company you let them know about the cigarette odor. A good detailer should be able to help w/removing that smell and you might as well have those expenses added to your claim.

 

I know how it feels.

My safe survived also, the one time I leave the door unlocked by accident these thugs roam the neighborhood. They couldn’t get any prints off the door handle or safe because the surfaces are not smooth. They took my tool pouch from the back seat, used a screwdriver from said tool pouch. All on camera also…..and they had the balls to come back with bigger tools and still couldn’t get in. It took me 30 minutes to finish the job so I could get it open to remove it.

 

I went and looked at the instruction paperwork for mine. The safe is sold by Tuffy Security Products. Their phone number is +18003488339. Might give them a call and see if they can help getting you in.

Hope that helps

 

Scumbags. One wonders if they thought there was a firearm in the safe.

 

That is a pretty safe bet. Not very wise to not be worried about the firearm(s) that could come out from the house(s) nearby, especially in Memphis.Total fooligans IMO.

 

Check your horn to see if they cut the wire to disable the alarm.

 

Pretty sure you can drill straight down through the top of the lock.

 

Honest question, what are people keeping in these console safes anyway? Seems to me the safe was more of a challenge than deterant.

Anything of value is either kept on my person or in my house.

 

I only use mine for temporary storage while driving. Never overnight parked at home or other place.
I do keep my registration and insurance card in there though and my go bang items if I happen to need to run into some place that doesn't allow go bang things.

Of course there are two schools of thought on car safes:
1 - Don't have one as it makes thieves thinks "maybe something of value in there
2- Have one in hopes of if thieves break in they will not have the time to mess with it. Of course OP's situation proves that wrong.

My Platinum came with the safe so I'm leaving it in for now

 

This brings up the issue of who is in your circles.

The safe is only a challenge if burglars know you have a safe. You could just be unlucky, but more often, it’s someone who knows you or someone around you. Why did they break-in in the first place? Was the safe the target initially, or were you a random target?

You may not ever know, but do whatever you can to not be a target.

 

Man this sucks!

That humidity down there is brutal on metal parts also it appears on a 3 year old truck.

 

I use mine the same way. Never leave anything valuable long term. Just if I'm running in a store and don't want something left in the open.

I don't think the safe invites them to break in considering it's hidden in center console. They would've had to break in anyway to see it.

I think the safe distracted them more than anything. I had some nice jackets, tackleboxes, and probably other stuff under the back seat. They obviously never bothered to check there, otherwise my stuff would've been everywhere. It seems like the safe wasted some time. By the end of it they just grabbed whatever they could. The sunflower seeds, toothpicks, and lense cleaner are evidence of that. Just inconvenient to steal more than anything.

 

I keep a live danger noodle named "Fang" inside mine.

 

Those safes aren’t really very secure, it’s just to stop a smash and grab. If I’m running an errand, or something, and I can’t take with me whatever it is I have on my person I’ll throw it in the safe. I do this with the knowledge that anyone could get into it in seconds with a Milwaukee angle grinder or a drill. So I usually don’t use it for anything truly valuable.

 

Agreed... Personally speaking, my safe is unlocked when I park the vehicle for the night and nothing of value is left behind. However, it comes in handy sometimes during long outings, etc..

For me the safe is just there for times when I'm out and about and decide I need to drop something in there and have a layer of protection from prying eyes or sticky fingers of someone who may have access to the vehicle whether that be legally (valet, etc.) or illegally from a break-in...

Example might be that I have some prescription sunglasses that are costly and difficult to replace. So, if the day has carried over to the evening, and I'm transitioning to something else while the wife and I hit dinner, the sunglasses will get locked in the safe.

 

Well, that’s unusually reasonable.

 

Did the security alarm not work in this case? Or was the truck unlocked?

 

If you have the app and pay for the service, did you get an alert that it was unlocked? I'm sure there must be notification settings cause I get them if I leave it unlocked after a few minutes.

 

That absolutely sucks; but looks like the safe did its job. Hopefully they didn't break any widows or damage anything

Nobody can see the safe; the console lid closes and covers it

 

I'm going to guess unlocked, since its been asked multiple times without a hard answer.

 

Some of us that live in communist states simply use it for the legal protection of 'safe storage' of pew'ing devices when we have to leave them in our vehicles.

 

Yeah....
But if someone breaks into your Truck they're going to open the center console just like they're going to open the glove box.
I'm pushing 60 and I've been lucky for the most part.
Did have a Truck stolen out of a Mall Parking lot one time.
They later found it stripped to the bone in a bad part of town.
The Cops said it was likely stolen by Mexicans since the particular model was very popular in the Mexican community.
It was a Diesel Truck so they didn't touch the engine.
Man I Loved that Truck!!!
It had dual tanks and I could go at least a couple months without refueling.
This was back in the day when diesel was less than half the price of regular gas.
The Wife had a 300D Mercedes with the touring tank.
And again you could go for at least a month between fill ups.
It was a Joy to take on road trips!!!!