Contrary to popular belief, this didn’t happen because even new Toyota keys are able to start other Toyotas.
SoCal resident and Toyota Tacoma owner Jimmy Lopez ( who goes by @Jimbob_lopez) shared on Instagram the hilarious but slightly concerning moment when he accidentally stole an identical Tacoma, drove it for 40 miles before realizing it wasn’t his, and promptly returned it before driving off in the Tacoma he actually owns.
Check out Lopez’s video below.
Lopez’s video starts right after he came back to return the stolen Tacoma.
Presumably, he walked to where he parked his Toyota, got in one he thought was his, and drove off.
To be fair, Toyota’s literally sold over a million of these 3rd gen Tacomas and, since they’ve remained relatively unchanged since 2015, there’s a lot of them out there. There’s a good chance multiple will share the same parking lot at any one time.
Pros and cons of buying a 3rd gen Tacoma? Go!
byu/slidewayskenny inToyotaTacoma
As his caption and his video purports, he drove off in someone else’s Tacoma for 40 miles before realizing it wasn’t his.
Supposedly, he ran out of gas, and that might’ve been the moment that tipped him off, as most people are somewhat aware of how much gas they have.
In the video, we can see Lopez, fresh from his 40 mile drive back, climb into someone else’s Tacoma and start it.
Lopez then jumps out of that Tacoma (still running), hops into his Tacoma next to it, and starts it.
Lopez started two Tacomas.
But, how?
Ever since Lopez’s video was posted on two weeks ago, it’s gotten quite popular with over 34,000 likes, probably over 100,000+ views, and with many anecdotes in the comments including a lot of smart replies of what happened.
I think @4DMemez hit it right on the head when he commented,
“I work at a dealership. Normally, people would hide their spare key on the back or glove box. Notice how he opens his door, it blinks. Then he removed him self way from the vehicle, truck then blink again asking, “don’t leave the key away from the vehicle”.
But, the first car he starts he walks away, but it did not blink, because the spare key is within the vehicle. It happens….. People have a spare key hidden under the vehicle too.”
Simply put, the owner of the Tacoma he stole has a spare key fob somewhere inside.
According to Toyota and his Tacoma’s owner’s manual, these Toyotas are push button start using a Smart Key system.
The fob only needs to be within 2.3 feet of the doors and ignition for it to work.
That owner was lucky that a car thief hasn’t come around his Tacoma, yanking door handles to find an open car.
To add to this being the likely reason is the fact that the “stolen” Toyota did not honk at him if he actually used his own set of keys to start it.
“(But) leaving it on is a dead giveaway. Even an old 2008 Lexus will beep at you quite loudly outside the car for leaving it running and removing the key,” @mmcirivic commented.
The takeaway here is, if your car has a smart key system like this Toyota does, leaving a spare key fob in/near the vehicle is not an option.
These cars still have physical key overrides for the door and ignition so, making a copy of the physical key (if you can and often found in the fob) might be something you can actually hide somewhere with no fear of it unlocking your car remotely (because it can’t.)
