Breaking into a Miata trunk
 

Today my girlfriend and I went on a drive and went hiking in the mountains, we were gone for maybe 2 hours at most. When we got back to the car around 5pm and opened the trunk with anticipation of our impending sandwiches and drinks, the trunk was weirdly empty.

Turns out we had the misfortune to have my car broken in to. The amazing thing is that they did not rip into the top and get into the cab. Instead, they broke into the trunk WITHOUT messing anything on the car up. They stole my subwoofer, brand new cooler (less than 3 hours old), my tool bag with my 10, 12, 14, 17 mm craftsman wrenches and ratchets (rendering my current sets useless), and my iPod.

At least they didn't mess up the car, and it could have been alot worse.

Does anybody have experience with the lock on the trunk and know if there is an easy way to break into it without messing up the lock or somehow jimmying the lock? I'd like to block any way for somebody to do this in the future.

P.S.: I'm mostly dissapointed in my sub box disappearing. I spent over 20 hours building that thing to exactly fit into the space where the spare tire goes and get exactly .75 cubic feet of space, but still give me more trunk space than when the spare tire is in its place. The stupid box had more than 13 individual faces with all sorts of compound angles...and it sounded awesome.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that if you took the license plate off there was a plate that you could rech a screwdriver or something through and pop the trunk release. Never tried it don't know if it's true, and i doubt anyone took your plate off then stole your stuff and put it back on..but it my be worth looking into. Sure you didnt leave it popped?

You sure they didn't get into the cab and use the armrest trunk popper? Its definitely doable with a zip out window w/out cutting the top. (I had to do it when I locked my keys in my car.)

Definitely didn't leave it popped, and I don't have the remote trunk popper in the cab either.

...also, the sheriff said that they've had several theft complaints in the last week in the same area.

They probably picked the lock. Its not that hard on a miata sadly.

moved to a section not watched by yahoo and google spiders (invisible to all but registered users)

I'll have to check today, but I would imagine you could prolly reach the cord and pull by hand from underneath the rear bumper if you knew where to look

It is run inside the trunk.

He also mentioned he didnt have a release in the cabin so there would just be a lock and no cable.

Remove you license plate and see if there is a small hole drilled on the right side. If you drill there you can easily push one of the arms on the lock and it will pop open.

That sucks. How did the thieves know about the subwoofer? Do you have an alarm on your car?

^^ I agree.
My battery negative disconnected before and I couldn't get into the trunk to reconnect it because I didn't have the key to the lock (car was broken into before with the previous owner a number of times and he lost that key). Remote button inside the car wouldn't work as guess what...no power.
So, I had to drill the hole behind the reg plate and pop the trunk. Only takes a few seconds once the hole is drilled.

sounds like a "how to hotwire a miata?" thread....by iluvtreunos

They very easily could have been watching when we parked. The parking lot is across the road from a camp ground.

I don't have a car alarm...stupid, I know. Even if it had gone off, there isn't anything that could have been done. We were gone hiking for 2 hours, and any theif with half a brain would know that people parking to go on a hike would be gone for a while.

I'll have a chance to pull the plate tomorrow, but since it didn't appear the plate was molested at all, I'd be surprised if they bothered to pull the plate and then put it back on.

I tried my probe key (for those who don't know, it's made by Mazda and internally an MX6) which is the same profile key and it didn't pop the lock, so the tumblers are still in tact.

Pops's website on m.net has a write up on how to get into the trunk.

My bro's accord key can open my integra w/ enough fussing around.

Maybe some criminal went to home depot or something, and bought blanks for all the cars he could, and a file and made a bunch of bump keys. According to what I've read, wafer locks are easier to pick than pin locks, I wonder if the same holds true for bumping...

regardless of how its defended, a theif will get what he wants from your car in the end if he wants something bad enough

What if I hire my own private army with enough firepower to destroy the galaxy?

Wanna be friends? :ugh2:

I've read that page too.

well, no drilled holes. No signs of forced entry. I'm at a loss.

I guess I'll just keep an eye on Craigslist and eBay for my stuff.