Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to your car care segment, your auto care segment. Brought to you with the kind compliments of Auto Insure 868 and Air Support Tactical Dirk Barnes. Good morning my co host on a Wednesday. How are you, sir?
Duke, you'll probably have to unmute on your end because I'm not hearing you.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Wow, I have one of those tech moments, boy. Good morning everyone.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: I was wondering what's going on with you. You know I say this big tech man and press the button.
Yeah, yeah, that's how it is sometimes, man. How are you man? How are things?
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Things are busy since last we spoke. We have been out there a couple times recovering vehicles. I can tell you right now, San Fernando seemed like a hot boy.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Serious.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: A lot of activity we see now on that side. You know, San Fernando environs going all the way back to Princess Town Gasparillo. I've seen a couple as well in the Couve area, but picking up down in the south side.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Well, you know, I had to study program by minding your business a little bit and trying to figure out, you know, what excitement stories you could share with us over the last seven days since we last spoke last week, Wednesday, you know, I want to get the excitement now. I'm sure the listening audience would appreciate, you know, any information and data it could share with recovery and what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: So tell me, the 3am Car thieves now have basically improved on how they do things.
So let's take for example Saturday. Saturday we had recovered an 80 wagon, but this one was real interesting.
These guys stole this AD wagon around 3 o' clock or 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning. They went to different locations and each location, well, we weren't too sure what was there. We handed all that information over to the police.
But by the time the customer got up and recognized the car was missing, it was just minutes to 8 in the morning.
So they had some time with the vehicle and there's evidence that they were trying to find the GPS tracking device. But as I mentioned on previous shows, we spent a lot of time camouflaging those devices. In fact in some cases we 3D print parts to make sure that we could hide it even more effectively. Camouflage and all that kind of stuff. So we are maximizing the use of technology. But in any case, this car however was on the move when the customer called us. So we dispatched immediately started coordinating with the Transepago police service. I Was able to get a team to this vehicle in just about 20 minutes or just under 20 minutes. And keeping in mind this vehicle is on the move. So, you know, it's in front of us, so we have to catch up. So everybody who feel as though we could just magically appear next to the vehicle, that's impossible.
But by the time we got to the vehicle, the vehicle was in a garage.
So I, I understand that when my officers left, you know how police like to say the, the garage owners assisting the police.
So that's what's taking place right now. He, he has been cautioned and of course the vehicle was found in his possession. So I would just put those particular facts and let everybody draw their conclusions from there.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: But the car was recovered and what was interesting is that they had changed parts of the car like the back, the, the fifth door, the back door, the truck lid that was changed.
They had repaired whatever glass they broke to get into the vehicle. So they had planned to keep this vehicle. You know, they already started making alterations that in that space of time, in the space of about four hours, four or five hours.
So that was on Saturday.
Yesterday morning we got a call. Now this one was interesting because the information, we were looking at the information since around 3 o' clock and we found it to be unusual. But we can't just deploy for our whole response team because we might be deploying and intercepting the client themselves.
So the operator who worked last night attempted to call the customer. Three o', clock, four o' clock in the morning.
Now mind you, the customer is not paying for this.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: Huh?
[00:04:10] Speaker A: They weren't a subscriber of night watch or anything like that, but you know, due diligence. We didn't get on to the customer. So the operator put the, the vehicle into a queue. That way we maintain over overwatch on it.
The response teams were told that it was on overwatch, so they were already dressed and just waiting until we get onto the customer. Anyway, the customer would have called us just before 5 o' clock and I would say around 5, I think was 5, sorry, 456.
And we recovered that vehicle just about eight minutes later.
That vehicle was in Aruka. Now thing is, that vehicle was stolen from San Fernando this time and it was a Honda vessel. So and this is the new Honda vessels, not the, the older models.
So these guys broke through the passenger side, sorry, the driver's side window, jumped into the car, pushed the button, started it and drove away.
And that is the, the frightening thing that happens now because I'm going to understand when car thieves drive away with your vehicle having programmed or acquired a key the Transbago police service when they're on patrol looking for that vehicle. If your vehicle is playing like in this particular case no set of distinguishing marks, dents or anything like that and you think, you know they will see the vehicle, that license plate has been changed, that glass is going to be repaired, that vehicle is going to be parked up right in front of the police station and the police wouldn't even know that it is the vehicle. You know, there it looks just like any other vehicle. And the thing is the license plate is probably going to be the license plate of a previous vehicle that crashed on right off in the same make, model and everything. Or they might see somebody driving down the road maybe in point 4 10. And in Aruka they're using the same because it's important for them, you know because the person point for them be aware that their license plate has been, has been duplicated.
So putting up your pictures on social media of your car being stolen with the license plate if you feel that the police are going to see that or somebody's going to sit and say ah, that's the license plate of the car and they want to call you and say yeah I saw your car and so on. So yes, you're purely mistaken.
That is just not going to work.
So those are the two recoveries we have had. But I've also been monitoring social media. I've been seeing quite a few other vehicles that have been taken in similar fashion in and around south.
So this is why I'm saying that south gay and hot damn fellas and them they decide to move away from the north where the police are clamping down on these type of activities and going south where they feel that nobody will expect.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Listen, let me take a call quickly. Good morning. All right.
The call was coming through. I don't know the person wanted to reach us really really bad. I keep seeing the number flashing. You know I am always amazed when I hear these type of stories and the fact that you all are able to recover these vehicles in such a short space of time. You know I am quite certain those customers was really, really happy. For those recovery we take a quick pause. Your time check 7:30 brought to you by 800 Tech.
That time check brought to you by 800 Tech. I'll be back.
Good morning again. Welcome back to Freedom. That call keeps coming in. Hello. Good morning Pleasant.
[00:07:49] Speaker D: Good morning once more. David, when you took the call just now I Had just lost it. That's what happened.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: All right, so we're in the car care segment. Talk to me.
[00:07:56] Speaker D: Right. So Davi, you always say car care but I hear your co host mention a lot about recovery. But my question is on care and accidents Devi in this country.
If we notice when we are driving we stay very close to to the vehicle in front of us, which is dangerous. I want Dirk to tell us a bit about the dangers with regard to staying close, what distance we should stay due to the braking system and the process. I thank you, Joy.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: All right, Tailgating.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: I like this caller. This caller calls every every week and he always shows us off topic. I like the off topic. See he come with it gives a different perspective.
And to answer the caller, yes, that's a real dangerous practice. You know, when you're tailgating you're supposed to maintain a certain amount of Carlex. Off the top of my head, I can't remember that right now safely. When you're on the nation roadways but that varies from varies on the speed that you're actually going because remember you have a number of things that you have to be mindful of. The road conditions.
The road is wet, dry, slippery, sandy. The type of tires that you have on the vehicle, if it is you don't have brake tires, you know, even Darton or is going to reduce your friction coefficient. You also have to look at, you know, your own reaction time, you know, are you impaired, sleepy, tired, things like that.
So really and truly you want to remain at a distance where if the car in front of you suddenly stops, let's just say the person just hit brakes because they forget something at home or anything like that that you are able to get get out of the way of stop. And keep in mind as much as they teach you, you have to look at what's happening in front. That revenue mirror is really important to you as well. And if you notice that you have somebody tailgating you get out of the way, you know, let them tailgate somebody else. But you don't want to be in a position where you have to take a evasive or make an evasive stop and they run into the back of you. So it really means that you have to maintain 360 degree awareness of what is happening when you're moving in a particular direction. And use some common sense. If you're right up behind somebody at a high speed and something goes wrong, you are going to be involved in a road traffic accident. So if you want to avoid that, you know, best practices and Logic and some common sense is what prevails.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I agree with you. Now we mentioned these things and guys, don't be afraid as Dirk mentions to throw a curveball or ask a question. We would do our best to answer it. I mean we did what we call recoveries when we talk about car care.
Caring for your car is also protecting your car outside of the general. Changing oil, checking your brake change a tire when you enter, when you. And when you put care on your vehicle.
So when you put insurance coverage on your family, are you saying that that's not caring for them even if you have departed this life and you leave this insurance policy that they can be cared for? It's the same thing when it comes to car care segment with Duke and Air Support Tactical. What we describing is things to care for that same vehicle, that same large investment that you would have procured. So I always hear about somebody says good morning Davey. Is that captain Barnes of the. Yes it is.
He says I know him from his defense force days.
That is Jude Rogers.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Oh yes I do.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: And Jude is, is our co host on a Mondays with Carrie V in Safety Mondays on Freedom. So nice great ones aligning on this frequency ever so often. That's good business. So when it comes to immobilizers, that word is bandied about that thing, apparatus or whatever it is an immobilizer. What is an immobilizer when it comes to a vehicle?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: An immobilizer is anything that could stop the vehicle from operating. Simplest definition.
So anything that you put a stop that vehicle from from operating is an immobilizer. You can even put what's called a saying. Those locks on the wheels is a form of immobilization.
Now specifically when people talk about it, they speak about some sort of electric countermeasure. Anytime you hear countermeasure is something that is, you know, supposed to work counter to how the natural operation would be. An electronic means to countermeasure means that the countermeasure itself is working on the electrical circuits.
Now the immobilizer would normally be in the form of either ignition, ignition cut where it cuts the operation of the ignition. So you don't get the, the ability for the vehicle to run effectively from the engine. And it's also the fuel cut where people would normally do something to cut the fuel to the vehicle fuel delivery.
Now there are other ways. Those are the, those are the brute force ways. So they will cut power to something in the ignition whether you're cutting it to the coil pack system. When it comes to the ECU or something like that, or, or you're going to cut the fuel pump, or you have a fuel lock installed somewhere in your fuel line that will activate, that will prevent fuel from reaching the engine through the injectors.
So those are the main brute force, I will call them countermeasures. You would see for immobilizers, that's where things like, for example, you'll use term kill switch, or even the alarms will prevent the starter from coming on. That's also a form of immobilization.
But when you hear GPS tracking devices and companies saying that they can immobilize the vehicle, what they are doing is either those two methods or there's a new method that uses smart immobilization, which connects into the can bus system.
And when you're connected to that, it comes up as a computer and it sends messages on the can bus to tell the system, I want you to shut down. And those messages go through as a hexadecimal code through the entire can bus network. The receiving computer sees it and says, okay, this looks like a message coming from the transmission or it comes from somewhere else because it will mimic. And then from there it will say, okay, let's shut down the ignition system and the car will come to a stop. Sometimes the car slows down to a stop.
Other ways that they do it as well is to fool the ECU to think the speedometer is working where it puts on a particular speed and the vehicle automatically defaults into some sort of a sodom, a slowdown thing. You know, the cars used to come from Japan, used to come with a limiter 180 kilometers. All right, well, what this does, when you do it from a speed immobilization, it reduces the limiter all the way down to 1 or 0, so the car can't go any faster. And that is done through the, the ecm.
So the OLA is canvas, canvas immobilization.
And so when you understand how immobilizers work, it's a new system that is being installed in the circuitry of your vehicle. There will have to be some kind of cutting or splicing of wires to make that happen. Even if you just plug it into the to the ECM for smart immobilization through the onboard diagnostic port, you are literally compromising your safety systems because you're adding something additional that the car did not come with.
So essentially, as much as it could be a productive feature that can reduce stolen vehicles, I want everybody to understand it will compromise your car in some way.
And when it compromises that car, if it doesn't just compromise your safety systems or anything like that, it will compromise your OEM wiring, which means that if some failure of some component happens, you are going to be responsible for the repair of that particular system.
Do not attempt to use your warranty, because they will find those splice wires or cut wires, and they will be able to know exactly what you would have installed.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: All right, let me take this call. Coming through. Hello. Good morning.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: I love the commissioner.
Air Supply, the club lot. And they can switch, and some people make the accelerator. They put a lock down there, too. What about that thing? I know it's new technology and new things now, but what do you think about them? All
[00:16:36] Speaker B: right,
[00:16:38] Speaker A: David, you know, I'm a big advocate for the club lock. I have been giving away some club locks for free. Just to let you know I'm an advocate. But when it comes to kill switches, again, it's a form of immobilization.
And on newer vehicles, let's just take for example, an EV or a hybrid, if you try to run any kind of immobilization there, you're going to be in. You're going to be cutting a particular circuit.
These vehicles are highly computerized, and they're monitoring every single operation of the vehicle in milliseconds, microseconds. So what you're going to find happening is that if one of these units, like for example, your fuel delivery or some. One of your ECUs go offline, your vehicle is going to start to throw engine codes, and you're going to see it come up on your dashboard. And when you. When you stop the immobilization and you restore the car back to normal, those codes are going to be stored in the history.
Depending on the severity of those codes, that could put your car into limp mode. And you will see a message that comes up, go straight to the dealer. You know, you could end up losing power steering, you could end up losing transmission control systems, all these things, because these things will shut down depending on how that immobilization is going. So immobilization is not recommended.
Now, some technicians outside, they say, oh, no, they could do this. They could put up. They could put on a. What's called wire resistors, prevent these things from happening. I want you to understand you are now taking a vehicle that came from the manufacturer with certain guarantees, and now removing those guarantees and removing those safeguards to put in something that really and truly should not work. Now, keep in mind the other Part of this conversation is that there are vehicles that come with immobilizers already, you know, and those immobilizers, those immobilizers now they do not work just for the, for the simplest of explanation.
A lot of the cars that come with non manufacturers have started moving towards push to start systems and or coded keys. So even though your car might not have a push to start the key fob, the little plastic part on the key fob has some electronics inside of it that the car is going to identify when the key is close by.
When you get, when you have a system like that.
The dealerships have been purporting that you cannot start this car without the key. So just keep the keys safe and put it in things. This guys, that's old news. All of you who are walking around thinking that they need to get access to your key, whether the frequency of your key or whether through a relay attack or whether stealing the key from you themselves. Those days have gone way behind that. That's old technology.
That was 2025 just to tell you how old that is. And I'm using 2025 as an example in 2026. These guys are coming with their own keys. They have gone on courses that have been offered locally bought equipment that comes through customs easily. And now when they reach by your vehicle, like what we saw happen yesterday, they will break your glass, sit down the vehicle, press the push the start button and drive away. That's all they have to do now because now they have the capability of programming the key. So the built in immobilizer that these vehicles come from come with no longer work. And I, and I will say as well, I don't know if you guys have noticed, we have seen a reduction in robberies of motor vehicles. You know, they wouldn't come now and they take the vehicle by gunpoint. I have been merchant social media and those amounts of, of robberies are getting smaller and smaller because these guys don't have to rob you anymore. They wait till they park up and take it from right. If you go cinema they will jump and take and drive off because they have a key for it already.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Wow, that is the scary part, you know, that is the scary part. The fact that they don't need to put you at holy at gunpoint. But interestingly you mentioned this morning about the number plates. You know, you have been in law enforcement for quite some time. You'd have seen transitioning of different things and talks from one government to the next as it relates to those number Plates easily accessible by anybody that could manufacture it.
What are your recommendations to authorities in tracking and treating with duplicate plates or plates that simply don't exist on the system?
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that they have to push hard, really, really hard is getting the RFID license plates that are made abroad and imported. You don't want to have license plates that can be manufactured here and basically put out. Because as I mentioned you could have a vehicle that was involved in an accident or written off and it's still on the system.
And when the police pull their system they see that vehicle as like yes, they are white, a white Honda vessel, but that vehicle is written off already and is going through the whole insurance claims and everything but being using another stolen vehicle. If these license plates are the RFID where a police officer can just come up and you know, scan or do whatever he needs to do, or can't get close to NFC and pull up the information that we can see that that vehicle corresponds to the VIN number that's on the vehicle, then those are instances where it could reduce the amount of stolen vehicles. Also with using ALPR license automatic license plate recognition. If you're using those systems tied to NFC systems, near field communication and you have the license plate being read but the NFC on the, on the license plate also providing information, you can know if that particular license plate corresponds to that particular vehicle in real time. And then stolen vehicles will be something that you will see getting smaller and smaller. But let me put it there this way. When the first car was was invented, we invented the first car thief. We have been dealing with motor vehicle theft for decades, you know, so, so spine of 100 plus years. So don't feel what edit. Any main technology that comes in is going to stop car theft altogether. Just not going to happen. When we employ these things they will come with new countermeasures. However, what is required here in Trinidad and Tobago is having the mindset of the people with the technology who can say listen this is out now, let's adopt this, let's try to stay ahead of what the car thieves are doing. And you know, I come on the show, I talk about these things because we spend more time researching about these, these methods. So that way we support tactical can look at what you know, we could employ. And that's why I could talk, you know about these trends and stuff like that because we do a lot of surveillance and trend analysis on what is happening with car to use. A typical GPS company is selling your gps. What we are doing is selling you a System a solution that comes with a GPS but is guided by intelligence, guided by information, it is guided by evolution.
That is what we are selling here at your support act.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: All right, let's take this call quickly.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: Good.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Hello.
All right, I see you're trying to get on to me. One person is telling me about this particular brand of vehicle DeVolvo that doesn't have a key. Can that be stolen? So I don't understand if the Volvo have a key, must have some kind of rfi, some kind of thing.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Some of them come start with with cards and stuff like that. And again, these newer vehicles now are coming with all sorts of different things. I for example, I drive a electric BYD great vehicle lot love it. It comes with a key but it also comes with an RFA RFID card. So if I don't want to walk around with the key, you know, and I realize that imagine when you go to a FET or something like that, you know, like wet FET and everybody going to be jumping up along kind of you can have your card in your pocket and when you go outside to your car, you just tap the card on your mirror, the car unlocks and jump in and you can drive away. And hopefully when the app comes to Trinidad and Tobago, we could use our phones to start our vehicle. So that the Volvo system is going to have a similar type ecosystem points to note that is today 2026, in 2027 is that still going to be applicable? And because in 2027 they may find a way around it. It is not like you could take your BYD or your Volvo back to the company and say update this for me. So you have to look at the type of technology that will update with the times and that is why you should update always look at if you want to guard your, your, your investment.
What are the other types of technology that you could use? That's why these shows like these are important because we could discuss these things, hear the concerns from, from, from the public and answer those questions. So yes, the Volvo is one of those vehicles as of 2026 with a system that will not be prone to motor vehicle arsenal. They could still rob you of that vehicle, mind you.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Gun point, right.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: But not it's not prone to motor vehicle arsony at this time. But that could change in the future.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: If they decide to rob you gunpoint and they pat you down, they ain't got key, the car was already started, the engine running or what have you and they decided to take out the car and drive away with it. Because they're telling themselves they could, they could.
When this, when that car is driving, would it continue to go for vast distances with all the key.
[00:25:45] Speaker D: The.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: The. The card present and only becomes immobilized when they switch it off or they are the turn of the.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: It varies from car to con based on these setting the certain preferences if those certain preferences are available. But in most cases, from what I have seen, those cars will drive and will not be able to start after they switch off. But a car thief knows that.
So keep in mind that even if they drive off and you don't have tracking, then you get a chance to run away somewhere, call the police, make a call. The police are looking for that vehicle. That vehicle is being parked up somewhere and they're stripping that vehicle down. They're taking what they need from that particular vehicle. So your investment is going to be affected in some way.
So the what ifs and those kind of questions and stuff like that will get affected by a car thief who is forward thinking, who knows what his plan is going to be.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: One question coming. I know this may not be a question for Duke, but what are the process when the vehicle is written off in an accident?
How do you get it de registered?
[00:26:48] Speaker C: That.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah, that one is. I wouldn't be speculating there. I'm assuming that you will take any necessary documents to licensing and then they start the process of the registration. But I've never had any reason to do that, so I'm not entirely sure of the process myself.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: All right, so with that being said folks, that's a wrap for us as we are out of time.
Thank you very much Dirk for taking a minute to be with us here every Wednesday inside our auto car care segment. I know many of you may have questions, but we focus a lot in making sure that you keep that, you know, hundreds of thousand dollar investment safe. And by doing that, those investment. Because when they take your car, Dirk, you start to pay for it, right? The bank is saying you start to pay for it.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: I mean if you. Even if you're insurance company clear stuff, it really depends on what it was your policy that you had at the point in time. So if you had a policy, I covered everything great. I've known people who have actually benefited from that. But if you have one of those weaker policies that only cover a certain percentage and you know, when we buy really nice cars, those cars depreciate as soon as they drive out the dealership. So they only cover that depreciated amount and you still have to pay the balance. So keep that in mind.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: My next week we'll talk about somebody mentioned car alarms. What does that do? We'll talk about it next week. All right, thank you very much, Dirk. Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe. Looking forward to another exciting story next week, Wednesday. Have a good one.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: All right, folks, the best insight, instant feedback, accountability, the all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
