Garmin Lock
Mar
8
2006
Garmin Lock has been introduced in the latest Garmin GPS receivers. We previously broke the news of the new Garmin StreetPilot c550 which includes this new feature. Garmin Lock was created to help prevent against GPS theft… a growing crime.
Garmin Lock works by requiring the user to type in a four digit PIN number before the GPS receiver becomes operational. If the PIN number is not known, Garmin Lock will prevent the GPS receiver from working.
[...] The Garmin Nuvi 360 comes with Garmin Lock which is a system for requiring an PIN number to access the GPS receiver functions. Text-to-speech is also an advantage the Garmin Nuvi 360 has over the Nuvi 310. June Mid July is the target availability date. [...]
My c550 was stolen out of my car last week. It is protected by GarminLock but I was wondering if this is known to be cracked already. I’m asking this question because I had these (tini) anti-theft-stickers at the windows but this didn’t prevent the bast**ds to break the window and take away the c550. From the police I learned that there is a gang going around which seems to be well organized so chances are that they didn’t care much about GarminLock.
I would really love to see a way to report this device as beeing stolen just to make sure that it is useless for the new “owner”…
Olaf, one of the best things you can do is to contact Garmin and report it stolen. They will mark it as stolen in their database. Then if someone contacts them about a repair (like if they can’t get past the lock) then they have a chance of assisting the recovery of your GPS.
This GPS lock is useless. It doesnt prevent it from being stolen, just being used after it is stolen. Doesnt help you as you still have to buy another one. Silly function worth nothing. And I love Garmin. But this feature missed the mark.
Mine was just stolen, too. I presume the lock works with cogent thieves who know it won;t do them any good to steal it, and that’s the disincentive to them and the benefit to owners. That said, I have little faith that the pros don’t have a way to crack the codes.
I wish I knew what else Garmin could or would actually do to ID the thieves. I know of no place on the Web site for reporting stolen units.
Robert, the best place to report it to (other than the police) is Garmin themselves.
It is not Garmin’s job to protect our equipment. Its ours.
The Garmin lock software, if used, makes the GPS useless to a thief. Thieves are stupid and just maybe one will call Garmin to learn how to unlock the unit or will sell it to an unsuspecting person who will call Garmin and the person may get their GPS back.
I just bought the mechanical locking device to help prevent theives from stealing the Garmin from its mount. It’s not fool proof, but like any lock, it will deter the less determined crooks from taking the Garmin from its mount.
Fyi – it’s not going to work right away. However, if all GPS Units come equipped and utilizing the locking feature, then the concept will work. Thieves will be guaranteed that a PIN is needed an hence won’t bother stealing something they can’t sell.
Part of the problem is that too many people know how to bypass it.
I just had my Garmin stolen last night outside my hotel room. Here’s my question.. It’s a GPS system. Why can’t Garmin just track it down through the system and tell the cops where it’s at?
GPS is only a one way communication protocol. Your device receives information from the GPS satellites but nothing is transmitted back. There isn’t any way (through the GPS system) for your GPS to transmit anything.
There are worse things than having a GPS stolen, including having the thief use it to visit you or your friends. Hopefully if there is a way to reset the PIN, it erases everything, but I haven’t yet determined if that’s true.