Wow that's interesting about the dashboard light.

Bummer about the break-in, though. (Bastards!) And sorry, I don't know about car-robbing technology so I can't help solve the mysteria.

Dastardly fiends. May they rot in the foulest, most malodorous pits of hell for all eternity. While being poked by hot, pointy things. Fuckers.

I also have no info. Just the powerful and curse above. And pointy objects that I'd be willing to heat up should the need arise.

AAA had to come break into my dads locked car a couple days ago (he locked his keys in there). I wasn't there but he told me this used a little inflatable pillow thingy that they stuck in the door and pumped up wide enough to stick a rod in there and hit the door lock. It didn't leave any damage, apparently.

Although I guess that wouldn't explain the theft light...so uh. yeah.

What year/make/model of car do you have? If you really want to know, find a forum for your car by googling "Camry forum" (if it's a Camry) and asking over there. You will find someone as geeked up about Camries or whatever you drive I am about my Hyundai Elantra.

Believe it or don't.

Well I am glad that your result was less than terrible, after my glass breakage/lots of stuff stolen episode in December.

I am also curious about your car. I have never heard of a "theft" light.

I don't know from theft lights but I do know you can burn a small hole in a tennis ball then put the hole up against the lock keyhole and violently press on the tennis ball and it will pop the lock open. Last I knew it worked on all American cars and especially well on Chrysler products. I don't know if it works on foreign designed cars. A slim jim done right should leave no sign.

On the plus side I am glad they didn't break the window or do a glass pull. That would be bad.

I could have sworn that tennis ball thing was a hoax.

Although now that I remember it, it was "debunked" on mythbusters so it may or may not be true.

You can get an fm transmitter for your iPod? Cool!

Yes! You can even get one from my car!

*double-checks doors*

I'm no help, mudpuppie, but I am sorry that happened.

I have a soft-top Jeep Wrangler. I've been burgled twice by someone slicing through the right (vinyl) window. Motherfuckers.

This is what could have happened:
The auto-lock failed on your driver's door. It's just a little engine that pulls the pin, so sometimes it just happens to snap and not really lock it. Depending on how it works, if you just try to press the remote lock with the driver's door open, it'll lock all doors except the driver's (that's usually physically prevented from locking when it's open). The alarm/anti-theft however, may be another circuit entirely, and turn on as normal. So, if you try to open the unlocked door, it detects it as an intrusion. (whether it's a presence sensor, door opening detection or whatever).

Or, if your window is manual (or can somehow be raised with the car off), it could have been open, then the guy got in and then closed it for you.

Or he infiltrated his trained squirrel into the car while you had your door open, and when you got out the squirrel unlocked it for him. Damn squirrels.

Or you don't really have a THEFT light on your dashboard, and he just wrote it in magic ink to make sure you noticed (but not leave persistent proof).

Oh, and for any method involving pulling the pin: The alarm is usually tied to the keyhole mechanism, not the lock itself. If you're not using the remote it's turned on and off by specifically turning the key, not just locking/unlocking. If the car is locked and "armed" from the outside and you raise the pin/open the door from inside the alarm is still up, and will probably detect the intrusion (that's easy to try, just have someone lock you inside and try opening the door).

So the slim jim or the pillow thingy puke mentioned would normally trip the detector.

BTW, check the top of your door, if it's sitting flush against the body. In Brazil the way they usually break into cars (happened to quite a few of my friends) is a crude version of what puke mentioned: they put their fingers on the top of the door (depending on the make/model there can be half an inch of space in there), bending it back until they can reach the pin, then bending it forward again when they leave so the car doesn't look obviously broken into. But from nearer it's quite obvious because of the top of the door not sitting tight with the body (and, depending on the crudeness, stretch marks on the paint around where the pillar was bent).

Yeah, squirrels would have been my first choice, too. I didn't say so because I wasn't sure if they are prevalent in your area.

I've had to get into about a half dozen makes of car after I or someone else has locked the keys in. FYI - it is trivially easy to get in and have it not very noticeable.

Somebody broke into your 1988 Sentra?

Aliens beamed your car to the mothership, and replaced it with an EXACT copy, only with stuff all over the seats and the door unlocked.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook the obvious.