Back story: We are a Honda and Arctic Cat dealership in lower Michigan and have several good relationships with other business so we often put units at their locations for advertisement (and they put there stuff at our dealership). About 10 miles away there is a power equipment dealership that sells zero turns, mowers ect. We had a 2014 Arctic Cat Wildcat X ($18,999 side by side) and a few ATV's there. On Monday morning at around 1:30 am someone broke in and stole our Wildcat. We were informed and started the insurance process. The thing about Arctic Cat's is that unless they are sold and warranty registered, after 5 hours on the ODO they go into limp mode and wont exceed about 10mph. At time of registration Arctic Cat gives us a 6 digit code to enter into the dash that unlocked them. Today, at about 10:30am I get a call that goes like this: me: "Good morning Peak Powersports" caller: "Hi I have a 2013 (our unit was a 2014) Wildcat X that is throwing a code in the dash" me: "What code is it throwing" caller: "U1000 and U1001" (that is the code for units locked in limp mode) me: "give me about an hour I'll go check the manuals and see whats up, whats your name and phone number" caller: "my name is ... and my phone number is..: me: "sounds good, I'll call you" caller: "ok sounds good" he then hangs up" I call the local sheriff and let him know whats going on, super cool guy. I give him the unlock info and how its just suspicious as if you just bought a new 20k unit you'd call the selling dealer and raise hell that it was locked or not running. He agrees and we set things in motion. About 45 minutes I call him back: me: "well it looks like it probably just needs a quick re flash, there were some software bugs and it should only take 10 minutes, just bring it in" caller: "I dont have a way to get it to you" me: "well I can get someone to come to you, give a few minutes" caller: "ok souds good" he then hangs up and I figured hes in the wind. And hour goes by and he then calls me, says hes getting out of the shower and hes going to go to where the unit is and then call me. Sounds good. Then in 15 minutes he calls me again: me: "Good afternoon Peak Powersports" caller: "Hey it's ... with the Wildcat, I'm driving it but it wont go, I'm on the corner of x and x" me: "sounds good I'll be there in 30 minutes" I call the sheriff back, he's on his way. The idiots are sitting in the machine! One takes off and the cops are now searching the woods for them as I type. The other kid (I should not say kid as they are in their early 20's) is in the car singing like a canary about other various stolen goods and what not! I guess they are thief's so I shouldn't be surprised they are that stupid but alas, off to jail they go.
So what is the unlock code for my 2014? You should have parked a block away with a camera and got that on tape.
Best post ever! Good on AC for having a great method for recovering/keeping these machines unusable for thieves.
That's a great story and I think that is an awesome way for Arctic Cat to provide some theft protection/recovery