Car Stolen - thankfully not mine

McDonald

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Arriving at the railway station this evening I was relieved to find I hadn't got a parking ticket. I just forgot about it this morning and only remembered as I traveled home. Another commuter wasn't so lucky. His car had been stolen. I drove him home as he railed about the loss, 'I searched for ages to find a really good one. It's a 20 year old Land Rover but in near perfect condition.' He went on to say, 'It had a krooklok on, but they're no good. It'll be in a container by now and abroad by tomorrow.'

It made me think about how choked I'd be if someone stole my SL. I'm going to look into some auto security.
 

Blobcat

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Land Rovers are very high in the stolen list unfortunately. Relatively easy to steal and very very saleable for parts of whole vehicle
 

A.J.

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Well worth the money, but only if the car is not stripped for parts :rolleyes:
 

DSK

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I have these steering disk locks on all our cars for at least the last 12 years or so.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-security/car-security/disklok-steering-lock-silver-large

IIRC in some tests years ago, professional thieves said that in getting the above off would mean destruction on the steering colum rendering the car useless to them anyway as it can not be driven away. I have seen CCTV footage of hooded car theives walk up to an Audi (S5 iirc) with this device on and then just walk away towards another target a few houses away.

Its expensive, its heavy and bulky and even I get annoyed but, its definitely done the job and its robust and reliable too.
 

Blobcat

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What do people think about these tracking devices you can buy?
Very good, hard wire them in and hide under the dash - internal battery and sim card use almost no data

They can be defeated with a plug in blocker (transmits on mobile phone frequencies) but they're not carried by the average opportunist crim. They're the stolen to order and get to the port as fast as possible brigade.

If they think there's a tracker they'll steal then park it out of the way for awhile and see if it's recovered.
 

Dean Fletcher

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Very good, hard wire them in and hide under the dash - internal battery and sim card use almost no data

They can be defeated with a plug in blocker (transmits on mobile phone frequencies) but they're not carried by the average opportunist crim. They're the stolen to order and get to the port as fast as possible brigade.

If they think there's a tracker they'll steal then park it out of the way for awhile and see if it's recovered.
So in theory getting the stickers saying this vehicle is tracked is a bad idea.
 

Blobcat

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So in theory getting the stickers saying this vehicle is tracked is a bad idea.
Not necessarily, anything you do is just buying time - more time equals less likely that it will be stolen
 

Steve@Avantgarde

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The best car security product on the market currently, which will give you a thatcham approval for your insurance is the Autowatch Ghost. It costs about £500 fitted I believe. Plenty of videos on you tube about how it works.
 

Tony Dyson

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As we speak, the criminal fraternity are developing more workarounds to current alarm and anti theft technologies and will continue to do so as long as we have something worth stealing.

When renting a TV was a popular thing to do, Granada TV Rentals had a big Service and Distribution centre in Leeds and a colleague told me some time ago of the issues they were suffering with alarm designs for the warehouse, after a ram raid, ram raid, barriers were installed around the warehouse, after jack hammers were used to demolish a wall for entry, trembler alarms were installed, after thieves broke through the roof, microwave and infra red technology was used to further protect ingress from above, and the story went on and on to finally installing a radar detection system where special dispensation was required from the Home Office for installation to a secure car park where the service vehicles were parked and loaded for the next days work/deliveries. And the thieves kept coming.

The point I’m making of course is you can keep on throwing money at popular technologies in attempts to beat the thieves or DIY.

Ever since that discussion we decided the best way to protect any property was to install something unknown and covert to the thieves, if they don’t know anything about the technology used to protect a building or disable or car, the better it would be protected and since then I have either interrupted vacuum lines, with Lego Technic components hidden in the cabin, Ground wires to disable components, specific ignition supplies etc, we all know our cars and the more unique you can be with your design and remote in the hidden location of your switch, the better the protection.
 

JBell

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The best car security product on the market currently, which will give you a thatcham approval for your insurance is the Autowatch Ghost. It costs about £500 fitted I believe. Plenty of videos on you tube about how it works.

@JohnLaidlaw had it on his E63 IIRC
 

DSK

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That Autowatch looks good but as readily seen on YouTube, these thieves, come armed, will resort to physical violence quite happily etc to break into a house, inflict harm as they feel happy to do so and get what they need to take your vehicle.

If they can't it going, they will know its disabled in some way and will become even more desperate to get it going (resorting to more violence etc) or just leave. I have been in a position where I was sleeping at my uncles at night to house watch whilst he was away. The neighbours advised of supsicious activity the night before and the very night I came back, as i was winding down to for bed, I saw a white Audi stop outside the house (not like a taxit etc would), blocking the driveway so I called the cops. The cops arrived inside of 3 minutes (a swarm of them, few X5's, panda cars, 530d's, two S3's etc). In this time I stayed at the window, on the phone and the Audi span around, came back, stopped, again behind the driveway, then tore off about 1 minute before the cops arrived. Had they got into the house, I would have just wanted them to take the key and go without inflicting any physical harm to me. I'd not want to be dragged outside to do a button sequence and possibly injured and beaten further in the process.
 

Capra

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What do people think about these tracking devices you can buy?
Most top cars are now stripped for parts. By the time your tracking company locates the car, it back to a shell. Thieves know they are being tracked and have a small window to get the work done. There are a few youtube videos on it.
 

Dean Fletcher

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Most top cars are now stripped for parts. By the time your tracking company locates the car, it back to a shell. Thieves know they are being tracked and have a small window to get the work done. There are a few youtube videos on it.
Hope mine doesn't get stolen half my parts are brand new. :D
 

Capra

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Hope mine doesn't get stolen half my parts are brand new. :D
:D
I might have mentioned this before. If someone wants something bad enough they will get it. I was friends with a senior chap at Mitsubishi Motors, he had the first Lancer FQ400 in red #1. He parked it at the most secure car park at Heathrow, came back and it had gone. The car was fitted with the best alarm Immobilisers that they could fit, plus fuel pump Immobilisers. Apparently stolen to order with a container ready to ship.
 

A.J.

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In the good old days we just used to remove the rotor arm :rolleyes: Safe and sound :D
 

John Laidlaw

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@JohnLaidlaw had it on his E63 IIRC
Did indeed- it was under £400 fitted, I believe they have come down in price since. Initially I had mine connected to my iphone so you could disable just by connecting but I thought better of that eventually and turned the connection off. The normal disabling is a sequence of presses on buttons on your dash, any random one you set, you can also change it. Good bit of kit.
2 modes- one is to stop the car starting up, but the second and the one I opted for was for the car to stall when a gear was selected (when not disabled of course)- I reckoned the noise of start up would be alarming enough itself, followed by the embarrasment of stalling it, the crims would give up, thinking there was a fault....
 

John Laidlaw

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That Autowatch looks good but as readily seen on YouTube, these thieves, come armed, will resort to physical violence quite happily etc to break into a house, inflict harm as they feel happy to do so and get what they need to take your vehicle.

If they can't it going, they will know its disabled in some way and will become even more desperate to get it going (resorting to more violence etc) or just leave. I have been in a position where I was sleeping at my uncles at night to house watch whilst he was away. The neighbours advised of supsicious activity the night before and the very night I came back, as i was winding down to for bed, I saw a white Audi stop outside the house (not like a taxit etc would), blocking the driveway so I called the cops. The cops arrived inside of 3 minutes (a swarm of them, few X5's, panda cars, 530d's, two S3's etc). In this time I stayed at the window, on the phone and the Audi span around, came back, stopped, again behind the driveway, then tore off about 1 minute before the cops arrived. Had they got into the house, I would have just wanted them to take the key and go without inflicting any physical harm to me. I'd not want to be dragged outside to do a button sequence and possibly injured and beaten further in the process.
Which is a very good point, an ex member on here suffered that issue - a hugely frightening experience no one should ever have to experience.
All you can do is make it less interesting than something else to the crims- in the end though if they are determined, ruthless and want it they’ll have it!
 

Steve@Avantgarde

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That Autowatch looks good but as readily seen on YouTube, these thieves, come armed, will resort to physical violence quite happily etc to break into a house, inflict harm as they feel happy to do so and get what they need to take your vehicle.

If they can't it going, they will know its disabled in some way and will become even more desperate to get it going (resorting to more violence etc) or just leave. I have been in a position where I was sleeping at my uncles at night to house watch whilst he was away. The neighbours advised of supsicious activity the night before and the very night I came back, as i was winding down to for bed, I saw a white Audi stop outside the house (not like a taxit etc would), blocking the driveway so I called the cops. The cops arrived inside of 3 minutes (a swarm of them, few X5's, panda cars, 530d's, two S3's etc). In this time I stayed at the window, on the phone and the Audi span around, came back, stopped, again behind the driveway, then tore off about 1 minute before the cops arrived. Had they got into the house, I would have just wanted them to take the key and go without inflicting any physical harm to me. I'd not want to be dragged outside to do a button sequence and possibly injured and beaten further in the process.

Yes, but it does secure your car in your non attendance.
 
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