Stolen car advice.

[lwbnick]

Engineers at work say that they have had a look at the car and it appears that they have put a wire down the window thingy. Apparently if you know which wires etc to pull on you can pop the door on those Mercs pretty easy.

They've got a cable, so not all that easy to get at, if at all, why did they not just break the window to get in??

 

[andy@pcd-ltd]

Just to clarify things what model did they break into as you say it is less than a year old and some of the newer ones have deadlocks on them so they wouldnt of been able to gain access unless they had the remote.

Have you checked to see if you still have both keys for the car they didnt steal and took the keys out of.

 

[st4]

I can't offer anything helpful to say but good luck and store your car keys more robustly.

 

[Spannaz]

If you can prove the keys were in a locked car, and they used ANY means to gain entry, then you are covered. Any court will have to get the insurance company to prove otherwise. Lets face it, they may have just got lucky and been looking for something in the car, found keys to the other one, and took that. Be no different if they managed to get into your house without you hearing, found keys on the side and thought, 'heh rather than house robbery, lets take the 40k Merc on the drive??'
I talk to my sister who is a claims manager, and some of the stories are crazy, but true, and they have to pay out, because they know that the Ombudsman will side with the customer in almost ALL cases.
Seems you were just unlucky, and maybe what they were originally after, they may come back for. And i agree, your priority now is to find out how they got into your car, and stop them from returning and doing it again!

 

[Dec]

I assure you all this is 100% entirely legit... I couldn't have made this up if I tried.

I appreciate how it looks but even if I had left the keys in the car it would have self locked with the 15sec lock system - and I assure you - we had the car key with us... we are both willing to swear to that in any court of law.

I just really want to know how they have done it - is everyone at a loss?

And a couple of things have gone from my car - iphone (works) and itouch - but Sat Nav was left? It's old mind you.

In the absence of the remote fob or a broken window, the must have picked the door lock or “wired” the door open , under these circumstances the alarm should have sounded when the door was opened, is the alarm in working order, will it sound when its triggered?



Dec

 

[DIYMAN]

I think it was on Watchdog where I saw an item about how easy it is to 'programme' a blank key for certain cars.
They did a demo on a BMW but said the same applied to several makes, I think Merc. was mentioned.

BMW head office initially said it was not possible but several BMW dealerships said they new about the problem but there had been no official notification to the owners or police at that time.

The blanks are sold on the Internet, about 10 secs. to sync to the car.

 

[Neil H]

You've just been unlucky. Where you choose to leave your keys and whether or not your car was open, locked or guarded by a rotweiler, the fact remains that some scumbag thief has taken your property. It offends me that we immediately look at these things in a litigeous manner when the fact is the OP is a victim of crime.
I understand how crap the police are in this situation, in my personal experience of having cars nicked, just cross your fingers that you never get it back. If it is of any solace, and I know it feels crap right now, nobody was hurt, you'll get it resolved and everything important was still inside your 4 walls.

 

[television]

In the absence of the remote fob or a broken window, the must have picked the door lock or “wired” the door open , under these circumstances the alarm should have sounded when the door was opened, is the alarm in working order, will it sound when its triggered?



Dec

Dec does have a very good point here on this

 

[Andy.M]

Did they have to move the first car to get the stolen one out?

And was your car locked or open when you discovered the crime?

 

[Mcobinad]

It sucks to hear this. Courage my friend!

 

[star]

Some years ago I had a customer who had her car broken into and they found one of her spare keys in the service pouch, which she was unaware of. The vehicle was stolen, However when the vehicle was found with the spare key in the ign, her insurance refused to pay out stating she was negligent in leaving keys in her car. I hope it's not the case for you.

 

[Triv]

Any update on this?
I'm interested.

 

[Troon]

Any update on this?
I'm interested.

You're beginning to suspect you got away with it?

 

[ShinyF1]

I think it was on Watchdog where I saw an item about how easy it is to 'programme' a blank key for certain cars.
They did a demo on a BMW but said the same applied to several makes, I think Merc. was mentioned.

BMW head office initially said it was not possible but several BMW dealerships said they new about the problem but there had been no official notification to the owners or police at that time.

The blanks are sold on the Internet, about 10 secs. to sync to the car.

A colleague of mine has just had his 3 year old 320d stolen by this method. He's replacing it with a W204 estate - sensible chap