New type of car crime

Apparently there's a new type of car crime emerging - it was previously in Hertfordshire but now seems to have spread to Surrey (and possibly other areas)

The thieves identify the car they want from the street/a car park then secretly attach a tracker to it. When you bring it home, they are able to track the vehicle and then burgle your house to get the keys.

This has just happened to one of my colleagues, while he was in hospital last week - barstewards

In his case they did not take the car at the time of the burglary. He knew the keys had gone missing though, so immediately took the precaution of taking the car over to a friend's place several miles away. It was stolen from her driveway, with the use of the keys, on Friday night.

Since the thieves did a good job of taking a load of stuff from his house, it seemed that the house was the main target, and they just happend to take the car keys as well. However it now seems that the entire set up was designed to get the car...

Two pieces of advice from the Police:

• Hide your keys (and spares) really really well
• If they go missing, get the locks changed immediately

This could potentially also apply to bikes as well so worth being extra careful with your keys all round...

[tigersaw]

'changing the locks' could run into 4 figures now that the keys carry a transponder linked into the cars ECU - even on smaller cars nowadays.

Gone are the days when you could just take the rotor arm out and put it in your pocket

This happened to my friend in London 3 weeks ago. The thieves (read ****s) broke into her house and stole her spare keys, laptop, camera etc, but left the car which surprised the cops. She was scared that they would be back for it the next day so, with the help of Treacle, we removed a few key fuses which stoped the car from being driven. Or course they came back the next evening and tried to take the car while she was waiting for it to be recoved by the insurance company, but couldn't start it, and were scared off by her, a 5'4" screaming blonde. She had the car towed that evening and locks changed/recoded at a cost of over £500 (BMW), but at least she still has her car.

Another little trick we used was to turn the stereo to max (which gets switched on with the ignition) and have The Pogues pumping out. We're not sure if it was them or Libby that scared them the most though

I wonder whether the insurance co would fund the locks to be changed? Got to be cheaper than replacing the whole car...

Originally Posted by Lucky

we removed a few key fuses which stoped the car from being driven.

Another little trick we used was to turn the stereo to max (which gets switched on with the ignition) and have The Pogues pumping out. We're not sure if it was them or Libby that scared them the most though

good thinking!

Similar types of crime to these have been around for a while. We've had quite a few where certain types of car are followed home, then (and this amazes me) soooooo many people have a lovely key holder hanging on the wall or leave keys on the table just inside the door, and along comes Billy Burglar with his fishing pole and catches himself a loovely set of keys.

It normally affects those with performance/expensive cars etc.

We had a very worrying trend during the last cold snap. Thieves were trawling around the "exclusive" housing estates and just walking up to and driving away in the car left on the driveway with engine running while car de-frosts.

Every sympathy with those with friends who were targeted by trackers etc, but when there are soooo many people making Billy's life as easy as it is above, then those with the types of cars I mentioned are going to continue to be targeted.

[dizzyblonde]

Aye there were a guy on here couple of weeks back scared to death his bike were going to get nicked as his neighbours had, had this trick done to them.


Thieving robbing little barstewards....in luckys friends case...anyone would run a mile getting bawled at by a five foot blondeee, cool trick with the Pogues...PMSL

Originally Posted by tigersaw

'changing the locks' could run into 4 figures now that the keys carry a transponder linked into the cars ECU - even on smaller cars nowadays.

A shotgun is cheaper

[Spiderman]

Scum...utter scum. yet the police are far to busy to deal with this type of crime....thy're busy making sure road users get caught going a few miles too fast

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

A shotgun is cheaper

Bit noisy, what you want is a crossbow and some pigs.