Thieves! :(

[lucky13]

So while sleeping last night me and my housemate were the victims of a proffesional thief.
Broke in through two doors at the back of the property found his keys which were hidden and stole his month old c class 220 cdi merc.

The thief left alone my keys, but did take both our work laptops which were in bags in the hall. I feel for my housemate as he is gutted right now.

We are both glad that the keys were hidden down stairs and not in our rooms as this may have meant a man with a crow bar waking us up.

Everything else was left alone including my wallet.

The police have been very helpful but I think the odds of the car being found are slim.

Has anyone else had this happen, kind of shocking thinking we were asleep.

 

[Scotteh]

Unlucky

Have any kind of tracking on your laptop by any chance?

 

[lucky13]

It's a work one so not too worried but had a lot of documents on it and I use it when I work in Sweden which is this week again!

 

[Stuff]

Wow, a month old... That really sucks... Best of luck in getting a good resolution to this :/

 

[unrealrocks]

Horrible to happen but I guess you have to look at it on the positive side - he left you alone and didn't cause any physical harm, car insurance should resolve the stolen car even if it isn't recovered.

 

[dacads]

*professional

Next step for your housemate would be to check insurance policies to check if vehicle theft is covered?

 

[lucky13]

Oops cheers for the typo
It is covered under their fleet policy him and his dad run a franchise.

The thread was more to vent and hear other experiances. We are both glad our keys were hidden downstairs and not in our rooms else we may have had a nasty wake up. So that is a back handed positive.

It's just odd he took the work laptops but not my wallet which I left in the lounge...

One thing I learned is they have no gap insurance...

 

[MofoKilla]

Next step for your housemate would be to check insurance policies to check if vehicle theft is covered?

why would a brand new car not be insured for theft?

 

[Scotteh]

Insurance companies, they'll try to get out of it any way they can..

 

[lucky13]

Fair question but their fleet is well covered

 

[Scotteh]

Good to hear, I imagine company will give out other laptops for work.

 

[sovietspybob]

That's why i will never hide my keys, always keep them in an obvious place in the hall way. If someone is going to break into my home i sure don't want to meet them in the middle of the night if i can help it.

 

[Worthy]

Really sorry to hear about that, as others have said, it's glad you're both OK and it's just a car at the end of the day, it will be replaced, this is why we have insurance.

Just out of curiosity, how did they get through the doors?

 

[lucky13]

Jimmied a door to an outhouse then smashed a small window to get access to the kitchen. The csi person was able to get some footprints but that's all. Yer kind of glad he found the keys quick you never know how badly they might have wanted it as it seems it was targeted.

Yer possessions are easy to replace its the sence of invasion of having someone in your home while you sleep that I'm finding hard to shake.

 

[Miguél]

No house alarm? Always surprises me the amount of people who don't have them! Although may not have stopped them getting your car of course!

 

[Bromhead]

So while sleeping last night me and my housemate were the victims of a proffesional thief.

I can't be the only one thinking it, 13 isn't so lucky afterall.

On a serious note, glad you're both ok as it must be a terrible experience and certainly not something anyone would want to first wake up to.

I always thought of car thieves as joyride and then dump it, but I guess that's not the case here. So what does the car thief do now, put on fake plates and attempt to sell it?

 

[Rroff]

No house alarm? Always surprises me the amount of people who don't have them! Although may not have stopped them getting your car of course!

Most places I've lived a house alarm is about as good as a chocolate tea pot - no one takes any notice unless they've been going off non-stop for hours and stopping them from sleeping/bothering them.

Better off making it harder to break in, rear/out of sight entrances reinforced, don't leave i.e. side gates unlocked where they can nip in and be out of sight, illuminate doorways, etc.

 

[lucky13]

I can't be the only one thinking it, 13 isn't so lucky afterall.

On a serious note, glad you're both ok as it must be a terrible experience and certainly not something anyone would want to first wake up to.

I always thought of car thieves as joyride and then dump it, but I guess that's not the case here. So what does the car thief do now, put on fake plates and attempt to sell it?

I always did to, but when speaking to the officer this is not un common. They carry fake plates on them and quite often it's to fill an order the customer made. The officer also said every major road has cameras to identify every plate that goes through it.
By the time you discover it's gone it's half way up the country or in a container. We live close to the docks so could be quite likely.

I suggested to my housemate we get one of those poles that are concerted in the ground that you lock upright so you can't get the car off.

We are planning lots of new things to discourage thieves including boarding up the door they Jimmied as it is not used by us.

 

[cuke2u]

I don't know about fleet insurance but most fully comp car insurance policies will replace a car for a new one if it is under a year old..

 

[sigma]

I always thought of car thieves as joyride and then dump it, but I guess that's not the case here. So what does the car thief do now, put on fake plates and attempt to sell it?

Not new cars, no. This car will most likely now be on a shipping container (or waiting to go to one) so it can be sent abroad.

I suggested to my housemate we get one of those poles that are concerted in the ground that you lock upright so you can't get the car off.

Easy enough to get around with some bolt cutters.

Is your housemate going to replace it with another brand new car? Was it the first time a new car was present at the house? Hope they don't come back for the next car :-\