Wife's car stolen from our driveway overnight

SexyGreyFox said:
Last year I provided the Police with two CCTV videos for attempts on my neighbours cars.
They advised me to buy two items that should stop potential thieves dead.
With the Krooklok they would just go and try elsewhere which they did in the next street.

ALDI

www.aldi.co.uk www.aldi.co.uk

Click to expand...
The pouches are ok, but check they work regularly because after a while they fail to stop the signal as the lining wears.
I keep my unused spare in a faraday pouch and my regular key in a small box.
And use a steering wheel lock as an extra small deterrent.
 
Gazanimal said:
No forced entry, keys still in the house and haven't been able to find out when it disappeared as nothing activated on neighbours door cam.
Click to expand...
you dont have a cam? even cheapo tapo with a memory card stuck in a window is better than nothing..

they do 2k cameras for like 20quid
 
Feek said:
Now I've got the 750 outside, I wonder about putting one of those big chunky steering wheel locks on it but the trouble is that a decent one probably costs more than the car is worth ;)
Click to expand...
Your far better off finding the fuel pump relay and just pulling it out, or if you really want to have them scratching their heads, replace it with a dummy one so all would look normal if they had a look...

A friend of mine did this to his Sierra Cosworth back in the 90's when theft of these things was rife and whilst it didn't stop it being attempted, they never got the car despite it sitting in the street in a pretty rough part of town.
 
Scania said:
Your far better off finding the fuel pump relay and just pulling it out, or if you really want to have them scratching their heads, replace it with a dummy one so all would look normal if they had a look...

A friend of mine did this to his Sierra Cosworth back in the 90's when theft of these things was rife and whilst it didn't stop it being attempted, they never got the car despite it sitting in the street in a pretty rough part of town.
Click to expand...
usual trick was for them to pull the numberplate light wires and connect up the live direct to the fuel pump , then into car and turn lights on ....and we have fuel. made a good living on cossies and xr3 etc making and fitting fuel pump guards and armoured coverings to wiring:)
 
Nasher said:
Park a Range Rover in London now for any length of time and it's gone. Basically an expensive Boris bike (vanishes from the street and re-appears in Africa). Insurance premiums went to the Moon.
Click to expand...

I think most of them are just stripped for parts.

I was watching a documentary where one was stolen, they tracked it in under an hour - and it was already half a skeleton with most of the stuff gone, just abandoned in an old garage, couldn’t believe how quickly they can strip them.
 
gc123 said:
usual trick was for them to pull the numberplate light wires and connect up the live direct to the fuel pump , then into car and turn lights on ....and we have fuel. made a good living on cossies and xr3 etc making and fitting fuel pump guards and armoured coverings to wiring:)
Click to expand...
Interesting!

I lost two RS Turbos back in the day despite both having immobilisers which plainly were not any good!
 
For anyone worried about theft and don't have a Faraday pouch, you can put your key in a microwave (which is a Faraday cage) overnight.
 
Scania said:
Interesting!

I lost two RS Turbos back in the day despite both having immobilisers which plainly were not any good!
Click to expand...
ued to be favourite immobilise 2 circuits most did starter and fuel.... always amazed me to the point where i started using relays and cutting extra circuits just to stop them.
although been out of the business for donkey s years can bus was just coming in when i retired, i recently had a old customer come to the house asking about an 802t cobra we fitted 20 plus years ago. i thought he was going to complain ,but he mentioned his missus had lost a set of keys and one of the immobiliser fobs had gone. luck had it i had one kicking around and programmed it in while he waited, 20 plus years on and it still worked flawlessly.
 
Just an update and maybe a reference for anyone else that finds themselves in this situation & process.

No news on the car, but expected that as it will be stripped and in bits since the day it was stolen.

Insurance claim has begun and the underwriter of the insurance has been in touch via email asking for as many documents as possible. V5C, purchase details, service receipts etc. We've photographed all of them and replied to the email and have sent off the hard copies, along with the vehicle keys to the underwriter.
Now we wait for them to assess the claim and come to us with an offer to settle the claim. (I am expecting to be low-balled initially)

Ironically, my car insurance is due shortly, so I was dreading the change in circumstances, but requoting has only seen a £25-30 increase in premium from the quotes I had prior to the car being stolen. (My wife is a named driver on my car)

We were planning to go from 2 cars to 1 car later this year, but this event has probably hastened this along a little. Definitely not buying a Fiesta :D
 
The claim has moved on to a claims agent (Copart) acting for the underwriter (TradeX/Markerstudy) who have stated one of their engineers will do a blind market valuation (they can't see the car obviously) based on industry approved valuation guides set by the insurer, then they will validate those guides by looking at vehicles for sale on the open market. If the car is found, then they claim it for salvage, but at this stage, two weeks since the theft, it seems unlikely.

Once the report is completed, the advisor will explain the findings, provide a breakdown of the current market value, and the next steps in settling the claim along with relevant timeframes. I'll be arguing the figure if they try to low-ball :D

Side note: I had to renew my own insurance and mentioning this claim bumped up the premium by £25 extra for the year which was lower than I expected.
 
We had a break in down our street for the first time 30 years. Tried 2 houses, one with a Octavia vrs and the other with a m340. Strangely they didn't go for my wife's fiesta at, however with the cars being targeted as bigger ones, I'm wondering if they wanted get away cars.
 
Maundie said:
I've seen Fiesta's round here where the front end has been nicked, left the car and just nicked the bumper wings etc.
Click to expand...
Quite common in the slightly out of the way city centre car parks, people that park up in Brum come back to bonnets/lights/bumpers etc just stripped off.
 
I bet if the police actually looked into those thefts it wouldn't take long to find the ones selling them on ebay.

They'll just give a crime number, car gets written off and then probably repaired using parts sourced from the same people stealing them.
 
Last edited:
Maundie said:
I've seen Fiesta's round here where the front end has been nicked, left the car and just nicked the bumper wings etc.
Click to expand...
Happened to my Corsa in Birmingham back in 2017. Nipped into Tesco, came out and the bumper was gone.

Like some idiot I spent a good 40 minutes walking round the car park wondering if it had just 'fallen off' at some point...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom