Car theft - is it out of control?

bigmike20vt said:
what we really need is................... Magnavolt

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RoboCop 2 - Magnavolt commercial HD

This is the opening commercial to RoboCop 2 for an advanced and aggressive car defense system, and it won't even run down your battery!I do not own and did n...
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the final word in auto security.
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South Africans have their own solution to this problem, flame throwers

 
Grim5 said:
I think these are two seperate issues, one is making your car thief proof and the second is making your house thief proof
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Neither of which are actually possible (and even if they were, would just shift the risk elsewhere, e.g. you're going to get followed and car jacked).

It's always going to be a matter of balancing of risk vs reward, and where you personally draw that line.

For me at least, if they're willing to enter the house, they can have the keys - I'd rather get woken up by the sound* of the car being driven off, than a knife to my throat with my partner and kids screaming, so I keep the keys in a pouch but in an obvious place near the front door (not visible from the letterbox). Enough to deter a casual thief/relay attack, but if someone is that determined to steal it then by all means crack on.



* well, it's an EV so probably the first I'd know of it is waking up in the morning and noticing the front door open/car gone.
 
Haggisman said:
Neither of which are actually possible (and even if they were, would just shift the risk elsewhere, e.g. you're going to get followed and car jacked).

It's always going to be a matter of balancing of risk vs reward, and where you personally draw that line.

For me at least, if they're willing to enter the house, they can have the keys - I'd rather get woken up by the sound* of the car being driven off, than a knife to my throat with my partner and kids screaming, so I keep the keys in a pouch but in an obvious place near the front door (not visible from the letterbox). Enough to deter a casual thief/relay attack, but if someone is that determined to steal it then by all means crack on.



* well, it's an EV so probably the first I'd know of it is waking up in the morning and noticing the front door open/car gone.
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i agree.... and i do the same but the point here is the criminal does have to break into my house which will hopefully put off a bunch of criminals.

where we are at the moment is many cars can be stolen without going near the house becuaae they do not need a key and that is an issue imo.
 
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Almost all are stolen from homes using vulnerabilities with keyless systems.

Break ins are rare as it's very risky. They never know what they are breaking in to. A home owner can literally kill someone who breaks in and threatens them and not be done for it. Or they could be mauled by a dog. Look at videos of most of the car thieves, mainly skinny chavs.
 
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Nasher said:
Almost all are stolen from homes using vulnerabilities with keyless systems.

Break ins are rare as it's very risky. They never know what they are breaking in to. A home owner can literally kill someone who breaks in and threatens them and not be done for it. Or they could be mauled by a dog. Look at videos of most of the car thieves, mainly skinny chavs.
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in the UK it isnt *quite* that simple.... just google Farmer Tony Martin............... but going into someones house must certianly be a deterrent for a lot of people

if you have a crypto lambo then it will still be an issue... but i dare say for most of us with a £30k "nice" but not "super" car, making them secure enough that a thief would need to break into a house would put of most criminals.
 
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I think people just have to weight up the cost

If you can't afford to make the house thief proof (I.e bars on the windows, keyless, cardless electronic deadlocks on the door frames, security alarm on movement of windows, doors when armed, private security on call for alarm trigger etc) and you can't afford to make the car thief proof because the house is easy to get in, then you just come to terms with paying the insurance when the car gets taken or you drive a old cheap car that's cheaper to replace
 
bigmike20vt said:
i agree.... and i do the same but the point here is the criminal does have to break into my house which will hopefully put off a bunch of criminals.

where we are at the moment is many cars can be stolen without going near the house becuaae they do not need a key and that is an issue imo.
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Yes, agreed there, and it shouldn't really take much to make the system more secure; you have to wonder why manufacturers don't implement it? My Zoe would disable keyless entry if you locked it using the button on the fob. No pouch needed. Simple. I know some manufacturers try to do more fancy things like stopping the key from transmitting if it hasn't moved in X amount of time etc. as well, but IMO that's overly complicated - is it really that difficult to push a button to lock the car at night?

Nasher said:
Almost all are stolen from homes using vulnerabilities with keyless systems.

Break ins are rare as it's very risky. They never know what they are breaking in to. A home owner can literally kill someone who breaks in and threatens them and not be done for it. Or they could be mauled by a dog. Look at videos of most of the car thieves, mainly skinny chavs.
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Of course, and for your average Joe with a mass produced family hatchback, they don't really need to worry about it. It's more the prestige/in demand cars that are going to be stolen to order & targeted by gangs where you need to worry about getting broken into and threatened for the keys.

Grim5 said:
I think people just have to weight up the cost

If you can't afford to make the house thief proof (I.e bars on the windows, keyless, cardless electronic deadlocks on the door frames, security alarm on movement of windows, doors when armed, private security on call for alarm trigger etc) and you can't afford to make the car thief proof because the house is easy to get in, then you just come to terms with paying the insurance when the car gets taken or you drive a old cheap car that's cheaper to replace
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The mistake there is thinking any of that makes the house thief proof. ;)

Edit: yes, all of the above would make your house less attractive, but if they really want your car, they'll just move on to the next easiest option and mug you when you're out and about, or wait outside, follow you and carjack you.

Personally if I felt I needed to spend more than the car was worth to turn my home into a prison out of fear of it getting stolen, I'd rather just have a crap car :D
 
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Nasher said:
Well he shot the guy in the back using a shotgun. You won't get away with that even in Texas.
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i felt sorry for him... iirc (and it was a while ago so appologies if not exact) he had been robbed half a dozen times and the police had told him there was nothing they could do as he was remote.

he had signs up warning people he had a gun and would shoot on sight.

Over all I do think he had to have a prison sentence, but were i in his shoes i can definitely imagine feeling completely justified at the time.
 
Grim5 said:
So here is a thought why don't you guys disconnect your battery and connect it back when you wanna drive it, don't need to pull the battery out just disconnect the wire. It's inconvenient as it adds an extra minute or two when you park your car for the night or w/e but it should stop them from getting in without smashing the windows and popping the bonnet plus you can have a seperate alarm with its own battery go off with the bonnet open. Alternatively take the battery with you, more inconvenient but at least the car is going nowhere without a tow truck
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It would take me about 20 minutes and a few tools to even get to my battery. The car is leased, and insured, if someone really wants a mini I’m not going to get run over stopping them.
 
Grim5 said:
So basically just leave your car on the road with the door unlocked and keys in the ignition for maximum safety, got it mate!
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Keys in the ignition, what is this 1997? My key is either in my pocket, or in a faraday box at home. I’d be more annoyed about the stuff in the car than the car, apart from the annoyance of ordering another one.
 
bigmike20vt said:
of course...... but i still think if you can theoretically make a car theft proof without the key, then NOT doing it because a thief may get angry and take it out on the owner is daft.

push comes to shove if a thief breaks into my home and threatens my life i could still give them the key. however at that point the criminal has just upped the anti considerably so they must really want to steal the car and at that point one would hope even with our broken justice system the police would take it very seriously.
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Unfortunately though, we know they'll say 'that is a seperate case Mr 1.8T, and how dare you not put an ABF in that mk1 golf you absolute swine!"
bigmike20vt said:
in the UK it isnt *quite* that simple.... just google Farmer Tony Martin............... but going into someones house must certianly be a deterrent for a lot of people

if you have a crypto lambo then it will still be an issue... but i dare say for most of us with a £30k "nice" but not "super" car, making them secure enough that a thief would need to break into a house would put of most criminals.
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Yeah and look how he got treated after multiple times being terrorised and reporting it...
And JLR Range Rovers can be upto £250k now depending on the spec, and are the easiest along with a £45-65k Golf R/RS3 depending on spec... All of which are the most common/easiest to steal/and stolen on order for export.

I worked for a company I won't name, that got rid of a very famous car that fell in the Thames, it was sent to us to be crushed, the corrupt family of owners/brothers, got the mechanics to dry it out for couple of months, take it all apart, fix it, sold it for 3.5M to a customer in Dubai, and declared it crushed and sent the forms off to the DVSA/Police... I know because I had to bring it into the workshop and watched it be loaded onto an exporters truck and driven away...

So TLDR it is VERY easy to make something disappear if there's a demand for it/money is right. And these scumbags are so brasen they don't give a **** who they hurt.
Mr Jack said:
It is real, although it wasn't commercially successful. I don't know whether it was ever used in anger.
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I was going to post this video, damn you lunch time ninjas!
 
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keef247 said:
I worked for a company I won't name, that got rid of a very famous car that fell in the Thames, it was sent to us to be crushed, the corrupt family of owners/brothers, got the mechanics to dry it out for couple of months, take it all apart, fix it, sold it for 3.5M to a customer in Dubai, and declared it crushed and sent the forms off to the DVSA/Police... I know because I had to bring it into the workshop and watched it be loaded onto an exporters truck and driven away...
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To be fair.................. I am kind of with the corrupt family here (unless it was a deliberate plan all along to dump it in the Thames).

it would seem a complete waste to crush a car which was that valuable and that fixable......... more of a womble than a criminal perhaps ?

(at the very least its a victimless crime, and shows that the insurance company were wrong to send the car to be crushed)
 
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bigmike20vt said:
To be fair.................. I am kind of with the corrupt family here (unless it was a deliberate plan all along to dump it in the Thames).

it would seem a complete waste to crush a car which was that valuable and that fixable......... more of a womble than a criminal perhaps ?

(at the very least its a victimless crime, and shows that the insurance company were wrong to send the car to be crushed)
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It was property of a very big movie franchise/film, and not to be made profit from... Least of all by scumbags breaking the law.
Yes but it was what the DVSA/Police required.

It was 1 of 5 ever made IIRC too, and 1 of 1 in this colour/interior... Either way it was their duty to crush it by law, not to steal it and export it to someone in Dubai.
You would never have gotten away with owning/driving it in this country due to what it is and where it's from.

The insurance company weren't wrong to send it to us, it didn't run, had insane amounts of electrical/water damage, and would have cost literal millions to have fixed due to the replacement parts that said manufacturer for that limited run car, would not supply due to it being 1 of 5... They however managed to fix the original parts and bypass certain things to make it run, whilst the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree, knowing them they probably took the cluster out and just cracked all the bulbs so none lit up before exporting it lol.

I would have rather seen it crushed versus a known family of tax avoiding and in general scumbags make a ridiculous profit for it. The wealth they already have due to the poor pay/way they treated their employees, made them rich anyway, they didn't need this money, and it wasn't theirs to earn/nor the car to take.

Considering how legendary it was, it should have been allowed to die, as that's what happened to it in the movie, versus some rich guy in Dubai thinking he's allowed it illegally exported.

They are a perfect example of how if you know the right people you could export stolen cars.
 
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