Just reading the thread on batteries dying because of all the stuff left running in an empty car made me wonder. Since the advent of alarms and immobilisers as standard on many cars (if not all)
do cars still get stolen, apart from ones where the keys have been nicked.
Anybody here had a car stolen in recent years?
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In a word, no. In the early eighties barely a week went by without a friend or friend of a friend having their car nicked.
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The thieves in Surrey have found an ingenious way to have the contents of your car away.
A car key frequency blocker is used to block the signal from the key. In practise this means one walks away from the car, flicking the key as normal, and the car does not lock. You may or may not notice this. In your absence, the valuables contained within your car are away with the fairies. No trace of how or why.
Its a current and real threat, the scroats have been caught with the kit on person in the supermarket car parks in this area. The kit is easily obtainable, on Ebay, for less than a ton.
Generally, cars are secure. Its easier to lift the keys from your home, than try to defeat the systems on board. Inevitably this has the unwelcome side effect of meeting the miscreant face to face.
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When my car was taken (keys taken from the kitchen by forcing open a window - keys were visible at back of house though) there were many cars taken at the time in Manchester at gun point. Stop at the lights and told to get out. This avoids the problem of hidden immobiliser switches too....
Security has it's disadvantages.
For a modern car with immobiliser, I doubt they are nicked very often without the keys (lift onto low loader maybe). Older cars are probably still nickable.
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I understand there is a growing trend in stealing older cars that just go to the scrap yeard and fetch up to £100 a time.
That should pay for a few fixes.
That is a bit of a contrast to finding cars just abandoned by the side of the road because scrapping them was too expensive.
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>> Older cars are probably still nickable
>> a growing trend in stealing older cars that just go to the scrap yard
That's why I put a big grey and yellow steering wheel lock on my Escort whenever it's parked, even if only for a minute. Not so much to stop them nicking it, more to dissuade them from even trying. It's also got the standard alarm, key chip immobiliser and a couple of blinking red lights in the dash too so the steering lock simply makes it too much hassle for them. Having a car is worth far more to me than its material value.
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In my total of 45 years I've never had a car vandalised, broken into, or stolen. Just once, in about 1969, (in the days before locking petrol caps and theft proof filler necks) I had a couple of gallons of petrol siphoned out. On that occasion the car was a sitting duck in the car park of a stock car racing meeting.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 23 Sep 10 at 07:59
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Ah well, never mind. At least you kept on one of the competitors running and contributed to the evenings entertainment.
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Anybody had their car stolen in the last 5 years - spamcan61
