Burglary to steal a car………keys prominent or not…??

Germanshepherdsmum - that’s what the police told my daughter, it would have been stolen to order, stripped down and sent abroad. Several months later, they let her know they’d identified a part from her car, in a London workshop, did she want it back? It was stolen from her home in a Lancashire hamlet. The car was a gift from her partner after an unusual business success. She drives an 8 year old Kia now, never been stolen 😂

TurtleDove

A lot of the problems are that people no longer can be bothered to put their cars in the garage like we did in the old days. A burglar would rather take cars that are on the drive or parked on the road than go to the trouble of breaking into garages. My garage is fitted with an alarm as well as the house so they would be in for a shock. Also, when the garage door is opened there is a security camera facing the person that opens the door so their faces would be on record.

My garage is tiny , the house was built in 1939 , so a small Smart car would fit .
So in our case we would be bothered to use a garage if it was big enough. And it is alarmed with sensor lights.

There are a lot of car thefts around our way and thieves are gaining access to the cars via scammers which intercept the signals when a car is locked via a remote key . Big car parks are a prime location .

So many people round here don’t have garage. They were surprised that the first thing we did was to get planning permission for a double garage. We wouldn’t dream of leaving our cars outside overnight, despite living in a very low crime area and having security lighting and a large GSD.

My friend had their sporty BMW stolen that way. As the people had actually got into their house the police did attend the nextday. The police comfirmed they are often stolen to order, the police said it would be a good get away car. Supposedly they often park them in an out of way place for a day or two with the actual doors unlocked. If it is still there in a couple of days they use it for the crime. They told them it is fortunate that they had left their keys in the hall as the criminals are often so desperate to get them they would come into the bedroom to get them and there have been instances of this in our area we're people have put up a fight and been injured. Upsetting as it is you can always replace a car but not a person. Our friends got their car back but not for some time as it appeared it had been used for a crime.x

We had a car taken in a very nasty break in.
Thankfully we were out for dinner and had taken my car, a modest Mini!
Our home was targeted not for the car but something else.
By luck they stumbled across the key to my husbands car, they’d hit lucky, the swag was loaded into the car (German, fast and not modest)
They got away in it but as it was an automatic they struggled and managed to hit 8 parked cars, some of which were very badly damaged.
My phone had been vibrating for some time but as I was in company I ignored it.
It was the tracking company to check we had not inadvertently driven off without deactivating the device.
The Police could have given permission for them to immobilise it but wouldn’t.
The car was written off, we stupidly had not taken out gap insurance, we had a shortfall of thousands.
My advice is leave your car keys visible by the front door, these are not people you want in your home and take out gap insurance.

Put signs on your gate saying "Warning Large dog" be careful leaving keys where they can be seen it can often invalidate your insurance sadly. My neighbour has somehow rigged his door alarms (those mini ones that go off when connection is broken) to a speaker in front room that sounds alike a large dog barking aggressively. Trust me I opened his door one day and set it off and despite been disabled I chuffing ran lol. Even though once I'd thought about it I knew he didn't have a dog. It was very effective.

Some years ago we had a redundancy party in a sports bar. Just before closing time the police came into the bar and told us many cars had been broken into in the car park and radios, wheels, etc. stolen. My car turned out to be the only one not touched, it was a very old and tatty vauxhall viva. I spent the rest of the night ferrying colleagues to their various homes. Ther are some advantages to driving an old banger.

My car was stolen overnight Monday /Tuesday this week. Quite an old car, not something you would think thrives would be interested in.
Most likely been stolen to break down for parts as they are no longer manufactured.
Theves wear hoodies, track suit bottoms and masks, cctv not too effective.
It seems high end cars are stolen to order, less valuable ones for parts.. The cost of living crisis and the unavailability of car parts due to wars and transport difficulties has increased car theft significantly.
I did get a crime number from a police 101 operator, I dare say they will phone today for a statement.
No deterrent, so it will carry on.
People understandably are reluctant to interfere, fear of being attacked even if they are suspicious.
This is the society we live in.
I volunteer for charity, have done for a few years.
Some people do their community service doing the same work as I do.
It makes you think.

I use a krooklock so even if thieves find the keys, they can’t drive the car.
The one I have has a sharp end for breaking a car window.

Tenko

TurtleDove

A lot of the problems are that people no longer can be bothered to put their cars in the garage like we did in the old days. A burglar would rather take cars that are on the drive or parked on the road than go to the trouble of breaking into garages. My garage is fitted with an alarm as well as the house so they would be in for a shock. Also, when the garage door is opened there is a security camera facing the person that opens the door so their faces would be on record.

My garage is tiny , the house was built in 1939 , so a small Smart car would fit .
So in our case we would be bothered to use a garage if it was big enough. And it is alarmed with sensor lights.

I have the same problem, my car isn't huge but I'd have trouble getting into the small garage and even more trouble getting out of the car once it was inside. I do park on the driveway though, directly outside my bedroom window, and hope that the car alarm would go off.
My car isn't amongst those that is often stolen, not is my husband's. Apparently cars like Range Rover and Jaguars are relatively easy to steal whilst ours are not.
We both use a Faraday pouch for the keys at all times.

My daughter and her hubby just had an attempted break in for 4th time! They are after their Audi Sport as it can outrun police cars. They've had enough! 2 and 10 year old in house. Sad that people work hard get nice things,cars are their thing...and someone steals to order. Police doing nothing...My SIL decided he's leaving keys downstairs now as he doesn't want them going through the house but my DD wants to sell the car,can't take the stress any more...As my SIL said better the car than them.

We have two old bangers 2006 & 2007 never had a problem with thieves.
Somehow they both seem to pass there MOT each year we're very lucky.
Can't get them in the garage it's full of plants which I am over wintering. The plants are probably more expensive than the cars.

Exactly the same happened where I live.Both houses had cameras, motion sensor lights. House locks at back drilled. First one, keys found for high end car. Second one, same again but owner had the keys in his bedroom so unsuccessful attempt. The clever ones clone the car keys so keep them close, don't leave them accessible eg downstairs in a dish in the hall or in the pocket of a coat left in a hall.

^ Apparently happened around midnight, whilst house occupants were in bed, they have cctv, but the perpetrators wore balaclavas, gloves and shoe covers, they drilled the door lock and were apparently in and out in 5 mins……^

So they had extremely expensive cars to make all of this worthwhile, yet no burglar alarm?

We have an 11 year old fiesta in excellent condition. It doesn’t fit into our 1920 something garage so it’s parked on the drive.
Every morning I have a look out and check it’s still there, but if the converter had been stolen don’t know if it would be obvious as I think it’s underneath the car.

I love German shepherd dogs and they certainly protect and look after their owners. Definately the answer. No one would pinch our old bangers so I am thinking about getting another pussycat!

Thanks everyone for your comments. The point I was making really was that I would prefer a sneak thief sort of car theft than being accosted in my own home for the key. Hope all is well with those affected by such events, stressful indeed.

As well as the cars own security I have my keys in a faraday pouch, a steering wheel lock and a tracker in the car. Round here they are stealing small Fords as well as high end cars. It’s a plague.

Stealing keys to take a car is probably less frequent recently, most get stolen by cloning the keys, mid range cars are stripped for parts, high end cars are shipped to places where no questions are asked