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Having a magnetic mount that says GPS stuck firmly to the top of my dash I was thinking of making a sign saying 'no satnav equipment left in vehicle'and leaving the glovebox open so 'they'can see in.Obviously along the lines of the 'no power tools....'signs on vans,but do they work or do the scrotes break in anyway.What does the team think?
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I remove all trace of my satnav from the car when I leave it for anything over a few minutes. That includes the unit, the bracket, adaptor, external antenna - the whole lot. I also clean the inside of the windscreen to remove any sucker-marks. Anything that suggests I have satnav is gone.
It's long been suggested that leaving your glovebox open is a good idea. Seems a little bit like overkill to me, though perhaps that's why I've had two cars broken into even though there was nothing on display.
Not sure about the sign. Ideally you want to put across the "I don't have satnav" angle to the scallies, rather than the "it's probably not in here" one.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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Sat Nav theft is now such a problem around here that Greater Manchester Police have started putting posters in car parks warning motorists not to leave sat nav equipment OR mounts in view.
Not sure if the sticker idea would work, IMO scallies are just as likely to break in 'to check' if its there.
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Glad you mentioned this, I hadnt heard it had become a problem. I only remove my suction mount at night if I park in a dodgy area, I'll have to start removing it more.
Not sure about the sign though. They might think, "he bluffing, he's probably stashed it under the passenger seat", and break in anyway.
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I always view these stickers in the same vain as "caution, wet paint. Do not touch". Someone is bound to touch it to see if the paint is actually wet or not.
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..... and yet again, decent folks have to endure all this inconvenience. I've got a solution, but I doubt the politicians will want to know. I think it's still used in Saudi Arabia.
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..... and yet again, decent folks have to endure all this inconvenience. I've got a solution, but I doubt the politicians will want to know. I think it's still used in Saudi Arabia.
Here here! But what if they get the wrong person?
However, I am know what it must be like in some locations. I consider myself to be fortunate to live somewhere where my wife sometimes forgets to lock her car at night leaving the keys in the ignition -- and its still on the drive in the morning! This has happened a number of times and only realised when I hear 'have you seen my car key?' We've even left the garage open once and the back door unlocked more than once! (Mrs I's fault of course)
I wonder how long before......... ?
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Saw a sat nav happily stuck on a windscreen yesterday while the car was parked up. Came back to office a couple of hours later and there was a nice pile of broken glass by said car and no sat nav in place.
As for leaving house doors open - my sister in law did this a few weeks ago (she thought hubby had locked it, he thought she had, but neither checked), they were woken at 3am with shadows on the staircase. A squeeky floorboard operated by my BIL big feet caused the intruders to flee, but they took a handbag with car keys inside so sis in law was stuck at home worried they would come back and help themselves to the car.
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Don't know about other backroomers but when we've left the backdoor unlocked (opens onto drive so side door I supppose) when in house early evening had somone come in and take keys/purse. So for years we lock the door at all times....
You'd have hoped living in a house worth about £400k, give or take, we'd not have this problem in terms of area. In early 2000 had the keys of the Golf GTI 1.8T taken via burglary at night never to be seen again.
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You'd have hoped living in a house worth about £400k, give or take, we'd not have this problem in terms of area...
Eh? Doesn't that mean you're reasonably prosperous and worth robbing?
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Here here! But what if they get the wrong person?
Just in case, stick it in the freezer - surgeons can do wonderful things these days!
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>>What does the team think?
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I think you're assuming they can read in the 1st place....
;)JaB
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Yes,that had crossed my mind.I think,on balance of views,the sign idea is off.The trouble with this mount is I cannot remove it so I shall conceal it with my A to Z.
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Yeah, but you can make a quid on an AtoZ down at the local car boot sale!
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Do you speak from experience?
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My experience of car thievery was when I took my 4 day old Mondeo estate down to London and parked it in Greenwich a few years ago. The loadspace tonneau was a bit of a novelty and I naively pulled it over when the family left the car, concealing some old cagouls that barely fitted any more and an old rucksack. When we returned, a rear side window had been smashed, the tonneau pulled back, and the next-to-worthless stuff nicked.
When we reported it at the heavily fortified Greenwich police station (a revelation to us bumpkins), the officer informed us that the property would in all probability appear in a car boot sale. He went on to say that if car boot sales were banned, half the crime in London would disappear.
The moral of this story is don't bother with a flimsy tonneau in an estate car; if you pull it over, the lowlife automatically assume there's something under there worth nicking - even if there isn't. The result is a smashed window and a load of time wasted.
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Being totally naive when it comes to sat -nav, and resisting the obvious question (Does anyone actually need it - how did we get about without it before?), if it communicates with satellites, can the reverse not also happen. ie like a Tracker device, every sat nav has a unique identifier that could have its location traced and therefore find the scrote who stole it?
[I did warn you that I was ignorant on the subject]
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The sat nav units only listed to GPS satellites. These only have a transmit feature, not a facillity to listen to people that are using the GPS system.
Trackers in the other hand, listen to the satellites to determine the vehicle position and then use mobile phone technology to comminicate the positino back to a controller. [/slightly simplified to make it easily understood]
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I read often, only post occasionally
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(Does anyone actually need it - how did we get about without it before?)
We managed with maps,satnav makes it easier.I have spent a lot of time navigating by A-Z in places I do not know and it is frustrating,distracting and time consuming,now I input the street I want and drive.
The GPS camera detector I have(Microfuzion)can be rendered inoperative if it is stolen so there must be some way of communicating with it.
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Yeah, but you can make a quid on an AtoZ down at the local car boot sale!
Thefts like this not to be underestimated! I had my A to Z stolen a few years back - side driver's window smashed by a beer bottle. Nothing else stolen - no attempt to even get the radio! Glass splinters kept appearing in seats for the next couple of years!
Y
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My brother used to live in a rough part of Leeds. One night some scrote decided to have a go at his £200 G-reg Nova. They tried to get in by busting the door lock with a screwdriver, failed and decided to just smash the window anyway; all they took was the jack out of the boot!
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Just to add a dimension to all the advice about removing sat-nav equipment....
A friend of mine always removes it from his light aircraft as well. Even planes are having them nicked as well!
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Was Charles {P} but someone c o p i e d my name with spaces.
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I like the Saudi Arabian idea, the fob to the PC should be repeat offenders only.
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The problem with the Saudi solution is that they can still breed, drive, drink, and thieve with one hand. The driving and drinking I can deal with, but stopping them from making more scallies would be a real benefit to society.
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It is obviously going to be the next big thing for crack heads to steal. Portable satnav will, no doubt, affect crime figures. Fashions come and go don't they. I remember when young kids were mugged for their Sergio Tacchini tops and trainers in the 1980's. People are mugged for their mobile telephones now.
Wait for news reports of poor hapless citizens attacked in their cars at traffic lights, watching the glow of their Tom Tom Go, Tom Tom Going, Tom Tom Gone!
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news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4578316.stm
Ambulance crews in East Yorkshire say people's lives are being put at risk by thieves stealing satellite navigation equipment from emergency vehicles.
In the latest of two thefts this week, youths on motorbikes were seen smashing an ambulance window in Hull and ripping out the custom made system.
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I alwaysb take out my tom tom one and put it in in my poket prior to locking up. Suction thingy in glove box along with power lead problem solved.
For sat nav saves me a fortune. Atending calloutsd in the sticks often involves unn sighned lanes and these are marked on the satnav. Once you are on the lane then its is easy to look for the red landrover park 1/2 mile along from the tree tunnel and 2 gateway on right!.Prior to astnav I would spend ages poring over os maps and strugling to get a mobile signal to clarify directions.
The ability to drive long motorway journeys without pages of rac auto route print outs or hand written notes is also great as is the recalculating feature.
paul
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That was quick work (see msg just above a bit).
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4578316.stm
(name obscured for mods)
Man jailed over sat nav kit theft
A man has been arrested, charged and jailed within two days of stealing a satellite navigation kit from an ambulance, police say.
Mr X, 19, of Hull, was jailed for four months by Beverley magistrates on Wednesday after admitting theft, burglary and possessing cannabis.
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