I heard a rather shocking story about how car thieves are getting round the problem of enhanced security.
Because alarms and immobolisers are getting the better of the majority of car thieves, some have decided to steal the car while it is on the move (car jacking). We have all heard a few stories about this on the news, but some friends of mine in North London have told me that thieves are taking this one step further.
Someone on the look out for a decent car scouts around the neighbourhood until he finds one that he likes. Goes up to the front door, rings bell, then when someone answers he pulls out a gun and asks for the keys. Alarm / Immoboliser problem cured in one go.
All I can say is that if you have the space to get your car out of view then do it.
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That's rather lazy.
In the old days, they used to have to slim jim the doors and then break the steering lock, and then hotwire the starter. I really don't know what's happened to the youth of today, always wanting things now, not prepared to work for anything............
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My take on this is that the government/judicial system is to blame, let's be honest the 'system' couldn't be bothered to tackle the problem and so just piled it on the car makers/owners to deal with it. You're now the weak link and so you're the target. I think we'll see this scenario repeated with other things. I know it sounds grim but the half hearted response to mobile phone muggings seems to indicate this.
Steve.
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.....and in just two responses we've covered humour and politics. Mark will be having a fit!
No Dosh - but then who has?
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and all on the strength of some unstubstantiated gossip !
given the current concern about gun crime it's odd that none of the papers, tv and radio stations are reporting it. Must be some conspiracy (or the story is a load of old toot !)
another urban myth in the making ?
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WD 40
You try telling the owner of a Subaru Impreza WRX in Leytonstone and the owner of a BMW M3 in Enfield that this is unsubstantiated gossip.
It all depends on where you live as to what news you here. It only ever becomes national news when someone unfortunately dies.
Like the lady in Nottingham who was car jacked and ran over.
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You try telling the owner of a Subaru Impreza WRX in Leytonstone and the owner of a BMW M3 in Enfield that this is unsubstantiated gossip.
BB - try convincing any of us that it is more that an urban myth
You could try asking in the Enfield 'Crime in the area - is ther much' forum and asking if anybody knew anything - I did, and nobody does
You could try asking the Leyton Guardian if they have any reports. Idid, they dont.
You could try asking the Metropolitan Police. I did. They've heard the rumours, and thats all they are.
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I don't think car security is good enough. There should be some way of informing a car remotely that it is stolen and should therefore cease to function.If it could lock all the doors at the same time then hopefully you would start to catch more of the thieves. Until they realised that they just had to drive with one of the doors open but I am sure you could then add that in as a feature so that the car wouldn't move until all doors were securely shut.
If you combined it with satnav and radar it could drive itself straight round to the nearest police station, perpetrators inside. If it could fill in all the paperwork and arrange a court date at the same time I am sure it would get no objections from the powers that be. I am sure it would deter a lot of car thieves. I would be wary of anything that involved biometrics, eg having transponders implanted in your person that would not allow anyone else to drive the car as I am sure there would be rather an unpleasant method of discovery by said car thieves when they want your car.
If cars are being stolen then someone is obviously buying them as otherwise it wouldn't be worth the effort. I don't know how feasible it would be to tag all major car parts from all new cars so they could be tracked anywhere in the world so it would be easy to spot where in the world they ended up.
teabelly
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Mark who? OK OK I guess you mean the moderator. Sorry I didn't mean to bring humour into it!
I wasn't trying to be political just factual.
Sorry again.
Steve.
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Talking of urban myths I heard a really good one. A woman heard then saw someone breaking into her shed/garage and so called the police, the police said they were really busy and so would turn up if they could find the time. 5 minutes later she calls them back and tells them not to rush as she's just shot the burgler (which she hadn't). Within minutes an armed response unit turns up along with the big wigs. Can't be right, too good to be true! Still made me laugh.
Steve.
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True story - but the denouement is that the police prosecute the caller for wasting police time.
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Wow, was it in the papers or on the news?
Steve.
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There are already a number of microdot systems on the market for this. As I understand it, BMW in Australia use one such system on all imports: hidden parts onf the the vehicle are lightly sprayed with the tiny dots which adhere to all components in their path. Each dot is microscopically encoded with the car's ID.
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The only viale cover for this situation is Tracker. Hand over the keys, let the robbers go, call Police, who WILL respond pronto to an armed incident, tell them its got Tracker, Phone Tracker. No fun but some retribution will help you feelings.
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Surely if a Tracker system is installed then the stolen car is easily traced. Also if the car was stolen under the threat of a gun then armed police would go and recover it wouldn't they??
These days when we are in the house I keep a shotgun handy, just in case!!
VD5D.
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Just finished listening to Mike Rutherford's spot on Talk Sport. The subject was car crime and some interesting points were made. One Boxter S owner said he didn't fit a 'Tracker' to his car 'cos if it had been nicked, he wouldn't want it back - would rather have a new car !
Seversl callers reported incidents of theft whereby the crooks had virtualy stripped the vehicles down rather than steal the whole thing !!
A guy with a top of the range BMW reported finding all his windows open a short while after locking/leaving his car !
Hmmm... Where have I heard that tale before ?
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Shigg mentions mobile phones.
We heard only a few weeks ago that the telecom companies have come to an agreement whereas immediately a phone has been reported stolen it is instantly blocked from use and is of no value. problem solved?.
What bothered me about this is why have they only just got round to doing it. I understand it isn't some new discovery but just needed consensus among the operators.
How many people had to be mugged and injured by the thieves before this simple step was take?.
Coming back to cars which have an ECU fitted one would think that during manufacture it could be programmed to enable a satellite signal to perhaps slowly bring the vehicle to a standstill instead of high speed chases.
Or should I go back to my dan dare and eagle comics.
thinking on...Red Ken could make use of it..
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I saw a thing on TV last year where a company in america were testing an electronic stinger. Basically as the vehicle ran over this 'mat' a flexible upright conductor brushed the underside of the car discharging a high voltage into it, this was sufficient to fry the ECU and the car stops. Don't know what would happen if you had a fuel leak though! Does anyone remember the car alarm advert in Robocop 1, now that's an alarm!
Steve.
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there are a number of ways to make theif scumbags lives a little more difficult
for cheap cars,runarounds(like mine) get your windows etched,cos if your car is nicked(and i am generally talking about non joyriding lowlife) you have a higher chance of getting it back as most theives will not bother changing all windows etc if they are trying to sell it on etc and it only costs a fiver
e.g i was burgled recently one etched car was stolen (with keys) and one was stolen which was not etched,guess which one was found by the police without a scratch..
if you have got a merc get a remote controled immobiliser so when mr carjacker puts a gun in your face give them the keys and 200 metres down the road kill the engine..they work well so i am lead to beleive
one case in birmingham recently was quite shocking the guy did have a remote immobiliser but decided to put up a fight first and was shot in the leg then used his immobiliser to kill the cars engine??? ye of little faith.. it did work by the way and the scum ran off.
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Silly question - but, what on earth is the world coming to?
HF
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i agree but after losing 3 cars and 2 breakins in the last 4 years i have nothing but contempt and resentment for theives whether they burgle houses or steal cars or mug old defenceless pensioners. one guy who was about to deliver a hire car to my place of work was clubbed over the head with a baseball bat because he didnt hand over the car keys, we must be close to the bottom of the long slippery slope of society.surely???
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Yes we are, gibbo, let's hope we can climb back out of it again.
HF
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I saw a thing on TV last year where a company in america were testing an electronic stinger. Basically as the vehicle ran over this 'mat' a flexible upright conductor brushed the underside
Well - How about this for an innovation.
The car's ECU is connected to a mobile phone receiver (receiver only here). The owner simply calls the car and switches it off via the mobile phone network that works in that area.
Where ever it is in the country, it will simply cease to function, and send a distress signal that can be tracked through current mobile phone technology.
I can hear it now.
"Welcome to your car's ECU system. Please listen to the following options"
"Press 1 if you simply wish to stop the vehicle"
"Press 2 if you wish to stop the vehicle and lock the little toe rags inside using the deadlocks fitted"
"Press 3 if you wish to stop the vehicle, lock the little toe rags inside and poisen them with mustard gas"
"Press 4 if you wish to stop the vehicle, lock the little toe rags inside, poisen them with mustard gas and hear their screams"
"Press 5 if you wish to stop the vehicle, lock the little toe rags inside, poisen them with mustard gas, hear their screams and laugh at them via the on board tannoy system"
"Press 6 if you wish to stop the vehicle, lock the little toe rags inside, poisen them with mustard gas, hear their screams, laugh at them via the on board tannoy system and receive pictures of the scene of their last few moments on this Earth. Please note: Option 6 is only available with an imaging handset"
.....ok now time for my tablet.
H
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Hugo,
I really don't see why your idea couldn't work (extremes excluded - I've taken me pills too!)
But undoubtedly I'm wrong, and someone, as they say here, will be along shortly (ok in the morning) who knows better.
HF
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It could spawn a whole new breed of criminal, who hack into remote immobiliser systems and stop peoples cars for nerfarious purposes while they are driving them!
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Hugo, Good thinking apart from the mustard gas which would leave residues in the car afterwards.
You need to refine this idea.
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