When was the last time you thought about the possibility of car theft happening to you? Probably a long time ago. You’re too busy worrying about the mortgage, dentist bills and anything Tracy Grimshaw has to say, you don’t need another worry on your plate do you? The fact is that modern technology makes the age old car theft problem far less dominant. Laws around written off vehicles have dramatically reduced car rebirthing and security devices and immobilisers have slowed the joy riders down. Nowadays car thefts of either the whole vehicle or just the belongings within the car tend to happen with opportunistic thieves.
There are some very simple dos and don’ts you can do to reduce this. Leaving keys on your tyre or buried in the sand whilst you go for a surf is asking for trouble but does not seem to stop some people. Along with this there are stories coming out of the United Kingdom of people getting car keys off hallway sideboards buy feeding long poles through letterboxes fitted to the front door. If you have a European style front door with a letterbox fitted to it, don’t leave your keys anywhere near the front door.
Nowadays these kind of thefts are not as common yet cars are still stolen frequently. The vehicles targeted can vary but anything with high value items that are untraceable are always a higher risk vehicle. These items include mag wheels, manual transmissions in vehicles with limited numbers of manuals released, leather interior if its an option, sports suspension components as options. These items are untraceable and fetch high prices on the black market. (as a child I thought the black market was a warehouse full of stalls like Paddys Markets run by bad guys in balaclavas). For example a second hand manual transmission and transfer case for a 100 series Toyota Landcruiser could sell from anywhere between $3-$8K. Items with no identifying numbers or markings are completely untrackable.
Thieves are also stepping into the scrap metal market and this is where most thefts happen. Any car, any make and any model the thief does not care. He simply backs his flatbed truck up to your cars, drags it onto his truck (in park with the handbrake on) and two hours later the car is ground up into tiny pieces or is now molten metal in a scrap metal yard. The perpetrator has a few hundred bucks for his trouble and no one will ever find the car again. Check out the video below that shows three cars completely destroyed in a car shredder, in under six minutes.
There is very little you can do to stop some of this stuff happening, if a thief wants your pride and joy they will find a means to get it. However there is a type of thief who does not want your car, he only wants the valuables out of the car. Phones, the loose change in your ashtray, iPads, laptops, jar of jellybeans anything. This is not new to anyone but the devices used are new. Currently an issue in the USA is an unidentified electronic device that is used to unlock vehicles. As you can see in this video clip.
The device we believe is not all that hard to understand (inspite of all of USAs finest saying “we have no idea”). On modern vehicles the key fob does not need to be pushed nor a key inserted into the lock. Rather the vehicle sensors the key within a small distance of the car and will allow the door to unlock. The owner walks up to the car pulls the handle and the doors all unlock. The electric device used, we believe simply amplifies the range that key signal works within.
The owner asleep with the keys beside his bed is forty meters from his car parked and locked in the street, ordinarily the key fob has to be within a few meters for the doors to unlock but the little theft box thingy amplifies the signal which allows the doors to unlock as long as the keys are within fifty meters. Presto our unsuspecting owner is within forty and in the morning all his crap is missing from his car. There has to be a way to stop this. Car manufactures and Police in the USA are working on it but in the meantime what can you do? Whilst I can in no way back this up with any kind of scientific information but the authorities are saying… “Put your keys in the Fridge”
Apparently there is something about the fridge that stops the device from working.
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