19 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

"Surrey Police have broken up a gang behind a spate of high-value car thefts in the Surrey suburbs, with vehicles targeted and whisked away in under a minute. In some cases the vehicles were taken over the Channel to be sold by criminals in Europe before their owners woke up and realised they were missing.
Surrey police confirmed that seven people had been arrested for targeting car makes including Mercedes, BMW, Maserati and Range Rover — luxury models that range in cost from £50,000 to well in excess of £120,000.
The gang are suspected of stealing 17 vehicles in May in the affluent areas of Weybridge, Hinchley Wood and Esher. Police said they accessed the cars using relay boxes — one near the car and another close to the front door of the owner’s home where a car’s key fob is often kept — to extend its signal and make it appear that the device was within range of the car.
The gang are suspected of immediately switching number plates and moving the cars across the Channel, sometimes intact and sometimes in parts.
Detectives raided a “chop shop” in Essex, where some of the vehicles had been stripped of parts, and closed it down. A lorry carrying stolen parts was successfully intercepted at Dover in a joint operation with Essex police.
Affluent areas are routinely targeted by criminal gangs, according to police, with huge increases in car theft across the country. The Office for National Statistics recorded 130,389 vehicle thefts last year — an increase of 25 per cent compared with 2021.
Lisa Townsend, the elected police and crime commissioner for Surrey, said high-value car theft, often involving keyless methods, was a serious issue across the county, which has “a lot of high-net-worth individuals”, with a particular spike in activity in wealthy areas such as Esher and Oxshott.
Townsend said the gangs were often Albanian and were regularly involved in other serious organised crime such as county lines drug dealing and the illegal sale of weapons."  
Full Article in the Times here:-
https://www.thetimes...-cars-93g5cdx5n

 

[DeadSquare]

Because these car's key fob, automatically unlocks the car when close to the vehicle, I understand how the "relay boxes" enable the gang to open the door, but not how they can then start the engine.

[mab01uk]

Because these car's key fob, automatically unlocks the car when close to the vehicle, I understand how the "relay boxes" enable the gang to open the door, but not how they can then start the engine.

 

On many keyless entry cars once unlocked by the nearby fob or its relayed signal (and therefore any alarm/imobilisor is disabled) you can just press the start button and drive off...

 

Best to fit an 'old school' mechanical steering wheel lock....which rather defeats the car manufacturers 'convenience' option!

 

Keyfobs can also be copied by downloading the key data from the cars unsecured OBD diagnostic port onto a blank keyfob by rogue garages/ dodgy car wash operatives, etc.

Edited by mab01uk, 21 June 2023 - 02:44 PM.

[Lowestoftmodder]

We have keyless entry so we use a faraday style pouch to keep the key in whilst we aren’t using it.
It was only a few quid on Amazon for two of them. They work too.

[sonscar]

Insurance for this type of car should be unobtainable.This may result in more security,Steve..

[Lowestoftmodder]

Insurance for this type of car should be unobtainable.This may result in more security,Steve..

Most high end luxury cars have this as standard (you cannot option this out).

I guess the other argument could be that we deserve to have our cars stolen because we have the keyless entry but then there is the fact that Cars were stolen long before keyless entry.
When I was a lad (it was so long ago we used to write on slate) there seemed to be an almost endless rally through the streets of stolen fords (xr2, xr3, r/s turbo etc etc).

Stopping people’s right to use their vehicles legally on the road seems an unusual approach? Please can you expand upon your ideas?

[mab01uk]

I believe some car manufacturers are now making it possible to switch keyless entry off as an option or are producing key fobs that stop emitting a signal once the key has not been moved for a few minutes and so goes into a sleep mode.

 

If you have not got a Faraday pouch then apparently putting your key fob in your microwave oven works to block the signal.....as long as you remember to remove it before operating the oven!

Also don't forget to also put any spare keyfob in a faraday pouch....

Edited by mab01uk, 21 June 2023 - 07:00 PM.

[sonikk4]

Insurance for this type of car should be unobtainable.This may result in more security,Steve..

 

Having keyless ignition is not just for luxury cars and is becoming the norm so your comment is a tad archaic. Yes luxury cars are stolen to order but there are other vehicles out there that do not have keyless ignition that are also high profile targets. VW campers for one springs to mind.

 

Plus where do you draw the line using the term Luxury?? What sort of value are we looking at here??

 

And as Lowestoftmodder quite rightly said, back in the very late 80's early 90's you pretty could not leave you hot hot hatch out of sight especially those wearing the Blue Oval. Yes insurance prices went through the roof, but the advent of better security helped to lower those prices to a degree. 

 

And now the latest theft trend is not to actually steal the whole car but to rob certain parts of it, Catalytic convertors, a lot of external panels on certain mainstream marques espeically front end panels. 

[Lowestoftmodder]

Have you noticed that the people stealing the cats and dpf’s etc don’t seem to care about being seen or caught? It’s so brazen in the bigger cities during daylight hrs etc
The police don’t turn up and investigate so I guess the criminals have nothing to fear
Prius cats are targeted around here as apparently they make big money on the underground markets due to the level of precious metals inside.

Edited by Lowestoftmodder, 22 June 2023 - 07:43 AM.

[mab01uk]

Steering wheel theft has also apparently been on the rise....

 

"Theft of steering wheels is on the rise across the country, according to a leading insurer. The thieves are breaking into cars and removing the wheel to extract the airbags. Admiral Insurance said they have dealt with 500 claims for stolen steering wheels in the last four years. The biggest rise was in 2021 when there was nearly a 68 per cent jump compared with the previous year. So what is fuelling this rise in air bag theft and most importantly what can car owners do to keep their vehicles intact? We spoke to Lorna Connelly, head of claims at Admiral, who gave us the lowdown on this relatively new type of theft: You might wonder why a thief would take a steering wheel, but it’s what’s inside they’re really after. We understand that they’re being stolen for the airbags housed inside them. the airbag is removed and sold onto unscrupulous garages who fit them to cars for less than dealerships would charge. The garage might buy the stolen airbag for between £200 and £500 before charging a customer a few hundred pounds more. This would still be cheaper than the driver going to an authorised dealership, where it costs up to £1,000 to replace an activated or faulty airbag. If you’re having repair work done on your car that requires a replacement airbag, you should always have it done by authorised, reputable repairers, who only ever use approved parts sourced from specialist suppliers."

https://www.birmingh...ur-car-23405160

Edited by mab01uk, 22 June 2023 - 02:12 PM.

[cooperd70]

Have you noticed that the people stealing the cats and dpf’s etc don’t seem to care about being seen or caught? It’s so brazen in the bigger cities during daylight hrs etc
The police don’t turn up and investigate so I guess the criminals have nothing to fear
Prius cats are targeted around here as apparently they make big money on the underground markets due to the level of precious metals inside.

Hondas in my mum's area have been hit hard by cat thefts. Both her and her friend have a Jazz and both hit the same night. Then a friend's Honda had it's cat stolen right outside his gaff during the daytime he opened his window and they'd got his car jacked up on one side with a cutting tool and he was verbally threated to go away because 'we know where you f'in live!'

[Lowestoftmodder]

That’s crazy!

[DeadSquare]

 

Have you noticed that the people stealing the cats and dpf’s etc don’t seem to care about being seen or caught? It’s so brazen in the bigger cities during daylight hrs etc
The police don’t turn up and investigate so I guess the criminals have nothing to fear
Prius cats are targeted around here as apparently they make big money on the underground markets due to the level of precious metals inside.

Hondas in my mum's area have been hit hard by cat thefts. Both her and her friend have a Jazz and both hit the same night. Then a friend's Honda had it's cat stolen right outside his gaff during the daytime he opened his window and they'd got his car jacked up on one side with a cutting tool and he was verbally threated to go away because 'we know where you f'in live!'

 

 

I liked the report of the guy who was stealing the cat, when the car fell on him.

[DeadSquare]

The shocking thing was, that although the thief was effectively caught 'red-handed', the police refused to prosecute him.   Their excuse was, that he was dead.

[coopertaz]

both our ford daily drives are start button and keyless, not luxury. we keep keys in a metal keysafe overnight mounts to wall and doesnt wear out over time like the pouches do, had one and foil degraded to a point where it wasn't effective, after about 1yr though. had clamp on steering wheel but after seeing cctv video where they cut this off in a matter of seconds have fit clamshell type that goes round. same on mini these also cover airbag. on another point you can also fit dummy obd ports these can also be used to start the car! newer not always best!