I remember a Mercedes in London being stolen after it was clamped for a parking violation. They just lifted it onto a transporter and drove off - in the centre of London! People just think it's the Council taking it away or whatever.

[Spelling]

[Edited by sooby - 9/2/2003 2:44:46 PM]

Blonde! no you didn't.

I'm sure we can understand each other then with a little effort. ;)

Edited to say I'm free on Wednesdays. :D

[Edited by Spoon - 10/8/2003 2:12:18 PM]

A mate has had his Silver STI 5 (4 door) stolen last nights, it was taken from his garage in Crowthorne (Berkshire) Reg is Y779GKG, also the Police have said two other Impreza's were also stolen in that area last night. They even moved his daughters car to get access to the garage so keep your eyes peeled. Its has Tracker but they seemed to have managed to get around this as racker were unaware the car had been moved.

Paul

disturbing about the tracker
im saving for one for mine, is it worth fitting them if they can be disabled??

:(

Not sure how they get around the tracker, I thought it was pretty solid a system, maybe worth talking direct with tracker about it though.

Always seemed an excellent system and company too.

Paul

I appreciate the benefits of Tracker and others and not knocking them, but a few years ago when a mate owned a Cosworth, it was fitted with Tracker and we looked to see where it had been ..."hidden".

The supplying company had done it well, but when we found it, it became very obvious how these systems work and where they need to be fitted.

I'm not saying on this board or in private what they need and what area you should look for, so don't ask.
Knowing now what i found then, it's too easy to get round them.

At the end of the day, all these devices are doing are buying time. The longer a thief has to work on the car, the better your chances of keeping the vehicle, so make life as difficult as possible, so they move on to an easier target.

Alan :cool:

[Edited by AlanG - 8/28/2003 11:45:00 AM]

so even hiding it in a garage,and having tracker on not enough off a detterant...
sad to here off another one going..thieving scum..

Hiding it is fine, but if they know it's there, then this gives them an ideal situation where they can work undisturbed since the doors will be closed.

Alan :cool:

Alan

I had a tracker on two impreza's, first I hadn't a clue where it was but on the second I can across it accidently and once you know what they look like can't be too hard. Need to get the garage belled up too now :(

Paul

Sorry to hear that. Tracker etc are all very well, but for the reasons mentioned above you cannot beat a DiscLok and a Barrier Deadlock.

Mossman

Yeah. It's unfortunate but there is only so many places you can fit these things.

Best bet as mentioned above are the physical detterents. Yes, they could damage the car in the process of dismantling them, but if they were going to go to that length in trying to get your car, it's either something special they so badly want or they don't like you!

Alan :cool:

Thanks Paul,

It was my car and I am understandbly devastated - not just loss of my extremely well cared for pride and joy, but breaking in to the property. I mean, I know our cars are very special to us but not that expensive, etc, to break in and steal is a bit extreme. The strange thing is when the police called back, Tracker had given them a personalised number and I have nothing of the sort! Apparently Tracker had put this on in my name for sometime - for free - thanks! Waiting for their explanation, along with why I had
to call them instead of the otherway round (with Monitor).

Take care all

Very sorry to hear about your mates car, unfortunately, any cars used extensively in rallying are serious targets for pro theives, although most of the UK rally community are great people to be around there are always a number who (usually because of money shortages) are prepared to turn a blind eye to where their latest spares etc came from... sorry to be so cynical but this is the world we live in...

sorry to hear of yet another theft. I will keep an eye out as I am unfortunately in one of the likely hangouts of these scum - Slough <shudder>
The amount of local scooby thefts reported on here in the last couple of months is very scary. I am afraid this was one of the reasons for me getting rid of mine.

Steve

Sorry to here about your car - interested to hear the comments about Tracker. I've just had one fitted (insurance company insisted) and wondered how good they were. Car broke down last week and had to be relayed to the garage - within 5 mins the mobile went and it was tracker checking that I knew where the car was. Same thing happend the next morning when it was moved again. I was quite impressed, and pleased to know it works, but if it can be disabled easily not quite so happy...

sorry to hear about the cate m8,

but as stated by someone else, all these security devices will not really stop the scum from taking our pride and joy, it will mereley slow them down. if they want the motor bad enough, imo, it doesn't really matter what is on there, they will still get it one way or another.

hope the motor returns soon
:(

it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure where a tracker will work best when it relies on sending and receiving signals.

This is the first time ive heard "first hand" that a tracker DIDNT work. I guess we've all heard the stories of trackers being disabled but until you hear it from the horses mouth it doesnt hit home.

I'd be interested to hear trackers excuse/reason for it not being activated or any other stories from "owners" who've had their trackers disabled. Ie, not "a friend of a friend" type stories.

All right, so before the I can find a tracker inatall in 2 mins gang steal the thunder and everyone takes to sleeping in their cars/wandering round Clubmans Rally Events with a baseball bat.

1. This car, and presumably the other two, was taken by pro's. It seems this gone in 60 sec gang were able to identify and disable the tracker. That doesn't mean the average chancer can have your pride and joy away with equal ease.

2. My unit developed a recurrent fault. The guy they sent to replace it having looked in the usual places he spent nearly two hours trying to find it.

Admittedly once found it only took minutes to replace, but before he touched it he called in to let them know. I thought, wrongly it seems, that it had an anti tamper mechanism.

Be nice to hear what reasons they give for the failure.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for your messages of sympathy and thoughts. As soon as I get any information back from Tracker, it will be posted here. So far they have no comments, only that "when" they get the car back they will check to see what went wrong. They are also working on finding out how the car ended up getting a "personalised" number - apparently it had this number for the last two years! Perhaps worthwhile for you all to occassionally check your details with them?

I am also chasing Clifford (now part of Direct Electronics or something) about Blackjack etc not having kicked in.

More later

Cheers

SNAP

When I was doing my Ph.D in Sunderland, radio frequency remote central-locking/alarm-arming was starting to become more popular.

I said to one of the elec eng technicians that all you needed to break into these cars was a scanner tuned to the right frequency to record the signal of the remote and then some means to play it back.

I'll never forget what he said back to me:

"Well son, anyone who could do that wouldn't be wasting their time nicking cars." -ahh the innocence of old age....

About a month later I saw an article on the news where some spottyteenagebaseballcapcladtealeaves had done just this.

Countermeasures were developed, and the rest is history.

I do not know how trackers work beyond the fact that they must start sending out a radio signal when they are nicked. I expect that these days these signals use frequencies similar to mobile phones. It is rather easy to block mobile phone traffic. Look:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/32531.html

sorry don't know how to do clicky.

I suspect that a professional thief knows how to block a tracker. I further speculate that since the thief knew where the cars were, they were also able to case the joint in advance and detect somehow that a tracker is fitted and thus come prepared.

If this the above is correct then I expect the tracker folks are already aware and already working on the next generation. This might work on the principle of raising the alarm as soon as you can't tell where the car is.

Sorry for the loss but I am abit confused as to how this tracker works! how do the tracker company know whether your driving around or a car thief? do they phone you everytime the car moves just to make sure it's you in it or what?

Well Folks, the latest news is that the car has been found though the Police Lady couldn't elaborate as to how it was located - we will have to wait till tomorrow to see what the Forensic Team make of it first and at the same time I get a more detailed update. The car was found not far from my area (about 6-7 miles away)- go to all that trouble/risk and abondan it? Perhaps it was Camp-1. We will see.

Tracker and Clifford still can't offer an explanation.

Will update as soon as more info is available (will also epxlain Tracker, etc, later).

The funny one is that they had cut the Clifford siren in the bonnet, rapped it in the dust sheet cover, and put it in the fridge - I suppose to stop it from going "off"!! Or did they think the beast would go off on it is own? We also found some of their "stuff" in the garage which the Police took away and could well lead back to them.

SNAP

putting things in the fridge is supposed to 'erase' codes etc. i once read about doing this to remove radio security codes. what temp does an eeprom lose its data at anyway? would've thought it would have to be much lower temp than the average freezer!
Also, unless the electronics are in the siren why put that in the freezer?

/2ob

just had one further thought, that the installer would have intimate knowledge of where the devices were, and also how to defeat.
any chance this may have been the case?

Sorry to hear about the car lets hope you get it back in one piece.

The siren will go off (or should) if the power is cut to it. Hence why they wrapped it in a dust sheet and put it in the fridge, to muffle the sound!!!

Gutted for you :(

A mate from Finchampstead had his house broken into while they were asleep and they took his TVR and the keys for an Evo and Explorer. His place was pretty much secure (or so he thought) and hes just in the process of spending near on £10k for new security and cameras. Its a fecked up world we live in [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Nath

TRACKER uses vhf signals rather than a mobile to send the location so that device couldnt block that, trackstar from rac uses mobile sigs, ive got 3 trackers on my motor from 3 diff companies bet the *******s wont bet on that! also have 2 alarms , disclock , smoke machine and a few home made devices.

ps hope they havent done to much damage to your car mate

Hi Dyney,

I had a wild geuss that might be the logic (wrapped up, in the fridge,etc). Well, that hadn't work either. Another one to add to my list of "discussions" with Clifford.

Thanks again all, at least I didn't feel all alone. More tomorrow.