Sorry to hear that the scum have returned! The only suggestion I can make to you is to get a pager alert fitted to your car. When someone opens the doors, bonnet or tailgate it send a signal to the pager, which in turn lets you know that something has been opened. I got one for my car for £30 including fitting from Falcon security who are based in Warrinton. 01925 241105. The more little toys the better, plus it also gives piece of mind when you are in work and can't see your pride and joy. From your last post it sounds as though they are out to get your car (I hope I'm wrong though!) just be on the look out now for people following you home and cars crawling past your house at 2MPH. Best of luck and I hope you identify who these low lives are.

Gary.

I don't know how you all cope. This is the reason why I cancelled my order last year after six months of waiting. As I am self employed I couldn't cope without my car if it got pinched, and when you live in Birmingham there's a good chance it will.

I really f*****g annoys me that you can't have something you love because of some theiving little c***s taking it away from you.

But to be honest in these Gatso'd, Zero tolerance days I'm beginning to wonder wether it's worth owning a decent car at all.

The photos idea is a good one. Even better if (once you've got some shots) you then take them really obtrusively, so they know that you know.

A related point, when selling a car. I always take a couple of pictures of a potential purchaser, explaining to them the reason for it. Someone with nothing to hide won't object.

I don't know how legal this is but here goes. Here in the colonies http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif we get to defend our property with up to but not including lethal force.....I am partial to the thump on the noggin, hog tied and left on the side of busy interstate with a note attched for the local constable, but I tend to over do thinga a bit. But anyway, there is an electrified club available. It looks like the typical steering wheel lock, but with about 10,000 volts. I have seen a demonstration, and it will knock you to the ground.
The crossbow idea is keen, but I would suggest attaching a bag of permanent dye, ink, or 7 day old horse/cat urine, or use a paintball gun. Just make sure you get a head shot.

Lovejoy

I just thought I'd post another follow on from my experience last week, where an attempt to steal my car was made from my work car park... and I did find out that 4 Impreza's were stolen from the Bracknell area on the same night...

So despite the fact that appropriate Gizmo has now been purchased to fit to the steering wheel... yesterday there was a guy very similar to the ones last week hanging around across the road. He was on his mobile and staring quite intently at the car... by the time our security guard arrived with the camera he had legged it into the housing estate... Although my boss had said 'Make no mistake, Pen... they will be back..' you don't really think they will.

I mean I could be wrong, but this lad was dressed identically to the ones last week, same height, same build...and just one of those feelings, that women get... you know...

To say I'm getting paranoid would be an understatement, but I think I just want to stress the need that we really all have to be more diligent with our cars.

And now when I wave or flash at someone...if you don't recognise them...??? makes you wonder doesn't it.

Penni

[This message has been edited by Black Cat (edited 15 August 2000).]

Buy a crossbow and tip the arrows with some South American frogs venom and start taking the buggers out.
Or an even peaceful idea is to buy a camera with a pretty good zoom lens on it and start taking pictures.

Hope the fuc*er5 get caught.

Bal

I'd go with Bal!!
Seriously though, have you thought of another mode of transport for work. I bought a scooter and use it everyday. I live in kent and travel to Canary Wharf every day. Consistantly returns 150 miles from £7.50, £125.00 insurance for the year and no more sitting in traffic. Less miles on the scoob as well.
It works for me.

Just a thought.
Martin

Obviously car thieves are scum but I wouldn't go too far in letting them know you're onto them. I am soooo paranoid that I'd be scared that if you took a photo of them, and they knew you did, they'd come back and either trash the car or you or both! To be honest, no car is worth getting seriously injured over.

Take as many precautions as you can to stop it getting nicked (alarms, trackers etc) but don't get personally involved. If they want it, they'll have it and I'd think it best not to try and stop a determined professional thief.

I completely agree with SWOLL and have thought more than once about chucking it in. The only thing that stopped me is why the hell shouldn't I have something I've worked for? Sad thing is, I even dream about my car being nicked! I've dreamt it so many times that in the last one, I remember thinking "I know it's not where I parked it, cos it's been nicked"!!!

Sad state of affairs this.

SuzyQ reckons that the Wagon should be fairly safe as it is a bit too conspicuios with it being a Black WRX Wagon, blacked out rear windows and a rather large n loud exhaust system. Maybe I'm too paranoid to share her view.

But if it gets nicked, it gets nicked, that's what insurance is for, but if it does go I doubt I'll be able to afford to get another scooby as the insurance with a claim would be too high.

As said at the start, it's a sad, sad world that we live in where we have to have cars pretending to be fort knox in order so that we can protect them long enough so we can enjoy them.

Forgot to mention that I had a slow drive by from a marked up traffic unit, at my house, on the evening of the Slough court room incident not long ago. Just coincidence? I don't think so as my house is on a private road. They had a good look as I was watching them out of the window.

The other thing I was thinking of is when you come to sell your car it's probably not a good idea to say what type of security you have on your car over the phone. As it would be a pretty simple thing for a thief to pick up the phone and make a database of where cars are and what security there is. Make an arrangement to come and see, and naturally you give your address...

It just gets worse and worse. The best thing is to just simply not worry about it. If it happens to you, it happens, you can't do much about it.

Crap cars get nicked too you know. At my last job the only car nicked from the company car park (Beemers, Jags, the odd Porsche etc.) was a secretary's Mini Metro which was stolen for a ram-raid.

As for retribution, I agree with Richard F. You can give them a good kicking, or even "send the boys round" to beat them up, but they'll be back with a bigger, harder gang to exact revenge. Car thieves (particularly ones willing to break into your house) are unlikely to take a beating and think "Oh, I deserved that, I won't even think of exacting revenge".

Just a couple of thought's.

Are wagons as nickable as saloons? Just thought that with the f*****g idiot mentality of these w******s they might not be as tempted by an "estate car".

Secondly, I'm looking at getting together with a couple of friends and buying a caterham superlight/westfield megabusa for track days and weekend kicks and getting a bog standard car for the daily run. What do you think?

Thats exactly what i did and i dont regret it.

I sold my cosworth and opted for an Impreza Sport company car.

With the dosh from my cossie i bought a westfield and now have one of the most bonkers cars doing trackdays in the country.

It costs £380/year fully comp including track cover, if i break it on track then i dont have the worry of weeks without my road car whilst the box/engine/bodywork is repaired.

Its a sad state of afairs but thats the world we live in now, car crime clear up rates are a joke. Untill that changes its only going to get worse.

I now dont worry about what some toe rag is gonna do to my car because its not mine to sort out.

If i opt out of the comp car scheme i will spend about £4K on a high performance but low key car. I cant be bothered with all the worry anymore.

Its getting worse especially around those areas.

Have a look at this thread (http://bbs.22b.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000397.html). Do you reckon this sort of thing would be of any use?

[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 15 August 2000).]

Swoll

I'd have thought that wagons are just as desirable, especially if you want to go ram raiding.
At least you can fit a couple of large dogs in the back of a wagon, do insurance companies cater for this? http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif
I've also considered getting a track day tool, its just convincing my mates to join in.
cheers

Justin

Lovejoy,

The item you are referring to is called 'AutoTaser' an I think it is 50,000 volts but non lethal (mores the pity). You can get them over here, I believe they are about £199 and I am seriously tempted.....

The "Autotaser" device is allegedly fairly easy to bypass but as I don't have one, I can't comment further.

The best line of defence at night IMHO is a video camera pointed at your car. You can get fairly cheap ones for around £100 which will trigger a VCR to start recording...

Another option is a microwave sensor which triggers a loud beep or talks - this has quite a good effect...

Thanks

Gavin

I have got that paranoid over the last few years about car thieves, that the car stays in the garage during the week. It only comes out at weekends(unless I'am on Holiday)and I stay with it AT ALL TIMES!!.
It doesn't frequent any carparks at all!!!

Muddy. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

just want to say how depressing this thread is http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

You can get proximity alarms. Think Clifford does one. The only problem is I dont think any are Thatchams Cat 1 approved. God knows how they behave in a car park ?

Think zapping people with electric steering wheels is illegal, although I would contribute towards a good lawyer for you if it went to court after it knocked out a thiefing b*stard. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Live in Dorset I dont think this sort of thing is a big problem. Maybe Stuart H. can give us the statistics ?

If I had to stop taking my car anywhere for fear of it being stolen I wouldnt bother having it. I want to drive my car everyday. Cant see me ever being the sort of person to have a nice car in the garage for Sundays. I was thinking of getting a Ferrari and driving it everyday http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif I opted, however, for my car to be a proper family car - hence the WRX.

bkar

BKar,

I think the Autotaser gets around that as it does give you a 5 second warning...by blasting out a 120db siren in the little toe rag's earhole....if that hasn't got him to naff off then when he grabs the device he gets a quick blast of electricity.

As far as I understand, they have effectively been warned of the consequences. Also, as the device is actually inside the car, I presume the only people who are going to get zapped are those who have no right to be in there...seems fair enough to me, but knowing that the law is an ass, then it probably isn't.

The other question I have around the Autotaser, is that it is battery operated.....how long do they last? Could a thief just trailer the car away and keep prompting the thing to zap with his Marigolds on or something, and then when the batteries have discharged, just rip it off at a convenient moment?

I dunno?!! It really is a sad state of affairs when we discuss this type of topic for so long......we should just cut off a hand or foot....they would soon come to realise the error of their ways!!

Jamie

p.s. Black Cat, I hope you can get the little buggers some how.

Black Cat,
It is nasty but I would consider the fact that they *are* going to try to get it. Either you can be pragmatic, or proactive. Parking it in the same spot each day, with a video camera trained on it all day ought to get them on camera when they try.
If the police are serious about preventing crimes, (4 Imprezas were stolen in one night, probably by the same guys) and want to catch these people, surely they will provide the equipment on a short term basis. Speak to your local station staff...
KF.

It would be interesting to know what the quota of Scoobs actually get recovered after being stolen. Figures anyone?

I personally wouldn't want my sti back if the scumbags seriously damaged it doing whatever they were doing. Then again if you don't get it back and the insurance pay up, the actual premium will be sooo high.
A lose lose situation. How long do insurance companies leave it before the car is deemed to be stolen.

Video camera pointing towards your parked car idea sounds good. Would be hard to watch a replay of your won car getting stolen though http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

Greg

A friend of mine had trouble with his girlfriend's ex damaging their car so he set up a video camera. I actually saw the tape - the guy walks along and stops by the car. He then pours something over the roof and bends down by the tyre (was putting nails under it).

This friend of mine gave the tape to the police and they told him there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute!

You can spend too much time worrying about this stuff. Besides, if they know you're videoing them, they'll wear hats or balaclavas and do it at night. Just do what you can with immobilisers etc and then get on with your life - it really isn't worth the stress.

Greg,

I response to your question...

"how long do insurance companies wait before they deem the car stolen" :-

I gather the Police consider a car "missing" for 28 days. Then after that they consider it stolen.

Insurance companies consider a car "missing (and won't even process the claim form)" for 6 weeks. Even when they do proceed, they don't exactly rush to part with money that is earning them loads of interest.

Even if insurance companies were 'forced' by legislation to pay out more quickly, they would use this as another excuse to hike premiums again. All to safeguard their multi-billion pound profits...

Jerome.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by KF:
<B>Black Cat,
If the police are serious about preventing crimes, (4 Imprezas were stolen in one night, probably by the same guys) and want to catch these people, surely they will provide the equipment on a short term basis.
KF.[/quote]

......unless of course, the said thieves committed the heinious act of speeding after they had stolen the vehicle. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/eek.gif Whoa! Call out every police officer and his mother to man the road blocks...........call the swat team in!!.........declare martial law and get the Equalizer to dust off his Jag................er, sorry.......I'm ranting again.
Must get an early night this week.

blubs

ps, Penni, will your employers allow you to park it in a safer place nearer the main entrance or something?

Thinking about extreme measures, a colleague mention that there an alarm that releases CS gas (imported from somewhere).

We all thought that it was a great idea until I pointed out that his alarm has gone off at least 3 times by accident when he was in it .........


bkar

Funny you should mention that. I was walking past an original M3 (lhd) yesterday in Reigate, which had a sticker on the window declaring
CS GAS PROTECTED
YOU GO BLIND
I GET FINED

got me thinking...

BJH