yoza

He is a well known and convicted car thief who I 'know' sort of, he happened to be filling his car up (or at least I think it was his car) at the pump opposite me.
He was rambling on about my car and how he has driven a few of them.

I said 'you wont be driving this one'.

He said that he wouldnt take it because it was mine. (Smug little ****)

I said 'No, thats not what I meant, I would have it back within the hour'.

He smiled and said 'Oh, one of those tracker things, we have a way of getting round them.'

He told me exactly what he does, and I was amazed......so simple.

Obviously Im not going to blurt out on a public BBS how he goes about it, but can someone who knows about the workings of Tracker/alarm systems PM me to varify his story.

Cheers Yoza.

allywrx

I was told that they just source the tracker and lob it out the window.
Surely it ain't as simple as that, if it is, what am I paying my £100 a year for

Road Rager

im thinking of getting one, if they are that easy to get round i think i will leave it

corradoboy

Do society a favour. Next time you see the ******, use your claw hammer to show him how we get around car thieves

DJFish

I've had my rota changed at work and come July I'll be working shifts with a guy who used to steal cars when he was a lot younger.

I don't dislike the guy (we've all done something naughty in our yoofs) but I certainly had mixed feelings for him when he told me this.

What was suprising was the way this sort of info is dissemenated amongst 'teeves and robbers! He told me stories about late eighties cars that had design faults that EVERYONE in that particular social circle knew about within months of cars being rolled out!

Baseball bat by the bed and a big dog sounds like a plan to me!

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

So you can hit it over the head before you sha9 it ?

D

Redkop

My insurance company insists that you have no stickers on the car saying Tracker fitted or make of alarm system

Harry_Boy

Yoza - you fraternising with the locals again Mate?

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Sensible approach when you think about it.

I used to have a car with a Clifford sticker that was personalised, saying...

"Clifford Alarms expertly fitted by Drivers" or something similar.

Once the thief knows where Drivers' alarm fitter regularily puts the brain etc, he is one up on you.

I'm pretty sure that most fitters will have their favoured places for sticking tracker modules or alarms.....

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Is there anything we can do to make it a bit less simple for them?

Would be interested to know what they do if you could drop me a PM.

Cheers,

John.

King RA

I have a clifford sticker on the car and a toad alarm. That would really **** them off when the realise they cannot deactivate it with the thing going off hehehehe .

MarkCSC

If you do have stickers best to swap them with your mate who has a different alarm system or just leave them off

Monkeh

The only problem with an alarm or tracker, is that it is only as good as the person who install's it.

I had a tracker horizion installed by toad, the muppet used a single self tapping screw into my wheelarch to secure it to the car !!!
An extra self tapping screw for the ground wire (yes both visiable through the outside of the wheelarch)

I finially got tracker themselves to come out and remove it ! 30 second job to find and remove it from the car !!!

Needless to say, it has now been properly fitted, and would take upwards of 20mins with a hammer to shift it !!

MadMark

My mate is an Installer (and ex-Porsche, so he knows his stuff), and he's spread the various boxes all over the car. He spent 3.5 hours doing it when he normally allows an hour ....... all I can hope is that it would be very hard to find!

Scoobybits

same old problems really what one man can fit another can remove/work a way round..
if the car is wanted they will have it one way or another..
one of the saddest has to be kevs@ scoobyclinic (last year)that they took after moving(neatly too) god knows how many cars to get too the one they wanted..they then apparantly swapped the wiring loom from another car and prompltly left the tracker and alarm to one side before making there escape..sad eh?

main problem has to be that there is little or no deterant if caught..simple..law change required..rewards for car crime pay well..not that a agree with it but thats how it will stay..

meet plently of thiefs and dodgy types and they regard most alarms /trackers etc as a joke and nothing more than a challenge......

bainsy

I use to have a Mk2 16v. When purchased it had a strange plate coming up at the side of the gear shift... and some documentation with the history about a Mul-T-Lock. I investigated and managed to get the device for about £150... It basically was a padlock that went round the gearstick when in reverse and locked it.. From what I can remember the plate was bolted to the body/chassis

Anyone else come across this and do you know if you can can have one fitted to an impreza..

I thought this was a good solid physical security device, probably slow down the theif by a few minutes...

Brendan Hughes

I spoke with a car thief in 1992 when I had my 205 GTI. He told me all the easy ways to nick it. He also told me the design problems and the tricks to get around each different make of alarm. He said the most effective way to stop a thief was to have NO identification of alarm and just a single LED blinking on the dashboard. They knew it was alarmed, but didn't know how. Advertising what alarm you have is asking for trouble.

Of course, 10 years later, not so many people steal cars, they take the keys off the owners

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

The problem is that the law doesn't punish the car theif enough. You walk into a bank and steel £30K you get 10-12 years.... you steal a car worth £30K and at worst get 2 years, after probably been let off numerous times before. It's a joke.

MR Fusion

A good friend of mine is an ex-car thief. He says him and a bunch of mates started nicking cars that were identical to his own - just for parts, but soon realised that they could pretty much get into anything, no matter how sophisticated the security system.

However - he said the one thing that used to put them off was seeing a "Clifford" sticker in the window. Nice to know.

Anyway...he was eventually caught and sentenced. The irony came when someone stole his own car last year.

Tim66 STi8

How about having two trackers in yer motor? If the thieving tw&t finds one surely he wont waste more time looking 4 another one?

Dream Weaver

I just remove my steering wheel, job done

I'm sure they could find some way around it, but it would be a PITA.

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

I had a car stolen with an 'autolock' fitted. It was supposed to go over the handbrake lever and link it to the gear stick. The theives just renched the gear lever up until it came off, it was still attached to the gear lever when it was recovered.

To think of all the inconvenience I went through putting it on each time I parked the car, doh!

F

Nikko2

A guy from tracker told me that the thieves pinch the car and park it in a pub car park overnight. If its still there the next day then they know its safe to collect it.

More worryingly he showed me where the tracker on my car was fitted and the other fav fitting locations.

RichWalk

Yoza; spoken to several alarm fitters & car theives, apparantly, there are only 3-4 places the signalling device on a tracker can be fitted, ie so it is able to transmit- to the peeps in the know its a simple job to find them in seconds; also know of many guys with them fitted who have had their cars stolen.

Some of the really expensive alarm fitters, alledgedly know how to fit them in 'unusual places on the car (see MadMarks post) but I have never heard of this actually being true or whether its an excuse to route all the cables etc through the body work, but still leave the transmitter in a standardised position.

MattW

Mk2 16 v what??

urban

iTrader: (1)

Guys,

Could you steal an MY02 STI Type UK, without the keys?

Curious? OK I suppose you could put it on a truck, but even still, without some w@nker actually taking my keys of me, could he take my car?

Shaun

topoff

iTrader: (1)

bainsy, I have just broght a wrx with a defender gear lock installed on it, I dont know how good they are but along with my cat1 alarm /immob, tracker and steering lock hopefully that will put them off

yoza

Alot of people have been chatting about where/how the fitter hides the transmitter module.

The way he explained they 'blow' them up, means you could hide the transmitter where you liked and put in as many as you want, it wouldnt matter.

Ten seconds TOPS and they are fried......

He could have been lying, but he had no reason to.

Ive only had 1PM request from all these posts, which is a bit odd.

The way I see it. :

I only had a Tracker/Thatcham cat1 fitted because the insurance told me I 'HAD' to have one.

If my car got knicked I wouldnt want it back.

PS. HarryBoy, we shared a paintbrush together for a number of hours, many years back.

Later Yoza

andypugh2000

I have no stickers on my car advertising what type of alarm, no tracker but a disklock is put on when not being used, think this is better than ANY alarm tracker just for the sheer weight and construction of it, would take some getting off IMHO

GU5

F**k them up and have 2 fitted