Is there a way to keep nice things?

[LC5F]

I live in a good area of Edinburgh - good enough that car thieves have been targeting our area for months

So a couple of months ago, a house a few streets away had their near to £100k Mercedes GLS stollen.
The thieves used a keyless repeater to get into and start the car.. but they couldn't get the sliding gate to open.. so they just drove through it, flattening the wall and gate.

Fast forward to last night, my neighbour diagonally opposite got burgled. They broke in through the back door, circumventing 4 locks, just for a slightly older S3's keys, nothing else touched.
it must have had a full turbo back system with a distinctive exhaust tone - I was still awake I heard it driving off just after 1am.

This morning, plod were investigating door to door - the time was helpful. for them to wade through CCTV. But the upsot of this is now my idiot neighbours have put up a CCVT camera thinking their new $hitt 2wd crossover base model volvo    is going to be targeted!

Anyone else being plagued by car thieves and the madness this brings?

[Clarkj93]

Not car thieves but just post Xmas we had tons of car break ins. A 1 man crime spree effectively, Mrs car got done as well as 5 just on our street and god knows how many in the area, we know they did 11 in one night at one point. I stayed up all night after this as I had a feeling he would come back, and he did at 3am that night! Police called and caught him, all calmed down by here now thankfully. It's pretty depressing thinking your things or house isn't safe.

I'm going to stick up a few cameras and a few more strategically placed motion sensors and a few cheap door/window alarms. Not much more you can do is there really.

Only positive I guess is modern thieves tend to go for the keyless stuff and stuff worth good money in Romania, I imagine my golf isn't worth the risk and harder to get into.

[pudding]

If only someone would steal my ED30 

[LC5F]

Update!

Part 1 -
The S3 was recovered parked up in Morningside area of Edinburgh - they had raided a known car thief and found multiple keys, the police just went down the street pressing the remotes to find all the cars - the joke was how did they find parking in Morningside - complete nightmare area to park - it seems the area is full of stolen cars.
I don't know what my neighbour decided to do, unsure if they didn't want to take back the S3 or Insurance had already paid out. She ended up replaced the S3 with a very nice Graphite blue 69 reg Mk7 Gti PP only a couple of months ago.

Part 2 -
Last night the thieves returned pretty much 9 months after the last theft.
The house now has alarm and the locks upgraded - it was 6:30pm, a number of people wearing balaclavas were disturbed and chased off by other neighbours - the new locks stopped them entering through the door, instead they just smashed the house window.
Got both keys for the Golf, opened the golf...jumped in to be stopped by a steering lock...despite the lock they started the engine, tried reversing but gave up still in the driveway struggling with the steering lock - suspect this was where they were spotted, and were driven away in a large Mercedes 4x4.

This morning it was the police doing door to door that alerted me to what happened - I went over and helped her son tape up the front windows that had been fully opened and it had been raining all night, that's when I found out about the part 1 update. Fortunately no one was home this time

Update 3 -
There was another break in - somewhere in my area where they cut a hole in a rear window, poisoned the dog and after it was disabled with sickness, they then broke in to steal the car keys.

[pudding]

Time to sleep with a sawn off shotgun under my pillow I think.

This country is an absolute joke for crime prevention and justice. No wonder so many foreign gangs come over here to effectively help themselves to our property.

A lot of keyless entry cars now are having Ghost immobilisers fitted, but where will it end?  The scumbags will just hold a knife to your throat until you give them the code.  Better to let them take it, and take the hit on the insurance.

[mjmallia]

Not a nice situation to be in.......it puts me off keeping nice things at times, as others think they can just help themselves to it.

[pudding]

That is the trouble with living in a country that has virtually no repercussions for committing a serious crime, or limp wristed, lame, worthless punishments like community service or 2 years for manslaughter.

But you can guarantee the police will come down on you like a ton of bricks for doing 90 in a 70, or parking on a double yellow.

[Juliand]

That is the trouble with living in a country that has virtually no repercussions for committing a serious crime, or limp wristed, lame, worthless punishments like community service or 2 years for manslaughter.

But you can guarantee the police will come down on you like a ton of bricks for doing 90 in a 70, or parking on a double yellow.

Agree 100% - no deterrant - pathetic punishment, yet motorists are an easy target for income stream. Some of the punishment on programmes like police interceptors for no insurance etc make you laugh.

We have someone who keeps trying to open the garage doors in our row (I can tell by the position of the handle). Now I have fitted extra toplocks, and the handle is caked with black boot polish, so he gets a nice black polished, shiney hand (don't use the handle mysrelf, as it has a power opener). Happened a lot about 12 months ago, then went quiet, while I suppose he was 'detained at HM pleasure, but back out and up to no good again. grrrrr

[pudding]

Some of it comes down to money and connections. Those who have both tend to get away with tiny punishments, or let off scot free.

I remember something in the paper years ago where a bloke fed up with his Sierra Cosworths getting nicked, electrified the door handles. A burglar got hospitalised and the car owner got arrested, ffs.

I'm seriously considering dumbing down the visual appearance of my next car to make it look like a bottom of the range model.  Shouldn't have to do that, but if it means you keep hold of it longer, so be it. The stealth factor would be amusing at traffic light grand prix though    Someone rocks up next to what they think is a 318d is actually a 335d