Car theft in 2022

[sierraman]

Seeing quite a lot of ‘I’ve had my car nicked’ posts on these local community faceache pages. Obviously years ago it was scroats with a screwdriver pinching old Belmonts but now it seems this relay theft is endemic?

[JJ0063]

Gone are the days of half a tennis ball on the door lock..

Or the hazard switch on a Nova being taken out, turned around, put back in to get the ignition on then bump started…

[RoverFolkUs]

It's the big antennas they use to get into keyless entry cars

I live in a relatively low crime area, a BMW 4 series was stolen from the cul-de-sac dead end road a few along from me recently, CCTV footage showed them with a big aerial type thing which detected the key the unsuspecting owners were keeping near the front door, they just got in and drove off. No getaway car in case it went pearshaped, they must have been that confident they'd get away with it

I'd say it's opportunistic but probably wasn't on further thought 

Edit - no trace of the car, probably got chopped up and put in a shipping container. Don't think the perpetrators were ever found either

[Jerzy Woking]

Faraday bags/microwave oven are the places to put modern keys.

[Soundwave]

I expressly went for a modern that still uses a key for this exact reason. If they want it, they're going to have to break in and get the keys, and I can't see the average scrote taking a relatively bigger risk to obtain a 1.0 Skoda Fabia.

[JJ0063]

Working in specialist insurance for the last 11 years has as you can imagine meant I’ve had some very interesting conversations with customers, often on high value vehicles or shall we say ‘non standard risks’

The amount of people that own a £100k car but get so uptight when I have to enforce a Thatcham tracker. Utterly disgusted they’ve got to spend another £300 on a tracker and hiding an apple AirTag in the back of the seat pocket is not acceptable by an insurer.

I’ve had some laugh out loud conversations you just wouldn’t believe over the years, people who live in areas of high organised crime, high theft risk areas etc who leave it until they’re on the way to collect their new £75k Range Rover SVR and can’t see why their premium is £9000 when they have no security on the car and no experience of performance.

Theft is absolutely rife these days, I just think the type of theft has changed. It’s now virtually all organised crime - like mentioned by @RoverFolkUs, likely these cars are stripped or stuck in a container. You’ll barely ever get a joy rider like back in the day. 
 

Late father JJ told me some stories about his estranged brother who used to nick a car to drive home after going to the pub back in the 70s over paying for a taxi… I don’t think that sort of thing happens these days! 

[New POD]

I worked on the "Smart Solenoid Team" for Lucas, on the DPC pump. Which added 15 minutes of unspecified protection, to the stop start solenoid, as part of a change in European regulations in 1995. 

There were two things I remember. 

One. Pointing out that in future, if someone wanted your car, they would just wait for you, and take your keys on pain of death.  

Two. We had the system tested by the French version of Thatcham.  Where a consultant* managed to get a car started in 3 minutes. Cost months and ££££s to add extra features to the system. 

*My understanding is that they employed a number of very clever ex-convicts who had a few days to understand how it all worked, and then come up with ingenious ways to defeat it.  Basically, it would stop the opportunitist, until the information got out there...... now with the web, I'm.sure it's on YouTube. 

[sierraman]

Makes you think about the car parts business on eBay probably runs off the back of stolen cars. 

[bunglebus]

I think that's why you now supposedly have to be a registered vehicle dismantler to sell on there. Pain in the arse if you just want to get rid of that Yugo alternator that's been kicking around the shed for decades

[sierraman]

I’ve sold loads of car parts and never been asked to prove this? Is it if you are selling over a certain quantity?

[cpjitservices]

Its not just cars but Peds/Bikes is rife - more so now then usual it seems.

[cpjitservices]

Anyway all you need is old Vauxhall deadlocks to defeat local scraots around these parts - hence thwarted theft of Cavalier polans when they couldnt unlock the doors lol.

[Dave_Q]

What I don't get is why the manufacturers have not been forced into some sort of recall to sort their shit out, there are relay thefts and I think there are others where the obd key programming is insecure and Barry the scrote can turn up and program in a new key in seconds using some sort of darknet version of a snap on tablet.

The relay thefts can be mitigated in some way by protecting the keys, but for the cracked obd surely they could recall them to do an update so the dodgy tools don't work?

Obviously that doesn't stop them breaking into the house and using actual or threatened violence to get the keys but it would stop some of them, it sounds like this is far too easy both to get the car in the first place and the near zero risk of running into the police on the way to the chop shop.

[Rustybullethole]

Moving obd and installing a dummy from a breaker is a good one. Deadlocks seem decent for keeping your transit as is being a non standard looking van. Sits behind a locked gate overnight and failing that I sleep light and carry tools and cement for scumbag disposal.

The amount of doubles and dingers going about around here has always been high and still is. Loads more stolen to order these days and the package will be sold and remains disappeared within hours. 
From organised outfits with hook trucks to kids getting £500 for delivery parting out is big business.

[leafsprung]

This feller is always worth a watch. Shows the value of proper trackers for expensive gear and how quickly the 'baaandits' strip cars down. 

 

[cobblers]

It's so easy to steal a lot of vehicles nowadays, you need the right tools but they are easy to get.

Peugeot boxer/ducato/relay. Ignition lock has special security features to make it unpickable, but the drivers door lock doesn't, and they're the same key. For <£100 you can get a "self setting key" which you put in the drivers lock, turn side to side a few times and it forms to the correct keying and opens the door. Once you're in, plug an immo bypass box into the OBD connector, then use your new key to turn the ignition on and drive away. No damage, no noise, you're away in under a minute.

Gone are the days when people would nick a car on the way home from the pub to save driving - they're nicked with a purpose nowadays.

 

That said I am quite convinced that a fairly significant chunk of the Golf R/S3/M135 thefts are "arranged" by people deeply upside down on finance. I'm also even more convinced that every single Golf R part for sale on eBay is from a nicked car. Same goes for all the high spec VAG interiors, steering wheels, stereos, bumpers, everything. Every bit of it is nicked.

 

[cort16]

Did it not recently transpire  that Hyundai and KIA didn't fit immobilisers to  lot of it's modern stuff but didn't tell anyone? I'm not sure if this USA only but it spawned some tiktok craze with kids stealing them as once you're in and break the steering lock there's some cheat to start them.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/21/kia-hyundai-sued-after-viral-tiktok-causes-rise-in-thefts/

[Dave_Q]

Might be US, the EU I think have insisted on proper immobilizers for years, the meddling bastards

[cobblers]

Yes it's just the USA where they're sold without any immobiliser.

They break the steering lock, pop the switch off the ignition barrel and turn it using a USB stick. People thought the USB was some sort of "hack", it's not, it just the right size.

[Dave_Q]

26 minutes ago, cobblers said:

It's so easy to steal a lot of vehicles nowadays, you need the right tools but they are easy to get.

Peugeot boxer/ducato/relay. Ignition lock has special security features to make it unpickable, but the drivers door lock doesn't, and they're the same key. For <£100 you can get a "self setting key" which you put in the drivers lock, turn side to side a few times and it forms to the correct keying and opens the door. Once you're in, plug an immo bypass box into the OBD connector, then use your new key to turn the ignition on and drive away. No damage, no noise, you're away in under a minute.

Gone are the days when people would nick a car on the way home from the pub to save driving - they're nicked with a purpose nowadays.

 

That said I am quite convinced that a fairly significant chunk of the Golf R/S3/M135 thefts are "arranged" by people deeply upside down on finance. I'm also even more convinced that every single Golf R part for sale on eBay is from a nicked car. Same goes for all the high spec VAG interiors, steering wheels, stereos, bumpers, everything. Every bit of it is nicked.

 

Here is a turbo decoder, not sure if these are the same one as they're about £300 on AliExpress but still in in under a minute with no damage:

https://youtu.be/QRfePbVcY08

I assume the problem really is that the immo and ECU talk to each other over CAN so a bit of reverse engineering (or a few thousand euro to a man at the immo supplier) and you've got a dongle that can pretend to be immo over OBD.

I still think if they cared they could make it harder tho

[lisbon_road]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

I’ve sold loads of car parts and never been asked to prove this? Is it if you are selling over a certain quantity?

It doesn't apply to private sellers.  If you are a business seller, I think you can get away with putting the references to your own supplier, so for instance I could use Silverlake Breakers.  This of course makes a fiasco of the whole thing, which whilst well intentioned, clearly won't work. 

I sell a lot of car parts a lot of which I get from garages as they are left over from jobs.  Sold a fancy Mitsubishi headlight not long ago, with a declared defect for £225 thankyou.

I've also had trouble selling light bulbs.  Got a ridiculous number of them from a house clearance and ebay kept saying that I had to put a reference number, something to do with recycling in against them, before I was allowed to sell.  I found that if I went back in and made a random edit, it seemed happy enough.  What a waste of time.  I'm fine with recycling anything, but do they expect people to post their old light bulbs back to me?  That's never going to happen and would be daft on so many fronts.

[junkyarddog]

Since Brexit happened, it's no longer financially viable to import cars from the UK to the republic of Ireland.

So the JDM imports are making a comeback,except in Japan cars doesn't have to be fitted with an immobilizer from the factory,so all the little scrotes are pinching them and using them for joyriding again. 🙄

[Schaefft]

Well, this happened the other day to my Senator. The screwdriver is still in the back. They literally chopped the steering wheel off and took it with them after the car ran out of fuel half a mile down the road. Contacted police but financially it makes no sense other than letting them know. I cut my own splines into the shaft and drove it back with a pair of vice grips.

Time to order a new column and steering wheel!

 

 

[SRi05]

Driving early to mid 00's shite is the way to go these days for me. Reliable enough to be used as daily transport, need a key to start the car, and they aren't old or interesting enough yet for scrotes to want to nick. 

Basically all hail Saab 2003-2011

[NorfolkNWeigh]

It amuses me that almost every new Range Rover you see has a £25 1980’s steering lock on it , even my local dealers used stock.

Although , I’m sitting here in a £130k Sprinter, and guess what security I have to set each night?

[Dave_Q]

Seems like almost any Ford, Nissan, JLR, etc etc can be had away in <2min by a scrote with the right tools so just having that one layer of retro protection means they will move onto the next one

[straightSix]

56 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Seems like almost any Ford, Nissan, JLR, etc etc can be had away in <2min by a scrote with the right tools so just having that one layer of retro protection means they will move onto the next one

I'd heard from someone at JLR that a lot of people were taking out the service disconnect in their i-pace overnight to stop them being stolen...

[PhilA]

Thieved classics are on the rise, here.

For as much technology has been added, it's still better than 60's Americana; with a handful of small tools that would fit in a jacket pocket you could make off with my Plymouth. 

The bonnet just pops open from outside the car. 99% chance the car is in P so clip a wire from the battery to the coil, screwdriver across the starter. Do it in that order because at least you know you've got a running car before breaking into the cabin.

Jemmy down inside the glass and pop the door lock up, bingo you've got yourself a car. No steering lock, everything else you need works without the ignition switch.

These days the thefts are less complicated. Generally just hook up to a tow truck and clear off with the entire car. The parts market for older cars is hot right now, so trim, mechanical parts, engines, gearboxes- all just reappear elsewhere for sale. Occasionally the entire car ends up in Mexico to be driven but most the time they're picked clean and the rest fragged.

[reb]

2 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

 

I still think if they cared they could make it harder tho

Cars getting stolen drives car sales.

[LoftyvRS]

It seem to be rife round here at the moment (West Mids) with every day FB posts of folks having Fiesta's stolen by the hour from local shopping centres, and JLR/VAG/BMW going overnight from folks houses. Bloke over the road bought a new BMW m135i and within a week it was gone from his drive, and this was 8pm at night, relay theft again.