Thieves

Last night they broke into the back of my landie, and stole the trolley jack, small petrol can and footpump, which I had neglected to secure to the seat frames in the usual way with a bike lock :(

They were clearly amateur opportunists as they first tried the back door, and bent the handle in the process of failing to open what can be opened with a screwdriver they regretabbly found the weak point and slid open the back windows and opened the passenger door from inside.

What is really annoying apart from my idiocy in forgetting to lock the Jack to the rear seat frame as I knew it was vulnerable, is the damage to the back door handle that makes it inoperable.

I am thinking about what to do to deter this sort of thing in future.

I did not think an alarm would be worthwhile but I am having second thoughts, although it will be difficult to fit one of the ultrasonic ones, I would guess a few false alarms in the neighborhood, would alert potential thieves to the fact it is alarmed, and although it might not stop them breaking in, they would not linger to attempt the second line of defence.

The other thing is if I secure the windows, they may just break them next time, though I suppose fitting a padlock to the rear door is quite a visible sign saying do not try this unless you have boltcroppers.

Deadlocks for the interior doors would be nice, I have an idea, but am wondering whether it would be overkill.

Any way these were casual thieves, and so stupid they did not find the torque wrench, or the electric pump, and obviosly did not know about the locker under the front seat, as that was untouched.

Sensibly they left the radio alone, it is not worth nicking.

I am having second thoughts now about fixing a jerry can externally, as they will obviosly do some damage trying to prize it away from the carrier as that is the sort of ideas they probably are, though I guess they would not bother going onto the roof after it, which might be one good reason to fix it there.

The bother is in converting it to a camper I do not really want to have to keep stuff in my fourth floor flat all the time, and only take it out when need be as that will be up and down the stairs all the time but I don't have a lot of choice do I.

I am sure these buggers having discovered how easy it is to get into a landie will try it again, if not on me on someone else.

Reply to
Larry
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Twas Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:06:52 +0100 when "Larry" put finger to keyboard producing:

Reply to
Mr.Nice.

Shotgun, flask of coffee, chair and sit up to welcome them.

Make the jerrycan invitingly easy to take but fill it with something interesting like petrol and a good dose of sugar or lots of battery acid.

Pity we can't do what we'd really like to do !!

Reply to
Hirsty's

Nothing stopping you putting sugar in your own jerry can. Nor from smearing dog shit on your own door handle! They'd only set fire to the car in revenge of course.

I'm a fan of the 'look how big my dog is' method... When the Discovery was done over the big fella went mental, but unfortunately I was too sleepy to get up and see what he was barking at. I've learnt now and always check!

Seriously though, I'd go for an alarm and use the underseat locker with a big padlock to store anything worth nicking. They're unlikely to spend minutes fiddling with a padlock with the alarm going off (not in a built up area anyway). I'm in the habit of leaving the cars with the glove box and centre console open now, which is just saying to the thieves "There's nothing in here".

Reply to
Tim Hobbs

Very true but cheers one up no end, personally I had a Tracker put in, left the LR "radio" in place and try to leave very little in the car. When we had a small car I got hold of a bikers padlock and chain and locked down the steering whell to the seat mounting. Trouble is anyone keen enough will defeat whatever you put in, you can only really deter the opportunists.

Seem to remember an article in one of the LR mags last year about someone who worked in the New Forest, his job entailed transporting Adders around for some reason, funnily enough he seemed to be trouble free !! :-))

Reply to
Hirsty's

Twas Mon, 06 Sep 2004 12:58:45 GMT when "Hirsty's" put finger to keyboard producing:

I'm going to make myself a warning sign, "dangerous reptiles in transit"

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Reply to
Mr.Nice.

I considered having Morph sign written in a nice military font "BOMB SQUAD" in nice big red letters... Trouble is it may have made it more of a target for theives... not to mention any one else given the sick world we live in. It would have had "COSTA" in a nice small font above the main sign so as not to be misrepresentative of the truth.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

Well they weren't going to go anywhere in it, I recently invested in a "clutch claw" that locks the brake and clutch pedals together in addition to the normal (pretty useless) steering wheel bar.

I have been to my local alarm centre today and I think I will get a two stage perimeter alarm that warns people off when they get too close.

In addition I reckon it would not be hard to insert concealed deadbolts in the passenger doors at least so even if they do get in through the windows they will have to climb in through them.

Reply to
Larry

On or around Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:06:52 +0100, "Larry" enlightened us thusly:

If I can find it I should have a complete SIII rear door lock somewhere. When I put an SIII door on the 110, I replaced the lock with the 110 one which I had a key for, although that too could be opened with a screwdriver...

I believe there was some other reason. Oh yeah, different kind of striker on the 110.

I may not be able to locate the lock though.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

How about a medical flavour ? Something along the lines of " Smallpox Field Unit " ought to get them going !!

Reply to
Hirsty's

:-)

I've also been very tempeted ever since seeing it on another 101 to get some MDF, a jigsaw , some old tube and put a couple of mock machine guns ala Lancaster bomber stylie on the roof. From ground level detail would need to be minimal for the desired effect... But I think the gaffers at work may take exception at that as it would definately cause a bit of a stir :o)

Another funny moment in Time was prior to striping all the paint off. During the last deployment of Green Godesses. The number of times uneducated drivers just stopped on roadabouts to let me pull out was fantastic :-)

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

Oh aye, you can just imagine the numpties in the police armed response unit can't you ?

"Dohh, its round, black and long, so I should...... shoot the owner dead"

Steve

Reply to
Steve Taylor

I have a friend in Durham who noticed his mileage was increasing each night after he had parked up and gone to bed for the evening. He has an old metro (he is very sad). Over a week an extra 400 miles were added, nothing happened over the weekend but on the Monday it happened again.

He decided to lie under a blanket in the boot and wait with a shotgun (he likes shooting rabbits) anyway, sure enough at 12:30 midnight two urchins of about sixteen opened the door and started the car and started to drive. He clamly placed the shotgun behind the drivers head and asked him to pull over. The driver surprisingly obliged. Pat explained to him that if he ever borrowed his car again he would blow his XXXXXX head off. He asked the driver to drive him back to the house. When he returned he asked them to get out and run and never come back.

The urchins apologised and ran. Pat has never had the problem again. Strange that.

A

Reply to
Andrew Renshaw

On or around Mon, 06 Sep 2004 17:39:17 GMT, "Hirsty's" enlightened us thusly:

I thought that'd been eradicated now?

Reply to
Austin Shackles

We know that .......

Reply to
Hirsty's

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