Mate has just had his brand new camper van stolen from outside his house. Luckily, it has a tracker, and they located it about 3 miles away. Lots of damage done to the electrics and so on. But they obviously managed to drive it away, without the keys. So much for immobilisers.
Would a crook lock thingie or wheel clamp have made any difference in these days of battery angle grinders?
The Thatcham approved steering wheel 'Disc-lock' certainly will slow them down a lot, and is pretty well protected against an angle grinder. Coupled with an alarm with pager it will keep away most thieves.
I would not bother with the old krooklok style locks as they are very easy to remove and make an ideal tool to break the ign. steering lock.
That might well depend on whether there were any more vulnerable camper vans, or equivalent targets around for the thieves to steal instead.
That then depends on how wide an area the thieves case before deciding on which one to nick. Your mate's might have been identified as a target days or weeks ago as a result of the thieves scanning a wide area.
Although from the damage you describe, and the fact that it was recovered might suggest its not only canper vans they target
If the van's left standing for any length of time then its advisable to disconnect the battery in any case. So no driving away. Although a visible deterrent clamp or crooklock would help. They'd probably think twice about ransacking a van outside somebodies house (potentially) because of the noise and their being caught bang to rights inside the van.
Not against a prepared crew that turn up in a low loader with a grab crane.
There is a reason people sell insurance.
Despite living in a less than genteel area, one bonus was being able to put our caravan (or motorhome if we had one) behind a gate on the property - which also had the bonus of being high enough, with the slope to the road of pretty much hiding it from view. Until Google ****ing Earth
I'd guess the fact it is only a month or so old was a factor.
They took it to a spot some three miles away. Police said they left there to see if it was being tracked. If it was still there a couple of days later, they'd move it on.
Anything they can sell on, I'd guess. Unlikely to be for their own use.
The very fact it was parked close by meant the theft was discovered quickly. Noticed it missing from the bedroom window at about midnight.
Exactly, anything can be stolen, thieves in Russia stole a bridge a few weeks ago. But in general thieves are deterred by anything that slows them down, makes a noise or attracts attention in any other way.
If you have ever had the misfortune to watch 'overhaulin' you will have been struck by how easy it is and how little attention is paid to people in hi vis loading a stolen vehicle onto a tow truck.
Everyone assumes its official or the owner ordered it
I would go for noise. Buy a cheap (£10) pin alarm, attach to underside of van and the piece of cord extend it and attach to something on the ground, if they move it you will have plenty of decibels + as it is attached to the van will continue to sound as they drive down the street.
Oddly, it seems this £50 grand vehicle didn't come with an alarm system fitted. Unlike every car I've owned in the last 30 years. It was parked close enough for the alarm to have been heard.
Police have been good for once, and checked it for fingerprints and did DNA swabs - seems the thieves were likely wearing gloves.
AA were also very good and got it started and followed them home with it.
Just waiting on the insurance company to see what will be done. Continental holiday starting next week likely cancelled.
Certainly, but that is not a common method of theft, in the OP case a decent steering lock and an alarm would have been very likely to have deterred the theft.
I have a couple of them and took a good look at how an angle grinder could be used, it would certainly be quite a few cuts and plenty of levering to get one off, hence the Thatcham certification
There are full circle devices like a pair of dustbin lids with an arm projecting from the side that make this more difficult. They cover the whole rim.
Not much will withstand a battery-powered angle grinder though.
The £60,000 one was round the back being washed. I'll remind him of the thatcham diskloc.
He sold his 1986 Fiat? camper van quite quickly. A similar one reg in 1988 with a petrol engine and no MOT (needed welding) opposite went for £850 on ebay. People pay silly prices for them. The buyer just broke it up for parts (after driving it from W Sussex to Leicester, on trade plates).
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