Jer

I got woken up at 1 am with a loud crash the house alarm going off and my M5 driving away without me. They tried to smash the lock on the front door when that failed they put a brick through the glass front door and took the keys. The brick damaged the frame and the oak flooring in the hall.
As soon as I went down stairs I phoned the Police and Tracker and the phoned back 10 mins later to say they had found the car parked up a few miles away. I am totally gutted and could not get back to sleep. I need to phone my car, house and business insurance as they key ring also have my business keys on.
Total scum, my wife is verry shaken but at least they did not wake my son. I have to go and pick the car up I bet they have totally hammerd it.

sti-04!!

Sorry to hear that mate, you wouldnt expect that to happen in your area to be honest.
Really stupid way of stealing a vehicle.
Keep the chin up as long as no one was hurt. Ps sent you a PM.

dpb

Id be tempted to have a solid door

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

What a nightmare, that's awful for you. I have to admit I dread this happening to us. When I first got my new car I didn't sleep properly for the first few nights having read reports on the owners forum of this type of crime happening

I hope you both are able to get over it as quickly as is possible

Shark Man

Don't worry, you could bounce a cold M5 engine off the rev limiter every frosty morning and it'll still hold in one piece longer than the average Impreza P1 engine . Once isn't going to kill it.

Pity the plod didn't catch the scum

The Zohan

at least you are OK, our local cops suggested (in the local papers) that owners should take the keys to bed with them if they are concerned - yup, well thouhgt through and excellent advice - very good, wake up to find 2-4 blokes with baseball bats/knives holding your wife/kids by the throat demanding your keys from you.

WRX_Dazza

sorry to hear about this.

glad they found the car and hopefully (as they had the keys) it "shouldn't" be damaged.

let me guess the keys were in full view of the front door window??

happened to mate of mine, with his scooby. - Not good!!!

all the best

Brendan Hughes

Serious question - do you have a garage?

otherwise, a frightening illustration of how house alarms are frankly useless. And the extent to which people will go to nick a car - brick through the door at 1am FFS. I doubt they were of sober mind at the time, so glad your keys were not upstairs and glad you didn't meet them. Otherwise we might have had your wife posting here this morning instead with much worse news.

Good luck, and remember - it's only metal and that's why you pay a fortune in insurance every year

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Keep keys seperate too.

Car keys, door keys, bike keys, bike lock key, autolock key and work keys all seperate but then i'm paranoid.


anyone nicks my keys they'll need to come back for the security stuff too!

Not good though. Was speaking toa ex-Subaru owner who this happened to last night. Now buying a less eye catching car with his payout. Sad that tea leaves force people to do that.

5t.

Leslie

Always worth hiding the keys I reckon. Too easy to take the car.

Glad they have found it but sorry about the inconvenience.

Les

OllyK

I suppose it depends if you put the value of the car higher than your personal safety.

I don't leave the keys in a place where they could be reached easily, but once you're past the front door they are easy enough to find. I'd rather they took the car than wake up with a gun in face and somebody asking for them.

Ms Gooner 1

I always moan at my other half for putting his keys in hard to reach out of sight places! (mainly cause I'm short and blind LMAO). He always says its because of people like this! Infact I was only talking to another fellow scooby owner at the weekend on our cruise meet and they were saying that thieves actually hooked his keys out through the letter box with bamboo!!! NEVER EVER leave your keys in sight of the door and as mentioned above - always keep them seperate.
I've seen this type of "trick" on TV loads of times now and whilst hindsight is a wonderful thing - totally useless if not learnt by!
Hope there isn't too much damage. Once the locks have been changed on everything owned - I'm sure you'll sleep easier!

Clarebabes

Are the plod not even going to fingerprint the car? I know it's a long shot, but just getting you to go pick it up is a bit poor.

The Zohan

Sorry les but NO, this is not good advice, not in 2008 and NL's lawless britian not it is not, not if you value your safety and that of your families.

gone are the days of safe in your own home.
Crooks and robbers armed with knives and guns, eapecially pro's knicking 50k cars or druggies are not necessarily going to ask nicely!

best to leave keys in the kitchen/downsatirs so they do not need to come up to get them. Not fair or right i know but best in the long run

Les, chances are it is not going to be a one on one stand up fight between an angry car owner and a crook in a striped top with a swag bag over his shoulders!

3-4 armed blokes giving your wife a slap whilst demanding the keys is far, far worse than them breaking in and taking them from the hall/kitchen.


does not matter how hard you are or think you are, best let them take it is is only a car.

Better to have proper poilcing and seriously long sentences doing hard labour for the perpetraitors.

The Zohan

Quite, to catch the scum you actually have to put in some effort and time and invest some money (not a pop at ordinary cops more their bosses and their priorities) . Then they need proper punishments and long sentences IMHO

Jer

The keys were out of site from the front door. The sad thing is I do have a garage but its full of crap. I keep the keys in the hall I would rather wake up to them driving off rather than a gun in my face.
They have been round and taken finger print's but have not found anything. They are also doing the car then handing it over to the insurance company to inspect before I get it back. The Insurance company are only going to pay £100 towards a new lock set for the car which I suspect will be lots of money from BMW.
I am going to get my garage sorted out this week and keep the M5 in the garage and keep the Scooby parked on the road away from the house.

Dream Weaver

Agreed, our keys are easy to find and they can take the cars if they like, they are all insured.

It's this sort of crap that stops me getting a second high performance car, I just don't want the hassle/risk factor.

Hope everything gets back to normal Jer.

Brendan Hughes

Yup, that's why I asked - seems to be sooooo common.

(I'm the same, but my car is pretty much out of sight and also I have metal gates at the front of the drive. Oh, and no-one would want to nick it anyway!)

andyr

Is it worthwhile, instead of having, either, the keys easily accessible to someone that breaks in OR have them hidden, why not have a set of suitable keys, ie a BMW set, but they do not actually operate the ignition ?
Maybe a duplicate key which you then file down a fraction so it slips in the ignition but doesn't allow it to switch on ?

Shark Man

Easier way is just a normal key, but decode the transponder chip (inside the key)...so it'll do everything except for start the car.

DazW

iTrader: (1)

This is what i have ...blank set of keys with a Subaru fob hanging up in the hallway

GOLDMAN 555

Get two of these....



YouTube - Bite force competition. Pitbull, Rottweiler, and Shepherd.


Or two of these....



its the only thing These idiots are scared of....

Clarebabes

Lump of poisoned meat would sort them 2 out no problem!

LC Geezer

That's par for the course. Several thousand pounds worth of top rate car outside of the garage, and a few hundred quids worth of crap inside the garage. Not having a go mate...it's just the norm for some reason. Daft isn't it?

Spoon

Not if they are trained to accept food from their owner only which is part of the level of training required for a 'complete' personal protection dog.

The Zohan

Clare, everybody on SN is double 'ard and know best when it come to protecting their property, anyway one of those dogs is a rottie by the looks of things and therefore is completely harmless anyway

dogs, easy poison, stun or shoot.

If somone is motivated enough and serious enough and the prize is worth it then a large dog will not be an issue. it really is not blokes in striped tops with a mask and a bag with 'swag' writien on it and Dixon of Dock Green will not be around to help or investigate either!

The Zohan

Yup, because all dogs are trained to this level so not problem, oh yes, that's right, they are not all are they how many not very many. if no poison then shoot or stun, tazer or pepper spray easily avaliable these days.

ir it could be that thee dogs get trained to resist electricity and the effects of pepper spray and become bulletproof as well - then i might think about getting one for that purpose.

Spoon

Paul, nobody said all dogs were, I was simply replying to Clares post.

Shooting anything and anybody is more of an option today. A dog however will alert you long before the brick hits the window, which gives you time to phone the Police.

SirFozzalot

I'm the other way round, the garage has the scoob nicely locked away and the one of the spare bedrooms is full of all the crap!

Spoon

Then editing your post to add this suggests somebody stole your Weetabix this morning.