Vehicle security.

Hello all.

Unfortunately we've had three vehicle thefts recently, one being early October, one late October and the third was last Friday 7th November.

Two of the thefts were made easy for the offenders because the keys were present in the vehicles however, this is absolutely not a criticism of the vehicle's owners but just a reminder of how easy it is to become complacent with the security of our vehicles because these thefts took just a few seconds!

At least one of these vehicles was ‘keyless’ which if you don't know generally means that you will have a key but with some vehicles the key only has to be within a certain distance of the vehicle for it to automatically unlock and can be started with the start/stop button as opposed to inserting the key into the ignition barrel.

If you leave your vehicle even if it's just for a few moments, please take the key with you and ensure it is locked, for example at a petrol station, making a food or parcel delivery or even if it's on your driveway.

There is a security option called a ‘Faraday’ bag which is ideal for when you are at home or at a fixed place where your car is parked relatively close to where you are, this is because the thieves use devices to try and boost the signal from the key to the vehicle's computer so for example, you are at home in bed at night with your vehicle on the drive or in the road outside and your key is where lots of people leave them, in their front hallways or even in the back of the front door with the property keys and this gives the thieves the chance to use their device to make the signal from the key reach your vehicle and if successful they've got what they came for.

However, if the key is in a Faraday bag or enclosed in something else that would block signals, the thieves would not be able to remotely steal your vehicle using this method.

Obviously vehicle thieves have several different ways of stealing our pride and joys but there are some physical security devices that will either completely put the thief off of trying to steal your vehicle or at the very least will slow them down enough for you to raise the alarm and these are things like steering wheel locks, locks that fix onto the pedals, in fact there are many different types of physical security devices that you can affix to the inside of your vehicle when you're not going to be using it.

Some good news though, two of the three vehicles were located within a few hours of being stolen however, we need to do our best to prevent the thefts in the first place and not to make it easy for them.

Thank you.

Steve.