Attempted Theft

[Claire G]

Sorry to hear that, it must have been very distressing for you. I hope you are all ok. It's difficult to say what to do for the best but whatever you decide, either to keep the car or get rid of it, you have to be happy.

I know that I've worked very hard to get the car and our house. I would be very bitter if I was made to give up either due to the fact that others don't want to make the same efforts in their lives. In our last place, my car was badly vandalised as some of our neighbours thought we were 'above our station' and objected to a Lexus being parked between the Ford XR3i's and Vauxhall Astras!!!!

Anyway best of luck whatever you decide.

[Dunkie]

Bah it sucks the extent that the scum would go to, to get their paws on an IS.

Well I have a nice fully grown German Shepherd who was trained by an ExPolice Trainer, she is excellent at "guard duty". My only worry is if someone breaks-in and Meg (my GS) has a go at them, who will be in the wrong? Bear in mind I have a 20 month old Child in the house and she and Meg are best of friends, I think Meg would probably think of it as defending "her" baby!

I honestly know though that I would show little mercy to someone who had broke into my house whilst I was "round the back playing cricket" and just happened to have a cricket bat in my hand....

Quite interested in these immobilisers which stop the car after a certain distance when a pin number is not entered...

Hope your familly are all ok

Duncan

[bex]

So basically if I come to England (Winchester) I will probably have someone trying to break into my IS200?

After hearing so many attempted robberies it makes me wonder: Is the crime rate that high?

[malvern]

very good alarm for anti jacking,will stall car also,take a look.www.sempal.co.uk

[Kavey]

I have the anti lock feature.. soon as the car reached 10MPH it locks all the doors!.. handy feature

I have an autolocking feature on my Altezza. As soon as I start driving, I automatically lock the doors

But seriously, knowing how secure the IS series is, car-jacking is a serious worry for me, especially given the bling bling shinyness of my ride. These days I've heard many stories of people deliberately bumping into you to get you out of the car to look at the damage, bash you, and steal the car I'm real wary of that.

Asam

[stevenage_saint]

Sorry to some little scroat trying to get you car. The same thing happend to my neighbours car last year but it was found a week latter. I know it device to stop the car being half hinched, but it could be worth getting a tracker ( or equiverlent) fitted. They do help with the insurence cost, and if the car does go they have a better chance of retrieving it quickly. Even better are the ones that tracker phone you up to let you know they believe the car is being stolen. As I say they work I have never had to use mine and I dont want too, but I know it is there if the worse happens.

If a car is stollen via the keys the insurence companies do pay out as they are aware of that the thieves are going to new lengths to steel. My only advice is don't leave keys on show if you have a draw keep them in that. Don't change the car though, it could have happend to any car on your street it is just you were unlucky.

[SteJ]

The sad thing is, most of our cars now have things like multi-point immobilisers, CAT 1 alarms, dead-locking, steering wheel disk-locks, tracker etc.

These are dutifully secured on the driveways/street/garage etc., and the keys then either stuck in the back of the front door when you come in, or chucked on the kitchen table/fruit-bowl etc. The tea-leaves have long since worked this out, and with the advance of vehicle security, the only way a well-secured, up-market motor is going to be acquired is by obtaining the keys beforehand. Hence the increase in car-jacking and burglary related vehicle theft. When you think about it, the car ringers don't even need to fork-out on a new lock set. It is in most cases infinitely easier to get into somebody's house than it is a car.

Most people tend not to put house alarms on at night due to the mither of omitting zones due to kids/animals, only using them when going out. They are usually only locked-up last thing at night when going to bed. Your house & contents are worth considerably more than your car.

I have been on the receiving end sadly more than most over the past couple of years. House burgled once, garage twice, motorcycle stolen from from front garden whilst fetching garage keys to put it in the garage. Car (Lotus Carlton replica GSi3000) nicked off the front and being involved in a mini-crime wave around Salford (ram-raids etc.)

Becoming slightly security paranoid about your home & surroundings is the only way to keep ahead of these scumbags.

Bell-up your home every night, put your keys in a discrete location, but make sure everyone in the house knows where, should they be required to unlock doors to get out.

I've also rigged up several security lights that flash strobes in our hallway and bleep to warn of intrusions etc.

CCTV cameras are available now for around £30. These again can be easily rigged to switch over your TV channel when somebody approaches the sensor

I've learned the hard way, but simply wiring an extra passive sensor to cover my garage paid for itself ten times over after foiling another attempted break-in to steal my then nearly new Astra GTE 16v. (£300 excess on insurance if they'd got it going)

My motto is look after yourself and your family, as sadly, not many others will.

It is a sad state of affairs when you virtually have to lock yourself in your own home of an evening, but unless you anticipate what these scumbags might try and do, before long, they will probably have already done it.

Sorry to hear of Tariq's misfortune, but if no other good comes of it, at least it has raised the awareness of others as to the low-life activities of these sh@tbags.

[Risky3301]

If you give them a beating, there's nothing worse than having 2 broken arms, at the elbow. Think about it.

How would you cope with two arms in plaster and you can't bend them Evil I know. They might think twice about doing it again.

This one doesn't look bad idea. http://www.alansmith.co.uk/alarmselect/68hi.htm

[asad]

I can relate to the incident Tariq is talking about. I own lexus is200 and luckily have had no problems, thus far.

However my uncle had a very unfortunate incident whereby 2 masked men broke into his house, locked his 18 year old son in a room and continued to beat up his wife to ascertain the whereabouts of the keys. They found them and drove off in his 2 day old lexus.

Its a sad state of life where you live in fear because of the car you drive........But don't give in....because of a few foolish dickheads............

[Steve]

perhaps we as a club should come up with something to prevent this.

I know many people who leave their keys around the house.

I like the sound of Riskys link he posted... maybe a group buy would be in order?

years ago I used to park my car on an estate that had high car crime. My prevention was to remove the rotar arm from the distributor every night

The car was broken into and hot wired.. but they could not start the car.. they were left scratching their head.

Might have taken me 30 seconds to remove this nightly.. but i had a car in the morning and i have had my no claims from day one 14 years ago!

Prevention is the best thing anyone can do.

[texisportcross]

That's a pretty scary thought to have strangers forcibly enter your home. I'm glad to hear nobody got hurt.

I keep one of those yellow FOX safety whistles (like a coaches whistle) on my keychain. This is EXTREMELY loud. It makes women scream and children cry. It makes my ears ring and I'm the one blowing it. If somebody tries to take your keys just blow as hard as you are able on this whistle and they will likely be running away as fast as they can with wet britches. ;)

[l3arx]

Hey Texi, you're in Texas, can't you just shoot them over there if they break into your house

[texisportcross]

Hey Texi, you're in Texas, can't you just shoot them over there if they break into your house

As a matter of fact I CAN SHOOT'em. They don't have to be in my house either, or even on my property. Concealed handguns are LEGAL here with a permit.

I don't make a habit of packing heat to the grocery store though and I'd prefer not to have to shoot somebody. Pepper spray is likely to blow back in the face of the user and bullets tend to hit the wrong persons, like an innocent bystander or family member.

I'm telling you, this whistle is insanely loud and nobody expects that. It's not like a car alarm that people hear daily and will ignore, people WILL turn and look if you blow this whistle.

Aren't handguns totally banned for civilian use in the UK? I thought even regular policeman didn't carry guns. Only tactical officers.

This is the Whistle I have exept in Orange:

FOX Safety Whistle

[l3arx]

Aren't handguns totally banned for civilian use in the UK? I thought even regular policeman didn't carry guns. Only tactical officers.

Thats right, over here if you even hit someone who you catch on your property, you are likely to get done for assualt :duh:

[wildrnes]

if you trump \fart\ break wind near them they would sue over here

[Steve]

We only have those whistles for either a rave or watching man united! :D

[vince-com]

LOL just saw yesterday "Bowling for colombine"

Pretty scary about weapons and the NRA in States