Make sure you workshop shelves are fixed securely

It greatly narrows down the suspects, but leaves Adam in the frame. Which suggests a former apprentice as most likely.

NT

I was not at home so unlikely a colleague or ex colleague. However the house opposite where I was has CCTV.

That was in 2016 in Shopshire, the driver was found unhurt under tons of Cheddar Cheese ...

google "edwards transport hinstock collapse"

It's a bit worrying if someone can get into your van so easily that they leave no trace of forced entry.

Back in the 1990s we had a lot of trouble with theft from vans

- we were based on the Isle of Dogs and much of our work covered the least salubrious areas of East London.

Vehicle security was vastly imptoved when all the doors were fitted with this type of lock:

I'd never seen them before and never seen them again since, so I don't know where they came from.

I've looked on line but drawn a blank!

This mob were featured on SkillBuilder after "some barstud" broke into Roger's van ...

Watching the video again, I noticed the L4V logo on the deadlocks they were fitting

I guess you need to know where to cut/drill and where not to cut/drill the doors and pillars

And the CCTV shows them open both my van and the van opposite in 3 seconds with no damage.

Simultaneously or one after the other? Somebody in this neighbourhood had two BMWs stolen off their front drive by thieves who used an amplifying device to boost the signal from the car keys which had been on the table just inside the front door. CCTV showed one of them walking up to the front door with the amplifier box and his accomplices getting into the cars. If they were both opened at the same time either they had two devices or were using a different technology.

However they did it, that's a real bugger, isn't it? Sorry to hear your news.

Nick

One after the other.

The "Relay Attack".

It's a fundamental weakness of any proximity-only key:

If you can relay the signal from the key and the challenge from the car via nothing more than a dumb repeater, there is fundamentally no way to make a key that is not vulnerable. Now amount of complexity in the challenge-response cycle can mitigate this.

You either need to put the key out of range (ie shielded in faraday cage

- metal "key safe" should be sufficient, but I'd have to test to be sure) or:

You need some positive action that only the possessor of the physical key can make, like, I don't know, PUSHING A BUTTON.

Like how keys used to work...

Show's how out of touch I am that vans have passive keyless entry these days.

I'd wondered if two in rapid succession like that might point to a key jammer - especially if Adam and the other van arrived not too long apart.

ditto

And the other 3 on the estate that I am aware of.

Do the vans have keyless entry though?

Keyfob. You have to press a button.

Then the 'relay' method isn't what they're using.

Have you or the other victims noticed your fob failing at first attempt, then working second time?

I only lock mine with the key as the fob button does not work at all.

Have a look at a proximity sensor?

I got a simple one for my TF a few years ago (but it didn't come with a round tuit so I never discovered how effective it might have been!).

A quick Google found something more advanced, a Clifford Concept 650, no doubt there are alternatives.

Only thing that occurs to me is that it might be worth seeing if the CCTV shows the lights on the vans signalling they were locked when they were parked.

It shows the indicators flashing as they were unlocked.

That and Lou asked me "Are you going out to check the van is locked for a third time?"