Securing a car stereo . . .

It's tempting to say (if we had any confidence in the court and prison system) that we should make it as easy for criminals to commit crimes as possible so we can gather evidence to convict them and get them off the streets where they can do no further harm. Sadly such "entrapment" is not allowed...

I have only had my car broken into once. I'd parked it with one side close to a wall. After mashing the door lock on the driver's side, the thief eventually broke a window on the passenger side (where there was only about a foot clearance) so he must have been a contortionist. I hope he had as much trouble getting back out through the window again - because the car had deadlocks so once he'd got in, he wouldn't have been able to open the doors from the inside, and it had electric rather than manual windows, so no escape that way either. Nothing was taken, and no further damage was done, but it meant all the locks (including glove box, boot and petrol cap) had to be replaced. All covered by insurance.

Reply to
NY
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Back in the '80s/'90s, thieves supposedly carried pieces of wood with four nails in. Slap it on the front of the radio and the four nails went into the four holes and released the locking tags; pull the radio and out it came. Done in a few seconds.

I certainly released my own radio, in not much longer, using four loose nails.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Never heard of it so it must be a up-market unit feature and worth smashing the window to nick it!

Reply to
alan_m

+1 With even base model cars being fitted with a radio or media player these days the market for a stolen radio must be very limited.

More likely to have a car broken into if you have a mobile phone or maybe a removable sat nav on display in a holder that takes seconds to disconnect.

Reply to
alan_m

You can only do so much.

Shit does happen only thing is, to do what you can, and not lose sleep over it.

Reply to
soup

Shouldn't be hard to make it look like you broke it trying to get it out to fix it when it stopped working.

Reply to
Jock

One I remember ran on ordinary dry cells. Installing it on the car changed to the car battery, connected the car aerial and an external speaker.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News

Why would they bother when you could buy the correct 'U' tools in Halfords for pennies?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News

Presumably, because it immediately positioned all four nails at the same time, so was quicker than the correct tools and, could be thrown away and replaced at home, to avoid being caught in position of tools to commit a crime. It might also be considered suspicious for a young teenager, below driving age, to be attempting to buy radio removal tools.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Unfortunately, nicking the whole car, van or bike is very much the thing these days. They can be butchered for high value parts in the comfort of a garage.

e.g.

Stolen BMW M2, where bandits outsmart BMW security systems using relay theft technique - AutomatricsMTrack

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Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

An individual radio is, at a guess, worth under well under £100 - given it is stolen and you can get a new ( basic one) for that. But they don?t ?do? just one car, they ?do? an area- read a local newspaper. Plus, to the type of people involved, it is easy money - often for drugs etc.

Reply to
Brian

:-) That will double it's value, just like filling the tank of a Skoda.

Reply to
Andrew

I tend to not lock the car on the basis that if I dont use the remote no one can scan it - they still need the code to drive it away

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

What can they do via the OBD-II socket though? Reprogram their own key to the car I should think ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

That's silly because it would apply to a screwdriver too.

Even sillier. He can just say his dad sent him to get it because his dad had to be at work etc.

Reply to
Jock

Don't believe that that is happening anymore, gotta link ?

Unlikely anyone would be paying for a load of stolen radios today given that very few even very basic cars don't come with one now.

Yes, but not enough income to buy any with.

Reply to
lacksey

No, I don't think they can. IIRC from a video on that subject they have to get a code from the manufacturer based on the VIN and that code will only be released to third parties licensed by the manufacturer and they will normally turn up to do it.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Er, just buy from Ebay - no questions asked.

Reply to
alan_m

Ah yes, satnavs! I remember them.

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

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