Autowirez Blog

Car theft has long been a big issue with motorists but some simple steps can greatly reduce your chances of being a victim of this crime. Here we show you informative inside information on car security with tips from an experienced ex car thief.

1. Visibility - Park in a well lit, busy area.
Thieves do not want to be seen, especially when inside your vehicle. To the thief, the public are their greatest risk as they know that one call to the police will likely see them arrested. Thieves know that as a rule, many people do call the police if they see something suspicious, so making sure your car is clearly visible is one of the biggest deterrents.

2. Window Shopping - Remove high value items from view.
By making sure high value, sought after items such as mobile phones, MP3 players and portable DVD players, are removed from view can be a good deterrent. If it is not easy to take these items with you, lock them away in the glove box, not under a seat.

3. Who’s Looking At You Kid? - Are you being watched?
Many people will open the boot of their car and place handbags, jewellery etc away from prying eyes. If you are in a busy area, this is not a good idea, do you know who’s watching you? This is absolutely not, far fetched.

Busy parking areas for sports grounds or parks for tennis or football can sometimes be a lottery for thieves as they know that you are not likely to take items with you, you want your pockets empty. Your not going to want to carry around your laptop with you on that 2 mile jog. Ask the ground keeper or sports centre if they provide a locker or safe for valuables to be kept while you enjoy yourself.

4. CCTV - Don’t rely on CCTV to stop criminals.
Just because the parking lot has a CCTV camera whizzing round looking out for criminals, doesn’t mean your car is not at risk. If there is something in your car that the criminals want, they will wait for the CCTV camera to turn facing away from your car and BAM!! Pop goes your rear quarter window, arm through and swipe - the thief now has your new iPhone. This all takes less than 30 seconds so by the time the camera swings back round to your car, the windows on the back seat and your phones in a back pocket.

5. Alarms - Not for smash and grab.
Alarms may go some way to preventing your car or car audio from being stolen but for the ’smash-and-grab’ opportunist thief, this is no deterrent. Theft of valuables by smash-and-grab is more common than most other car theft.

Summary
Experienced car thieves can break windows quietly by shattering the glass without breaking it and poking their finger to form a hole to pull up the door lock. They then open the door, take what they want and shut the door gently behind them to prevent it from noisily smashing to the ground. Nobody heard a thing.