Years ago a colleague married to a senior policeman had their Mercedes stolen off their front drive whilst she and Superintendent hubby watched TV about 20' away. Saw and heard nothing.

No electronics involved, the thieves arrived with a crane on a flat-bed truck, passed straps underneath, and lifted the car over the gate and on to the truck. Only took a few minutes. A neighbour had seen the car being lifted and assumed it was being taken away for repair. Never seen again. No suspects identified.

Dave

LOL, so they are advising the owners of keyless cars to use a steering wheel lock for security. Err, seems to rather defeat the object and be going back to square one 1970s style. How about they just make a key system that works?

Lot to be said for the old hidden toggle switch in the fuel pump circuit. Simple but effective.

This has been happening for years and now we have battery angle grinders a steering lock is no real deterrent.

Tony

I've removed those(the customer had lost the key) using a Leatherman Wave. Although a cordless grinder would have been easier. Best of type is a very low bar when considering steering locks.

Can we all get over this? Undoubtedly car theft happens but you would have slightly less chance of winning Euromillions than someone stealing your keyless car with a loop of wire, just about the same chance as someone happening to be looking over your shoulder just as you are entering your banking app details in a crowd in broad daylight. Most of these panics and scares are just utter nonsense fuelled by a sensationalising press on a slow news day and I would think some of the scare stories are merely urban myths anyway. Obviously, fraud and theft are a reality but most frauds succeed through the gullibility of the victim and most thefts are opportunistic due to the lack of security precautions. That doesn't diminish my sympathy for any victim of crime because I have been robbed on more than one occasion and it's not nice but I don't let the thought of it affect my enjoyment of life.

One of my former managers was a reborn petrol-head with a Ford Granada, I think it was.

He fitted a hidden switch in the boot, that connected to earth a wire from the ignition coil in such a way the engine would turn over but not fire.

It caught him out one day when he forgot. What surprised him though, was the car did start and he was just able to emerge part-way from a parking bay when it cut out.

.

Some years back there was a spate of smash-and-grab raids on cars parked in out-of-the-way spots on the Mendip Hills, about twenty miles from Bristol. I do not know if the scum were ever caught but a friend living in Bristol told me the suspects included youths on Community Service Orders in the city. If they had clean driving-licences one of the services they were given to perform was using pool or hired cars to ferry elderly people to and from hospital, If they did that well, as reward they could sometimes borrow the car at the weekend….

Nigel

Community Service Orders are very variable in their efficacy, we were approached by the Probation service at our local Church to employ those on community service to cut the grass in our fairly extensive churchyard. The designated felons were brought to the Church and left unsupervised with lawn mowers and a supply of petrol and shown the extent of the task that they were expected to complete, they promptly poured away the petrol and then spent the rest of their allotted hours in trying to break into the Church, a total waste of taxpayers resources ! Dave W

Just remember to take your keys out before heating up your morning coffee in the microwave.

Some on here think these keyless systems are unsafe, but forget that these are generally high-value vehicles that are nicked. The scroats certainly will target them if it is esy pickings. But I expect these thefts are a minority when considered as a simple percentage of stolen vehicles.

The scroats will take possession of other people’s property if given the opportunity – whether vehicles or other items.

Keyless systems are becoming more secure. Agreed, some systems are susceptible – some high value vehicles were easily nicked – Range Rovers were one marque that where the keyless system was very seriously flawed in the first implementations.

Some people don’t remember (or conveniently forget) that some vehicles were simple to break into when air bags were first fitted! Air bag deployment automatically unlocked the doors – so it didn't take long for some to realise that a heavy thump, with something like a lump hammer, on the vehicle towing point on some cars set off the airbags and unlocked the doors to allow simple and easy entrance. Not theft of the vehicle but easy to nick the contents – and an expensive repair job for the owner.

Go back further and car keys were a joke for some brands. I once borrowed a bunch of Ford car keys from my local police station (back when the station was manned in the evening (at least). I had locked myself out of my cortina and needed to gain access to drive home. I think it was about the second or third key that opened my car door.

One does not hear of many Rolls Royces being stolen – valuable, but not easy to sell on or break for parts!

If the scroats really want your car, they will take it. Do not think you are invulnerable, unless extensive steps are taken to avoid it. That will be whether they can drive or carry it away. Whether garaged or not – but obviously they will take the easiest pickings – they would get it one way or another. One even hears of ‘carjacking’.

While expensive mercs and rangerovers receive news coverage, the thousands of cars stolen by joy-riders are only local news – if that. Most insure their vehicles under a policy which includes theft. It is unfortunate that the policy cost will rise if a claim arises the policy, but it is generally much less than the loss of the vehicle.

I’m guessing Ady1 does not even own a vehicle with keyless locking? Just scaremongering? It won’t change much, however – the scroats will always be catching up on new security, but they will find ways to continue their thieving ways – be sure of that!

I see the builders around here fit a large locked-on wheel clamp, like a parking infringement "boot", to their trailers when left unhitched and unattended on site etc. Might be worth engineering something of the sort.