Stealing Valuables From A Car

Based on his experience as a security consultant and over 20 years police service, D G Conway describes a range of crimes against the person, offering advice together with over 600 countermeasures that the average person can take to avoid the crime. He is also author of The Home Security Handbook published this year.

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Stealing Valuables From a Car

The theft of cars is a huge problem, but more cars are broken into to steal the contents or parts of the car, than are broken into to actually steal the car. No matter how many warnings are issued, people still leave valuables on show in their car and are surprised when they return to find that their car has been broken into and that the valuables have gone.

As a basis for some quick sums, let’s assume that we know a drug addict who has a £200-a-day habit. That is, to buy sufficient drugs to meet his cravings, he has to find £200 each and every day to buy those drugs! He isn’t independently wealthy so he has to find the money somewhere else. Because of the effects of the drugs he isn’t capable of holding a job, and in his state no employer would take him on anyway. To raise the money required he could beg on street corners, but I am told that at best that would raise £150 at a good spot on a very good day after at least eight hours of begging, so begging won’t feed his drug habit.

Bank robbery would work, but he isn’t good enough, co-ordinated enough or clever enough to do that. Street robbery might raise that sort of money, but he probably couldn’t cope with a victim if they fought back, so he either has to find and use a weapon or find another way to feed that habit. Theft works. Shoplifting, burglary or breaking into cars to steal things will allow him to steal cash, valuables, credit cards, anything that will bring him the money he needs.

Now consider this! Suppose our addict decides to raid cars to earn his drug money. He smashes the car window (cost to you, or your insurance company, at least £200). The breaking glass damages the metallic paint on the door (cost of repair can easily be £150). He takes your new mobile phone, which was priced at £175, but you got it on contract during an offer and you only paid £25. Unfortunately you didn’t take insurance on that so you have to buy a replacement phone (cost to you £175). The incidental cost to you of all of this including insurance excess, replacement phone costs, car insurance loss, time off work and higher insurance premiums next year at least £1,000. Our drug addict took your £175 phone, and he sells it on to somebody else but all he gets for it is £20 if he is lucky.

In round terms that means our drug addict will have to break into at least 10 cars, to steal at least 10 top-of-the-range mobile phones at a total cost of £10,000 to society, just to get the drugs he needs for one day.

In one year, if he lives that long, our one addict will have broken into 3,650 cars (a lot more if they didn’t conveniently contain top-of-the-range mobile phones). All of that activity for one addict will cost society (and remember that society is us – you and me) at least £3,650,000 – and that is just the cost of the cars he broke into and was lucky enough to find a phone. If he has to break into an average of five cars to get one phone the figures are astronomical – based on these figures you can see that this one addict can easily be costing us all at least £10,000,000 a year!

Consider how many drug addicts there are in the country. Accept that those top-of-the-range phones are not always conveniently left in cars for all of those addicts and you begin to see how absolutely huge the problem is that we face. Use your common sense and read, understand and follow the countermeasures below to keep your property safe.

Stealing from cars – countermeasures

Lock your car whenever you are not in it.
If you have a trailer, a caravan or a luggage box on the roof, lock that too.
Buy and use a trailer hitch tow lock and, or wheel clamp to secure caravans and trailers when you leave them at home. Any device that prevents the trailer being taken will help to deter a thief.
Never ever leave your car keys in the car, even if you have left a passenger in there too! Make it a habit that when you get out of the car, the car keys go in your pocket. That has a double benefit in that it stops the car being stolen and also avoids the embarrassing problem of being locked out of the car, with the keys still in the ignition.
When you lock your car, use secondary security devices too; apply a steering lock or gear lever and handbrake lock.
Make sure that you don’t leave valuables on display in the car. See ‘What they will take’ below!
Anything you do to make your car a less appealing target is a good thing. The idea is to make the criminal walk past your car to look for a more tempting and more vulnerable target further down the road, or in the next car park.
Make a note of the make, model and serial numbers of your car radio, CD player, DVD player or any other in-car entertainment systems. At least if they are stolen you will be able to report them, so there is more chance of them being found!

What They Will Take

They will take anything! If the car is in the wrong place at the wrong time, they will literally take anything and everything. If there is something visible in the car, it will attract their attention.

Bags – You might know that the Tesco carrier bag on the back seat only contains a bar of soap and some toothpaste, but they don’t know that. You might think that nobody could possibly be interested in the tatty old coat you wear when you wash the car every Saturday afternoon, so you leave it on the back seat of the car.

You have to learn an important lesson. You have to realise that you know what these things are, you know that they have no value, but the passing car thief doesn’t know that. Where possible, you must see things through their eyes! All they can see is a Tesco carrier bag, as far as they know it could contain an expensive new digital camera!

Coats – They can only see a coat on the back seat, they don’t know it is your tatty car-washing coat. As far as they know it could be your favourite coat, the one you wear every day, so it has to be worth looking through the pockets. If you were careless enough to leave that bag and that coat in the car, you might just be careless enough to have left your house keys and a wallet in that coat. You may have left a chequebook and £75 cash in the pockets so it is worth the criminal breaking into the car to see. The only way to avoid this problem is not to leave anything on show in the car. If they can’t see anything they won’t try to steal it.
Laptops and briefcases – Certainly don’t leave real identifiable valuables like a laptop computer, briefcase or digital camera visible in the car. If you do leave your handbag, mobile phone, personal CD player, digital music player or anything visible, you may as well walk up to the nearest criminal, hand him the goods and ask him to damage your car if he has time. Don’t invite crime!

When you next go to your car take a fresh look at it. Walk around it and look it over as though you were looking for something to steal. That expensive-looking golf umbrella and the quality sunglasses are just sitting there, waiting to be taken.

You might think that nobody would break into a car for a golf umbrella and some sunglasses, but they will! You know they are only worth a few pounds but the criminal doesn’t. Remember the criminal only has to invest a large stone and two seconds of his time to smash your car window to see what he can find in the car. It costs the criminal nothing – so don’t tempt them!

Car park change – Do you think the additional temptation of what looks like about £10 or £15 in change in a little tray on the dashboard will tempt a criminal? You keep the change there because it is convenient for you to pay car park fees or feed a parking meter. Any money is valuable to a thief, because with a £200-a-day-habit, any contributions are gratefully accepted.
Keys – Keys are a major problem in cars. Many people keep or leave a set of house keys in the car. Most people have a house key on the same keyring as their car keys. If your car is stolen, the criminals will have a car full of evidence pointing to your address (letters etc.), employment (work documents, business cards) and habits (railway station car park season ticket which means you go to work by train so the house may be empty all day). If someone gets the car and all of that evidence and you leave a house key for him too, he will almost certainly come back for more! The only other thing you can do to make life easier for the thief is to pack your valuables and leave them just inside the front door so it is that little bit easier for the thieves when they come to steal them.
Documents – Some people also leave their vehicle registration documents in the car. Don’t leave anything for them.

What they will take – countermeasures

Don’t leave anything visible in the car. Never, ever, leave anything with any value on show in the car even for ‘just a minute’.
Don’t even leave things you know are not valuable where they can be seen. Carrier bags, shopping bag, coats, boxes or parcels will be too tempting. A criminal will smash the window and take them just to see what is inside.
Don’t leave loose change visible. It may be convenient for car parks and parking meters but a criminal will think £7.48 in change makes it worth smashing the window. After all, if the car owner helpfully leaves some money visible in the car for the criminal, you never know what else there may be in the glove compartment.
Never leave house or office keys in the car. Avoid leaving any documents with your home or office address on them. If you give them the keys you don’t want to give them the address so they can go round tomorrow to take everything valuable out of your home or office.
Don’t leave vehicle documents in the car. Some people leave the registration document, which is a mistake. Most people assume that somebody with a vehicle, the keys, and the registration document is the owner of the vehicle, so they can sell it or trade it in. Our criminal could easily steal the car, and if the registration document is in the glove compartment it makes it a little easier for him to convert that car to cash by selling it to some unsuspecting victim.

Where They Will Steal It

So, thieves are likely to take just about anything at all from your car. But, where are thieves likely to break into your car? There are hot spots, just as there are places that are more likely to suffer from vandalism, or assaults. I have attempted to list some considerations below, but the real answer is that if you leave your car insecure, or leave something valuable on show, it can and will eventually be taken wherever you are.

Car parks

Public car parks are favourite places to raid cars. The obvious reason is that there are hundreds of cars to choose from and many of them have valuables or potential valuables visible inside the car.

After the morning rush the car park is full of cars, but very few people are moving around until the lunchtime and evening rush. If we call those people moving around ‘witnesses’, we have identified times when there are few, if any witnesses in the car park – that sounds quite a good time for a thief to work, doesn’t it?

Most car parks have multiple entrances and exits for vehicles and pedestrians, giving the thief a number of entry and escape routes to use if he is disturbed. A major benefit to car thieves is that car park tickets are usually designed to clearly show the expiry time, and the local authority insists that you display that ticket in your car so that council staff can fine drivers for staying too long.

The time printed on that ticket could be in the format of a bar code that council staff could read using hand held scanners, but local authorities are not really interested in the safety of your car and the contents. They just want to make money off the poor oppressed motorist! They insist on printing the departure time in large print, but unfortunately the time on that ticket also clearly tells a car thief when a driver is likely to return to their car.

If the ticket is paid up to 6 pm, the owner is highly unlikely to come back to the car before five. Nobody pays more than they have to, so the pay and display tickets tell the criminal which cars to target! They even tell when the owners of surrounding cars are likely to come back to disturb him.

If it is 10 am and the ticket is paid until 6 pm, our car thief knows it will be six or seven hours before the owner discovers that his car has been stolen or broken into.

In most public car parks, if a member of the public sees a car with a broken window they will just rush to make sure their car is OK. It is very unlikely that they will bother to stop at a kiosk and report the damage, which is just as well, because most car parks are unmanned. The pay and display machine is the only council representative in the car park.

Car parks – countermeasures

Don’t leave anything on view in your car.
Given a choice, park somewhere that people can see your car. If there is a manned kiosk park opposite it. If the car park is unmanned park close to one of the exits or entrances where passing traffic or people walking by will make it less likely that a criminal will target your car.
If there is CCTV coverage of the car park, park in front of one of the cameras. Criminals don’t want to be on film doing their nasty deeds, so they are less likely to target a car being filmed on CCTV. You won’t have left anything on show in your car so they won’t be interested in your car anyway.
If you see anything suspicious in a car park, or if you see a car with a broken window, report it to the car park staff, or to the police if the car park is unmanned.
Remember security. When you park in the car park, don’t leave the car keys in the ignition while you wander off to find one of those pay and display ticket machines. The car will be gone when you get back! Lock it and take the keys with you, and don’t leave your case or handbag in the car while you go to get a ticket. It only takes a moment to steal that bag.
If you have a steering lock or other secondary security device, use it whenever you park and leave your car.
If you have a car alarm, always use it. When you hear a car alarm always respond immediately.

Home – on-street parking

When they get home, most people are in for the night. That means that from, say, six in the evening until about eight the following morning their car is on its own. If you use on-street parking your car is vulnerable, but because it is in a residential zone, where most houses are occupied, theft is less likely during the evening. Later, in the early hours, it has been know for gangs to tour an area to spot good targets then swoop back in and break into 20 cars in as many minutes and vanish.

Home – on-street parking – countermeasures

Be aware of any noise outside. I don’t expect you to sit at the window all night with binoculars scanning the road for gangs of criminals. If you hear what may be breaking glass, or shouting in the street outside, take a careful look. Go upstairs if you can – you get a better view from upstairs. Don’t turn the lights on – you will draw attention to yourself and warn the louts outside. Peek out through the curtains. If the noise is Mrs Biggins from number 42 dropping a bag of shopping that’s OK. If it is a group of youths clustering around your car, or any car, call the police. Keep watching and stay in touch with the police to pass on new details. If you stay on the line you can even say to the police operator, ‘Your car is coming down the street now. Tell them the two lads by the phone box are two of the gang and three more are hiding behind the white lorry.’ Anything that helps the police to find the suspects will be appreciated!

Home – off-street parking

Off-street parking is a little safer. The car or van is hopefully parked closer to the house, so the resident is likely to hear noises outside and will investigate, disturbing and preventing any criminal activity. Unfortunately some town planners organise off street parking that is positioned away from homes, in little clusters which are often ‘tastefully’ landscaped with shrubs. That is very unfortunate because the town planners have isolated the vehicles from their owners and given the criminals some nice bushes that provide a screen to hide the criminal’s activities and mask any sound that they may make.

Home – garage parking

Garaged parking at home is the safest option. Garages are often built either next to or attached to the house, so the car and garage are near enough to be protected by the fence, gravel path, security light, family dog and so on.

The garage itself will protect the car for several reasons:

The criminal doesn’t know if the garage contains a car, or just a wheelbarrow.
The criminal doesn’t know if any car in the garage contains any valuables or if the car in the garage is worth more than scrap value.
The criminal would have to take a greater risk by gaining access to the property, then break into the garage, which might be empty anyway.

Most criminals don’t want to get caught. If presented with the option of risking discovery to break into a garage that may be empty anyway, or walking past and looking for an easier target, they will walk on by. Remember that the surrounding roads and car parks are full of easier targets than a car in a garage.

Where planners have designed and built blocks of garages away from the houses, take extra care. Very often these ‘garage ghettos’ are heavily vandalised, frequently broken into and subject to a wide range of anti-social and criminal activity.

Home – garage parking – countermeasures

As above, plus:

If you have a garage don’t clutter it up with cardboard boxes, broken televisions and all of the other rubbish people seem to like filling a garage with. Use the garage to keep the car safe.
Always keep the garage door shut. You don’t want criminals to see what interesting things you keep there, like a ladder, a ride-on mower, three brand new mountain bikes and so on. You don’t really want them to know if the car is in the garage or not; that way they don’t know if you are at home or not, which gives you a higher level of home security! If they don’t know if you are in or out, they will probably walk on by.

Cars at petrol stations

Most people feel that a garage forecourt is a safe place. There are a lot of other cars around, there is often a CCTV system in place. If the garage is open there will always be members of staff on duty. Unfortunately, a garage is an ideal place for criminals to operate.

It is a public place, where anyone, including criminals, have a right to be.
There are a lot of people coming and going so they can merge into the crowd.
There is a never-ending supply of cars and their valuable contents and naive drivers flowing on and off the forecourt.
The criminal can wait and take his time selecting a worthy target.
With luck the driver will leave his keys in the car and the criminal can take the whole car, drive off and search it at his leisure in some quiet back road. If he does that he may get alloy wheels, new tyres, engine parts, tools from the boot of the car, top-of-the-range car entertainment system, golf clubs etc; quite a star prize to an opportunist thief.

Always treat a garage forecourt as though everyone else there is a criminal. They aren’t, but that will put you in a security frame of mind and prevent you suffering loss.

Petrol stations – countermeasures

As above, plus:

Think security.
Put any valuables discreetly out of sight. For example put your mobile phone in your pocket after you turn it off, close your briefcase and leave it in the boot, or at least slide it down into the passenger footwell. Your objective is to leave nothing tempting on show, nothing that a criminal would think they could steal in two seconds.
When you get out take the keys with you. Get into the habit that if you turn the engine off, you lock the car then the keys always go into your pocket or handbag.
When you have filled up with fuel lock the car before going to the kiosk to pay.
When entering the kiosk, fiddling with your purse or wallet or stack of £20 notes, be aware that a criminal could snatch them and run off.

Main road service areas

Main road service areas are a cross between a car park and a garage forecourt.

They are designed to hold a large number of vehicles.
They offer various services, fuel, food, toilets etc.
They are usually established on motorways or busy main roads.
Because they are on busy main roads they attract a lot of visitors.
A range of different vehicles use the motorway service areas, including trucks with expensive loads, coaches, cars, caravans, delivery vans and motorbikes.
Members of the public have free access to the service areas via a network of inter-linked fast roads and motorways!

All of the above points make them an ideal target for vehicle crime. From hijacking lorries and vans with valuable loads, to breaking into a tourist coach while everyone is using the toilets (and making off with an arm full of cameras and other valuables). Service areas can be a crime hotspot.

Main road – countermeasures

Be particularly careful when parking at service areas.
Make sure that whatever vehicle you are in, you secure any valuables out of sight, lock all doors and windows and use any secondary security measures.
Park as near to the main building as you can; criminals are unlikely to be bold enough to attack a vehicle in clear view of passing drivers and shoppers.
Park under a light and in view of a CCTV camera if you can.
Make a point of carefully locking and securing the vehicle. The criminals are usually already there and are watching drivers as they come in. By showing how careful you are you may just put them off trying because they now know you are aware of crime and actively combating it.
If you are in a large group in something like a minibus or coach, and carrying anything of particular value that cannot easily be hidden (suitcases, rucksacks and bags etc), arrange for one or two of you to stay with the vehicle at all times.
If you are using a service area and see anything suspicious, report it immediately.

Badly-managed leisure centre and hotel car parks

Hotel car parks are a favoured target for criminals. People using a hotel:

are away from home;
affluent enough to be able to afford to use a hotel;
are likely to be travelling on business;
may be carrying valuable laptops, samples, mobile phones;
may be distracted enough to have left wallets, credit cards and cheque books in their car;
unlikely to come out to the car until after seven in the morning.

That is a tempting target for a criminal, especially when many hotel and leisure centre car parks are vast, and designed, landscaped and built to look pretty, rather than to be secure and safe. I was once called to a hotel car park where 17 expensive cars had been raided in a single night. Remember the risks associated with these car parks.

Leisure centre and hotel car parks – countermeasures

Even though it is inconvenient when using a hotel, take all of your valuables to your room each evening. The hotel porter should be available to help you if you have two cases of valuable samples, a laptop computer a briefcase and your suitcase.
If using a leisure centre, don’t take unnecessary valuables with you. You won’t need them while swimming or playing squash so leave them locked away safely at home or in the office.
Remember to park where the car can be seen, where it is well lit, where it is in view of a CCTV camera.
If you find that a hotel or leisure centre car park is unsafe, badly designed and subject to crime, ask to see the manager, and tell them you will no longer be using their facilities because the car park is unsafe. If they lose enough customers, they will soon improve security in the car park. Follow up any complaint with a letter to their head office and marketing people. The more people that know, the more questions will be asked and the more likely they are to do something about it.

Garage workshops

Most mechanics are honest (though when asked to pay labour charges of £95 an hour some drivers would dispute that). Unfortunately no matter how many honest mechanics there are, there are some dishonest ones. To maintain security we have to treat all garages and all mechanics as though they are, or at least could be, dishonest.

You can still be polite when dealing with them, but before leaving the car with them you should take some steps to maintain your security. Remember your car is a private little home from home. Even though it is a small metal box with windows all around, most people treat their car as though it was an extension of their living room, oblivious to the world around them.

The security problem is what you leave in your car or hand over to the mechanic when you put it in for service and repair.

Garage workshop – countermeasures

Don’t leave valuables in the car! I have a friend who owns a garage and he tells me that he regularly finds chequebooks, credit cards, purses, wallets, handbags, and other undoubtedly valuable possessions in cars. To avoid that, when the owner signs the car in for work, he quickly checks the vehicle and points out these things so that the owner can take them away.
Don’t leave private documents in the car! It is surprising how many people leave bank statements, receipts, confidential papers from work or private letters in a car. When the car is due to go into the garage for service or repair, take the opportunity to give it a spring clean, check to see what is in the boot, under the seats, in door pockets and the glove compartment! Remove anything that shouldn’t or doesn’t have to be there.
Check the car keys! You have to leave the ignition key, locking wheel nut key etc, for the mechanics to move the car and make repairs, but you don’t have to leave any other keys. When they drop off their car, most people hand over the car and a bunch of keys that they refer to and recognise as their car keys. The trouble is that most sets of car keys have a lot more than the car keys on them. So you greet this mechanic you have never met and don’t know at all. You hand over the car, make sure he has details of your exact name and address, then you tell him that you will be away in London until at least 5.30. Your car keys might hold:
- the car ignition key
- your garage key
- electronic fob for free access to the company car park
- a key to the steering wheel lock you usually use
- a spare key to your husband/wife’s car
- the key to turn the burglar alarm on and off
- a key to the front door of the office
- a front door key to your parents’ house.
Be aware of the possible security implications of handing over the set of car keys described above. Check the vehicle, and spend a minute to remove the actual car keys from your bunch of keys, and only give these to the mechanic!

Getting into a car

When they get back to their vehicle, drivers can and often do make themselves a potential and tempting target for thieves. They are not aware of what is going on around them, because they are usually off guard concentrating on searching for the car keys or wondering what the traffic is like on the main road. Perhaps they are putting a briefcase or valuable laptop computer down to free a hand to dig in a pocket or handbag for the car key, or carefully balancing their purchases on the car roof while they do so.

A thief on a mountain bike can have swooped down and taken the laptop or briefcase and be gone before you can turn around to see what the noise was. That thief could be half a mile away before the driver even realises that he has become the victim of a theft!

Remember, snatch thieves could just as easily swoop down and take a handbag or shopping from a passenger who is waiting to get into the car, while the driver keeps them waiting as he searches for the elusive keys.

Women should take particular care. Handbags and shopping can be taken at this time and a violent criminal may also demand that she hand over watches and jewellery too.

Another risk at this time is that a thief will threaten or assault you, take the keys and drive off in the car. This is more likely if your car is an expensive sports car, or luxury limousine but don’t relax just because your car is a cheap and rusty runabout; in the past thieves have stolen the cheapest car, just for a ride home!

Getting into the car – countermeasures

You know when you have decided to go back to the car, so have your keys ready. Get the keys ready before you leave the shop or office. Avoid stopping when you get to the car to concentrate on looking for the keys.
As you approach the car keep an eye out for suspicious activity. Stay aware of what is going on around you. Is that youth on a mountain bike just slow, or is he waiting for something?
When you get to the car, take care when putting cases, bags and packages down to free a hand to let you get into the car. Have the key ready and available so that you don’t have to put valuables down. If you have to put something down, make sure that you protect it by putting it down between you and the car where it will be harder to snatch. Consider opening the car boot and putting the valuables, shopping, laptop, or briefcase straight into the boot before you get into the car.
If a stranger offers to take the key and open the car for you, or take the packages while you open the car, be suspicious. Are they helping you or intending to help themselves?
If there is somebody or a group of people you don’t like the look of hanging around at or near your car, don’t go to the car! Wait until somebody else walks that way. Ask a shopping centre security guard to walk you to the car, or go back into your office and ask a member of staff to escort you to your car. If all else fails and you are really suspicious call the police and ask if somebody can come over while you get to your car. No matter what the group of youths may be doing, if they have the resources available the police should be interested in asking them why they are waiting around in the car park with no apparent reason.

Stopped at the lights

When a car pulls up at traffic lights, or a junction at a main road anywhere, it is trapped in the queue of traffic, which is a time when thieves often target cars. They simply run up, smash a window, lean in and snatch anything they can see. Women’s handbags, men’s jackets containing wallets and other valuables, briefcases, mobile phones and anything else that can be snatched goes in the blink of an eye.

These snatches can escalate into violence or the loss of the car. If the victim tries to fight back the criminals may assault them and weapons are sometimes on hand as a method of last resort to the thieves who will do anything to get away. Sometimes they work in pairs; one thief will loiter at a junction to look into cars. He then uses his mobile phone to call his partner who is waiting at the next junction – the spotter tells the grabber to go for the ‘briefcase on the rear passenger seat of the blue Jaguar’.

If the driver jumps out of the car to chase a thief, another thief may jump in and drive the car away. Sometimes this is an orchestrated plan, where the first thief with the mobile phone or jacket makes a slow getaway, tempting the driver to think he can retrieve his belongings. The driver jumps out, not realising that he is leaving his £25,000 car vulnerable as he chases a thief, trying vainly to retrieve a £30 mobile phone or £50 jacket! Remember if they get the car, they may also have the handbag, jacket, wallet, briefcase, house keys, addresses, cheque books, credit cards etc as well.

Stopped at the lights – countermeasures

You have to stop at the lights and some major road junctions, but you can take a few measures to reduce the likelihood of your being targeted.

Realise that this sort of smash and grab from occupied stationary cars does happen.
Make sure that tempting valuables are not on display. When you get into the car, put your case, jacket and maybe your handbag into the boot out of sight and lock the boot.
You don’t need the mobile phone on the seat beside you or on the dashboard, so hide it away in a pocket. You cannot use the mobile while driving so you may as well put it in the boot with your briefcase or in the glove compartment, anywhere out of sight.
Remember, if you have passengers, they can tempt thieves as well, so get them to hide their valuables so that thieves are not tempted to try smashing a window or two.
When stopping in a queue of traffic, don’t wedge yourself in. Always leave ‘rubber and road’. That is, when stopped in a queue of traffic and looking over the bonnet of your car you should be able to see the back tyres of the car in front and some road surface between you. If you do that, you will have a little space to manoeuvre and if safe and necessary you would even have enough room to pull out of the queue of traffic and drive off if you had to.
When stopping, especially in an area you don’t know and if there are suspicious looking people hanging around – lock the doors and close windows and the sunshine roof. The more you can do to protect yourself, protect your property and to deter the thief the better.
If somebody does break your window, don’t try to detain them or try to fight them off. Don’t try to chase them. Stay in the car, it is the safest place to be, and when it is safe, drive to the nearest police station or other place where there are a lot of people. A garage forecourt, with CCTV, plenty of light and a lot of people around is a good place to stop and call the police. You could also stop on a railway station forecourt, a supermarket car park, the front car park of a pub, in fact anywhere, that is well lit and has a lot of people around.
If your car is attacked, try to make a note of any vehicles and car numbers etc that are involved. Otherwise try to make a note of the car numbers of drivers who have witnessed the attack. Most people won’t want to get involved so they will drive off, and with their car numbers you can at least tell the police what vehicles were around at the time.
If you can see a crowd of youths waiting at or near the next set of lights, try pacing your approach. That is, if it is safe, slow down so that you reach the junction or lights when they are on green, which means you don’t have to stop. If they are criminals they will not have a chance to attack your car if you don’t come to a stop at the lights. BE CAREFUL, remember traffic is moving around you. When you slow right down and leave a large gap in the flow of traffic, other drivers may try to overtake and cut past you, or cut into the gap you leave, so when you accelerate to drive through with the lights on green be extra careful. Don’t get into an accident by ignoring other traffic. For example the driver of a car in a side road may think you are slowing to let them out, then when you accelerate to catch the green light you could drive straight into the side of his car as he pulls out onto the road. Try to pace yourself IF IT IS SAFE.

‘Lapping’

Lapping is a speciality of the stationary traffic smash and grab thief. Criminals target business areas, where office staff will be going home and will be trapped in rush hour traffic jams. The criminals pick an area where there are a lot of offices, and where the badge of management tends to be an expensive laptop computer. A computer that is probably worth at least £800 (without the value of software and confidential corporate information) is more often than not casually tossed on the front or rear passenger seat. Our dim-manager stops his car at the traffic lights and is stunned when a brick comes through the side window, followed by a hand that snatches the laptop computer! He then sits trying to regain his composure as he watches his laptop in the hands of a young thief sprinting off down the road and vanishing in a labyrinth of alleys and underpasses.

Lapping – countermeasures

If possible, disguise something like a laptop. If you cannot or do not want to put it in the boot of the car, at least don’t advertise it.
Never leave a laptop on the seat of a car, even if you are in the car.
If possible try to avoid using those nice stylish padded laptop cases. You shouldn’t be surprised to know that thieves know that posh and expensive laptop bags usually contain posh and expensive laptop computers. Consider putting your laptop into a sports bag, even put an old (dry) towel on top of it as camouflage. Very few self-respecting thieves will attack a car at the lights to steal what looks like some smelly sports kit and a potentially soggy towel.
Even better, don’t carry your laptop if you don’t need to. It will be safer locked up in the office or at home than being carried around the streets or left in parked cars when you don’t really need it.
Remember that there is now a device that thieves can place on a car window to see if there is a computer in the car. The device apparently picks up electric signals, which invariably come from a laptop computer, even if it is turned off! That means they can tell if you have a laptop in the boot of the car even though they can’t see it. Knowing there is an £800 laptop in the boot means that it is worth them taking the risk and going to the effort of breaking into the boot of the car!

‘Spotting’ in car parks

Everyone knows that if they have to carry them, they should lock valuables in the boot of their car. A few people even follow that advice, but at Christmas and sale times they fall foul of ‘the spotter’.

Breaking into a car is easy when you know how. Criminals practice on different makes and swap methods so that they know how to quickly get into all of the common makes and models of car and van.

Getting into the boot is quite simple as well if you know how, but before they break in they ask themselves a question. Is there anything in the boot that will reward their efforts and make it worth taking the risk of being caught breaking into that car?

That is where ‘spotting’ comes in. A criminal will hang around a car park entrance at Christmas or when the sales are on. When somebody comes back to the car park loaded down with loads of interesting looking purchases, they will discreetly follow them all the way back to their car.

Who is targeted

A shopper with two economy size packs of toilet rolls will not be of any real interest! On the other hand, a shopper with bags marked with the name of a camera store, or a shopper carrying a brand new boxed DVD writer/player, iPod or similar expensive electronic goods will be of great interest. They will watch to see what car that shopper goes to, and what they do when they get there. They obviously intend trying to steal those goods, but if the shopper loads the shopping into the car, gets in and drives off it doesn’t matter, because there will be another shopper along in a minute.

Eventually they will be rewarded. A driver will return loaded down with shopping and lock it all in the boot of the car before going back to the high street to finish their shopping expedition. They may have been security conscious and put the valuables in the boot of their car out of sight, but that doesn’t matter to the spotter. He now knows that there is something worth taking in the boot of the car because he just watched the driver put it in there!

He breaks into that car, then two minutes later he emerges from the car park with the crowd, looking like a normal everyday shopper. Just a guy walking through the car park loaded down with purchases – only in his case they were your purchases until he popped your car boot open and took them!

Another opportunity for spotters is at remote car parks. At country parks, churches, etc, where the local authority has helpfully erected signs asking motorists to lock valuables out of sight in the boot of their car. Our criminal watches the dim motorist drive up, park and look at the sign. With security in mind, that dim motorist then locks his CD player, a handbag, and some expensive-looking shopping in the boot of the car before he goes shuffling off for an hour or so. Guess what our criminal spotter does as soon as Mr or Mrs Dim-driver wanders off? He opens that car boot and removes the valuables, and he is miles away before any crime can be discovered let alone reported.

Spotter – countermeasures

If you are going to go for a walk in the park, or go to church or otherwise leave the car for a long time, don’t take unnecessary valuables with you.
If you have valuables go home and put them somewhere safe before you go and leave the car at the local park, church or other unattended car park.
If you cannot leave valuables somewhere safe, make them as secure as you can. Stop somewhere (before you reach your destination car park), to hide the valuables away in the boot of the car. There shouldn’t be a spotter around where you stop and if there is, it doesn’t matter because you are going to drive off straight away anyway. By doing it before you reach the church (or whatever) car park you will foil any spotter working there.
If you carry valuables, disguise them. Try not to walk out of the electronics shop with your purchase in one of their distinctive carrier bags. You don’t have to be too bright to figure out that an electronic shop carrier bag probably contains some valuable electronic items. I try to carry a supermarket cool bag around with me. They fold up quite well so they are easy to carry. They are strong and large enough to hold most things. Best of all, to a spotter I look like I am putting frozen food in the car, not a new digital music iPod.
If you are doing a big shop, consider getting your first armful of shopping, putting it in the boot of the car then driving home with it. Better to be safe than sorry – go back to the shops later if you still have things to buy.

General safety – countermeasures

Keeping your car tidy will usually prevent you from carelessly leaving things in it. In a clean car something left on the seat stands out, in a messy car something valuable left on the seat is just another part of the clutter so you may not notice it. A clean, tidy and empty car is less likely to attract the attention of a thief.
There is another important benefit to be gained from securely storing the things we all carry in our vehicles. That is the safety of you and your passengers! Would it hurt if I threw a tin of baked beans at the back of your head? What if I was to pick up your whole week’s shopping and then throw it at your head and shoulders as hard as I could? What about your toolbox, car jack, spare wheel, tyre lever and various windscreen sprays, scrapers and oily rags too? You risk the equivalent of just that if you have an accident in an untidy car. Even if the accident isn’t your fault, if you are sitting quietly minding your own business in a marked parking bay, and you are hit head on by a drunk doing 50 miles an hour. Your seatbelt might protect you from the worst of the impact, but all those loose things lying around in your car would hurtle towards your windscreen and your head!
What is in your car? Does it need to be there? Now that you can see that the clutter could kill you and the friend you give a lift to work that morning, is there anything that should be taken out of your car, van, estate or MPV? Those metal fence posts are now potential weapons that could kill your two daughters on the way to school tomorrow. The week’s shopping you put on the back seat because the car boot is full could kill you at the next junction where people always seem to be going too fast. Check the car. Remove anything that doesn’t have to be in there. Weed out the toolbox, only carry what you really have to carry. When you have arrived at the bare minimum store and secure it properly. Put as much as possible in the boot of the car where it will be out of sight and won’t hurt you in an accident.
If you drive an estate car or van, remember that anything and everything you carry really wants to jump up and hit you in the back of the head. Install a bulkhead if you can, but always tie everything down as well as you can to stop it moving around, and take it out of the vehicle as soon as you can. Consider using a cargo net or tie down bags to stop things flying around in an accident.
If a business person really has to have their briefcase on the front passenger seat, the front passenger seat belt can be looped through the handle to stop it flying around in the car if there is an accident.
Handbags can be secured with a seat belt, but the bag would be more secure if it was pushed out of sight under the passenger seat. (Don’t hide things under the driver’s seat, because in hard braking any objects can slide out from under the driver’s seat and interfere with the accelerator or brake pedals.)
By spring cleaning your car, you will not only make it safer, you will reduce the weight and so reduce wear and tear on the car as well as improving your miles per gallon. If you aren’t pulling around half a ton of bikes, unwanted tools, fence posts and other junk, your engine won’t be working so hard so you simply won’t use so much petrol.
Be aware of your surroundings and act on gut feelings. If it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t right! If you don’t like the look of the louts hanging around the car park, find another car park, and report the louts.
Don’t leave driving documents and personal letters in the car. They have a different but nevertheless worthwhile value to criminals.
If your car entertainment system is removable, or has a removable faceplate, take it with you when you leave the car. If the entertainment system or front control panel aren’t in the car there is one thing less to attract a thief so they should walk on past. Make sure that you have recorded the make, model and serial numbers of any in-car entertainment equipment.

Criminal Damage

For some reason unknown to science there is a subspecies of human being which has the scientific name of me brainless doofus. This subspecies has a genetic need to mindlessly damage things. They are mainly nocturnal in habit and usually travel in small packs, but are timid, usually presenting no signs of brain activity or courage especially if they are alone.

This subspecies is genetically predisposed to seek out and unnecessarily damage the property of people it does not know and has never met. Though they can attack the property of somebody they think has transgressed against them, that is rarely the case.

Signs of their passing are scratches on car paint work, slashing of car tyres, pouring of corrosive fluid on car paint, smashing of mirrors and bending of car aerials and in extreme cases the taking and burning of cars.

As there seems to be no known pattern to their behaviour, countermeasures are restricted. It is likely that the countermeasures you take to protect your car and house from theft and intrusion will be quite effective to control and prevent this behaviour.

Unfortunately, the courts only appear to consider criminal damage to be of ‘nuisance’ value. If caught offenders are likely to just be told not to do it again. Not much punishment for the mindless damage they have caused.

Criminal damage etc – countermeasures

Some of the countermeasures have already been discussed, but the golden rules of avoiding criminal damage are:

Always lock your car and garage.
Don’t leave tools and equipment around that these morons can use to damage your car.
Don’t park in an area where there are bricks, chunks of broken concrete, lengths of wood or bottles etc. that a passing lout could see and decide to use those objects to damage your car.
Always be aware of your surroundings. When looking for somewhere to park, don’t just look for a space that is big enough. Think about what you want to do, where you are, what time you will come back to the car. If you can see broken car window glass all along the road, that indicates that criminals are active in the area. If you can see a good quality car minus its alloy wheels and sitting on bricks, do you really want to park there?
Is this a quiet side street now? If so, when you come back to your car from a theatre or cinema show that ends at midnight, what will the street look like then? If you can’t see any streetlights, that means that the area will be in total darkness after sunset. Pick your parking area sensibly.
Do you really want to park next to those overgrown bushes? How many robbers could be lurking in them when you come back after a late meeting? Be sensible and take time to really look at the area. What evidence can you already see, and what problem can you foresee this area giving you when it is late and dark?
If you made a mistake or are later than you expected and find you have to get into your car in a lonely, dark and remote place be ready and do it quickly. With the key ready, check nobody is inside, open the door, get in, lock the doors and drive off as soon as you are ready. Don’t take time to put your briefcase in the boot and don’t delay by tuning the radio to your favourite channel. The sooner you have left that place the sooner you stop being vulnerable. When you get to the main road you can pull into a garage forecourt or supermarket car park to tune the radio, and take your coat off if you really need to.
If you have an aerial, retract it. It takes a second to put it down, but it can prevent the criminal or vandal leaving you with an expensive repair.