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Model specific boards => Golf mk8 => Topic started by: Carl_45 on 14 June 2022, 11:07
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As promised, security recommendations…
Firstly, I don’t want to sound like I’m preaching, it’s your choice, I just wanted to share what happened to me and what I’m doing to try avoid it happening again. If my story prevents a single car from being stolen, or better still catches a thief, then I feel like I’ve done my bit.
As you may have read on my other thread, my 3 month old clubsport 45 was stolen whilst we were on holiday.
We live in a small town, borderline village and there’s lots of other nice cars around this area, there’s the usual brigade of German and JLR tractors (that I don’t care for) and other cars, from hot hatches to a Maserati on our street. Our house is straight opposite the recreational park so it’s a good location. The downside of this is the street is quite open and is an access road to the rest of the estate, it’s one of those roads that’s quiet all day except for two periods as people leave/return to/from work.
I parked on the drive, locked the car by double pressing the lock button to deactivate keyless and hid the key in the house. There were no keys visible from any window, every door and window was locked (all windows and doors are fairly new) and we have CCTV cameras that record to a box hidden in the garage.
Disclaimer…. Yes I know garages are for cars and not storing junk, it’s a typical 1980s garage and I’ve never tried to put the car in and see if it fits.
The (insert your own word here) thieves came over the fence and on to the back garden, bust the lock on the French doors, rummaged through all the drawers in the kitchen and dinning room until they eventually found the spare key and drove off like they owned it, the VW we connect system disconnected all services within 25 minutes, I had an email stating this. After speaking with VW Germany, they did a master reset of the infotainment to do this as they didn’t have both keys to become ‘primary user’.
What have I learnt… well, CCTV, especially the type I had, is not a deterrent, they blatantly didn’t care. We’re overlooked, yet, they didn’t even switch off the back garden security light despite it being on an outdoor switch.
If you have euro locks on your doors (Google it and look at your key), the lock mechanism cost £15 and is broken in minutes. The better locks can be bought for £60 and are reinforced, I’m yet to change mine, but there’s loads of information out there on doing it DIY. A locksmith will charge a small fortune.
Not many others are car enthusiasts like us, even the home insurance said the words “at least it’s just the car”. To me, it’s the worst thing they could have taken, I don’t care about the tv and sofa. There is more precious (to us) items in the house, my missus’ late mother’s jewellery and to be honest I’m glad for her sake that was safe.
The thieves touched nothing but the car, but the stress of it all is unreal, even getting the insurance company to issue a voucher for the kids car seats so I could do the school run again took 4 phone calls.
What am I doing different….
Number 1 on my list is definitely a ring security system, I installed it last weekend and it’s great. It’s a visual and audible deterrent and something to alert the neighbours. Next door have one too (they have been very helpful with all of this) so we know to listen for each other’s. If you have an Alexa you can even set the home armed setting to trigger with a “goodnight” routine, we have one setup that switches off the lounge lamps etc.
I am ordering a few apple AirTags, at least one for each car, they’re not foolproof, but better than nothing, I did consider going all out and having a proper tracker, but, we pay insurance for a reason… I want to discourage a future theft and make it difficult, but one thing I’ve learnt… you can’t stop this happening.
I’m looking at changing the locks to better ones like I said above, the plastic part of the door handle is broken and we have the window people coming out this week, I’m going to ask if the outside lock can be blanked on the French doors as we don’t need to unlock it from the outside.
I have considered a disk lock for whatever new car I get, but where do you put your key??? On the car key probably, I suppose it’s a way to slow them down.
Will we use the garage when we go away next? I’d love to say yes, but possibly not. I am thinking about a clear out, but, many on here with young families and busy jobs know, finding the time is much easier said than done.
One last word from me, enjoy your cars whilst you can, who knows what’s around the corner, not just this, but other life changes too. I’ve gone from cars to putting money into a run down house to kids and back to cars now we’re not paying nursery fees…. Life moves fast. For me, it’s not a case of miss what you’ve lost, I’ve grown up a lot from the days of getting bored and swapping cars, I wanted something that didn’t depreciate too much, that was sensible enough to do the school run and was fun when I got out on my own. The 45 fitted this bill perfectly and was a pleasure to own. It was one of my all time favourite cars and I appreciated it even more following the wait and excitement, I bet the b******s have put it in special mode before the oil temperature was hot and taken it to a hand car wash and everything!!
Anyway, onwards and upwards to the next car adventure…. If the insurance ever make me a settlement, they’re dragging their heels.
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Have you considered installing a few foldable/lockable bollards, or are you worried you might forget they are there and drive into them yourself. Do any of the dearer motors get targeted near you e.g. the aforementioned Maserati etc?
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I had a couple of “near misses” when I had my MK7 R. On one occasion I disturbed 3 scrotes trying to remove a window on my house while we were all in bed upstairs. That prompted the sale of the R. At the time I was living in a housing estate, all open plan, car was very visible on the driveway.
Tbh I think you need a secure driveway, with car hidden from view or better still, a secure garage, if you want to own a car like this in any comfort. I’ve since built a house and a garage/gates, etc was one of my big priorities for the new build. I wouldn’t own a car like that again without that security.
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Really reasoned post, when I bought my Clubsport there was a spate of car thefts on the estate where I live which got me paranoid, I'm quite lucky in that I have a double garage free from the usual gubbins that get stored in them so was able to put it away each night (with a Disklok and alarmed seperately to the house). There's another GTI round the corner so my reasoning was they would take that one instead.
I must admit its a faff as it also involves opening a big set of Wooden gates we have but for the hassle you've mentioned I'm hopeful its worth it.
Interestingly garaging it made no difference to the insurance premium as leaving it on the drive.
I hope this episode doesn't put you off cars for too long and you get something equally as interesting (I'm sure an M2 as you mentioned in your other post will be)
Foxy
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It was suggested about a having a lockable post, my grandad had one and did just that. I’m thinking about it. I know my missus would actually prefer a little wall/fence all around the front garden and drive anyway as it feels very open. I might look in to this.
No, it’s not put me off, I’m a stubborn and glass half full bloke anyway. I won’t let this affect me, why should it, that’s no way to live. I’ll just be even more security conscious in future. Yes as per my other post, I’m considering a M2 competition.
There was an F-type stole in the same area a few days before mine, but we were away so only saw on Facebook after we’d got back. Maybe it’s a group passing through the area.
One thing I forgot to say, the police took it very seriously, I didn’t think they did at first, but once there was a detective assigned they really stepped up, doing door to door and looking around all the cul-de-sacs in case it had been dumped for a few days.
Like I said. The main thing I’ve learnt, you can’t stop it, but if you’re is “harder” work, they’ll move on to the next house that’s “easier”. Sad but true! With it standing out so much, they issued photos to the “beat cops” too.
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Sorry to hear about your misfortune, Carl, and thank you for taking time to help others learn from your experience.
Can I ask, is your house alarmed, and if so, did they disable it?
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Sorry to hear about your misfortune, Carl, and thank you for taking time to help others learn from your experience.
Can I ask, is your house alarmed, and if so, did they disable it?
No it wasn’t alarmed, I had an old CCTV system (with Hard drive recorder). It is alarmed now with a full ring alarm system, door sensors, PIR and an outside siren
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Since having mine stolen - brick through patio door and keys taken whilst we were in bed - I now use a bollard and disklok. Was a few years ago now but was a real pain not just because the car went but caused damage to floor etc so had to have that mostly replaced. I sometimes think I’m now too careful and it won’t happen again as it’s older car and ‘newer’ pricier cars on the street but I’ve occasionally had to get out of bed in the night to check I did raise the bollard!
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I’m sure you’ll be fine now.
CCTV isn’t much of a deterrent, an alarm is, imho.
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Re. Alarm etc.. the insurance claims guy (ex police) said he doubted an alarm would have helped as they obviously had no qualms on making any noise, and we were in the house. I would have been really interested to know why/how they targeted it… ie followed home etc.
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Are you considering fitting a Ghost or Pandora to your new car?
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Well, when I had my mk7 stolen, the police said that an alarm and cctv will do nothing to deter these ‘people’. They recommended a disclock and to keep the car in the garage. That’s what I’ve done since.
I did have one near miss with my R which o think I posted on the Mk7 forum, but that felt very opportunistic. As the lad came into my garage for the car I think I ran over his foot. Shame.
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Some insurance companies actually charge you more for keeping your car in a garage believe it or not.
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Well, when I had my mk7 stolen, the police said that an alarm and cctv will do nothing to deter these ‘people’. They recommended a disclock and to keep the car in the garage. That’s what I’ve done since.
I did have one near miss with my R which o think I posted on the Mk7 forum, but that felt very opportunistic. As the lad came into my garage for the car I think I ran over his foot. Shame.
No, I don’t think alarms do much by themselves, especially if the keys are hanging by the door, but my thinking is an alarm going off should make them do a runner before they find the keys if put in a safe place.
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Some great advice going on here.
Here’s my opinion, not that is worth much.
Snap safe locks: brilliant and really do work. They are so easy to fit yourself, please don’t get someone else to do it and pay a fortune. Simply take out the lock barrel in your door, normally removed by removing one screw after taking the handle off and measure it. Loads of YT vids on how it do this. If not sure, do the above when someone else is in the house and just take the barrel to your local hardware store and ask for snap safe barrels. Usually around £50-£60 for decent ones. My next point is about these locks. There are brilliant but if sh!tbags want to get in, they will get in at all costs! These locks are useful to hold them up a little or make them make more noise if they can’t get through the door but they aren’t full proof. There has been a technique where they blow torch around the locks as most doors are upvc so the heat shrinks it and therefore they have more access to the lock to remove it and in they go.
Door jammers again are useful but aren’t full proof. Again they cost them time and noise to bypass them.
If they think you aren’t in they will make as much noise as they want.
House alarm: I would always say have one. Yes they don’t stop them coming in but a loud alarm going off not all panics them but also alerts other people. This can put them on the back foot as they don’t want to get caught so will do what they have to do quickly and won’t hang about. If they don’t get what they want quickly, they will leave fearing someone coming in or Police turning up.
Security lights: Again worth it for that little bit of distraction and wondering who might see them.
CCTV: as already mentioned doesn’t put them off as normally masked up but believe me, these sh!ts wear the same sh!te clothing all the time and ID is often possible even when masked up.
Lights on timers: if you are going away, use the smart plugs for your lights on a night and early morning. Again can make the difference between your house getting done over if they have been watching. The lights being on and off will make them things someone is actually in. Also there is a really handy little gadget that is an LED light that emits lighting like a TV. Have this on a timer in the living room and makes it look like someone is watching TV. Only issue with that is curtains and I know we all stress about what to do with them when we go on holiday. Personally I leave them open but some windows we have blinds so angle them down slightly so not as easy to look I .
For me combine all the above and it puts you in a better position to protect your property from these absolute pieces of dirt!
You can really go mad on all this, crook locks, disc locks, security posts, all again are a deterrent but most things can be bypassed, the more there is though, the more likely they are to give up trying.
I’m certainly not a fount of all knowledge on this but pick up a few bits along the way so hope it helps a little.
Like I said at the beginning, really good post this for us all to give out experiences and what we think works for us.
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I would always recommend a burglar alarm if you're concerned about visitors entering your property uninvited.
While they won't completely stop a determined thief, they will startle those that haven't done their homework.
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For French doors get a patlock they come with snapsafe spindles to go through the handles.
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A very useful thread :afro: with good solid practical advice from real people with real experiences.
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All very useful tips and strategies for reducing risk. Alarms need to be in a separate fuse box from the rest of the house fuses as it is easy to short circuit the main house circuit breaker (eg by shorting the security lights) and render the alarm ineffective. As said in this thread all of the security devices can be overcome given time but time is often the thing these people do not have if they don't want to be caught.
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Anybody considering a new alarm, I strongly recommend you check out Ring, every device has battery backup and if you pay the £80 a year optional subscription the main box even has data backup incase your WiFi is lost so you still get phone notifications even if they pull the phone cord.
I did compare Ring with the Yale wireless system from screwfix, but went with Ring, £390 for the large indoor kit and outdoor sensors. Even has a indoor WiFi camera. Once the 30 days free trail is over I’m paying the £80 subscription as you get 10% off future purchases and I’ll look at either an outdoor camera for the front/drive or a door bell camera.
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Had a break in a few years back now. They were after the car as well, fortunately the keys were upstairs and they didn't venture up there.
Remedial work;
Sash Jammers on all doors, top and bottom. Can pick up multipacks off amazon for cheap and they are good.
Ultion door locks all around.
Pro-secure door handles - Cast bodies and 2 star rating - https://www.double-glazing-parts-spares.co.uk/prosecure-door-handle (https://www.double-glazing-parts-spares.co.uk/prosecure-door-handle)
Ring alarm as mentioned with the subscription.
As daft as it sounds, one Officer that came round after the event said if you do confront them and it comes to blows, aim for the face and nose in particular, it would give DNA.... I think most in that situation would not have the capacity to think this way in the moment, but maybe valid for those who are able to think clearly.
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Lots of praise for the ring alarm - is it that good? Isnt it a wifi alarm which means it can be hacked whereas a traditional wired is more secure?
in 2017 we had a then 6 month old S5 stolen and a new Polo GTI taken from the drive whilst we were out at a wedding. They were caught on a neighbours dashcam being driven away 25 mins after we left so someone had been tipped off for sure.
I did contemplate never having a fancy car again but soon replaced it with another S5.
I think security is a combination of solutions rather than one miracle. We have CCTV, security lights, steering wheel locks, Ghost immobilisers on both cars and a substantial driveway post. I think it's just about making it look more hard work than someone elses car on your estate.
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That’s exactly my opinion too about the combination. I also fully agree, it sounds horrible, but, if your car is hard work, they’ll take an easier target.
I think the ring is good, you’re right about hacking I suppose, but it’s got two factor authentication to sign in and if someone wants to go to the extremes of hacking an alarm to take a car, they’ll find away no matter what is in place.
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Has anybody looked at the low-cost trackers available?
The one I have seen was a company called TruTrak, saw it advertised in WhatCar? magazine. They do a self install option that just connects to the battery, I know a bit of an obvious place, but depending on your skills or a friendly auto-electrician, it could go anywhere there is a Live and ground feed.
These kind of services don't give you the fully featured, managed tracker experience, but then they are cheaper. They are a step up from using an Apple AirTag. There is a small monthly charge, as it is using a SIM card to report back the GPS details.
I've been doing a bit of reading up on them, and I think they are the same type of devices that insurance companies are using as Black Box devices when they monitor cars/drivers and adjust your premium accordingly.
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After hearing that a couple of cars were stolen overnight in my district after breaking & entering specifically for car keys for relatively mundane models, I have modified a couple of AirTags for use with my cars
Removed the internal speaker, as per the instructions here https://mashtips.com/remove-airtag-speaker/ and have placed them securely in a relatively unusual place in each car - I tried them first in the location with the speaker enabled, and the beep was still quite audible, so made sense to mute them physically.
Result is that I can still connect to each AirTag and track, but there is no longer any internal speaker to beep & ping to alert others. Even if it were to give a few hours of tracking data to pass to police to confirm locations, it may help :)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nhmx6g95/IMG-7983.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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I thought the air tags told any Iphones not attached to it that it was there anyway? As long as the couldn't hear the pinging they might rip the car apart to try and find it?
I like the idea though
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They do, but it takes several hours for an unknown AirTag to flag up as being with you and for an alert to be put on your screen- at least if a thief is preoccupied with disabling the tracking functions of infotainment system or removing other security measures, the chances are that this could still be active for a small while anyway
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For AirTag tracking the AirTags needs to be in close proximity of an iPhone, so the thief/thieves will need to have iPhones, they would also need to have not disabled the Find My functionality, as it requires that on the phone to connect to and broadcast it's location.
Depending on where they go or stash the car, it may pick up passer-by phones, so you may get a ping from that.
Not knowing the mindset of thieves I'm working on assumptions of two types, those that park it in plain site and leave it for a few days before moving it on, so you may pick up on those. But the types that are more organised with premises or shipping containers in the middle of nowhere would be harder to catch with AirTags.
I think the hardened criminal gangs has ways and means around all this stuff, be it a £40-£400 tracker or a simple AirTag, but they may just be a deterrent for opportunist thieves.
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This might be a better bet than airtags...
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/products/security/trackers/monimoto-7-tracker
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This might be a better bet than airtags...
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/products/security/trackers/monimoto-7-tracker
Similar to the service I mentioned about with TruTrak (https://www.trutrak.co.uk/product-page/trutrak-fmt100-payg), also available by a company called DrivePro (https://www.drivepro.io/Products/SelfInstallGpsTracker?upc=750122520589)
They all seem to use devices from a company called Teltonika, the easy plug in model is called FMT100 and the more advanced one is FMB920. All these companies then wrap their own services around it for a monthly fee. The advantage of these device is they are hard-wired in, so never have to worry about batteries going flat.
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The advantage of a battery powered one I like I showed you is that you can hide it totally!
Not wired in anywhere at all.
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Not sure if this has been mentioned.
I'm sure in the last Volkswizard video he very briefly said that if you have set up your pin in the infotainment system then the VW tracker 'thingy' (sorry don't know name) can't be reset.... surely that's just too easy?
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Not sure if this has been mentioned.
I'm sure in the last Volkswizard video he very briefly said that if you have set up your pin in the infotainment system then the VW tracker 'thingy' (sorry don't know name) can't be reset.... surely that's just too easy?
I’ve seen that too and was going to mention it. My understanding is they can’t log you out of being “primary user” without both keys, BUT, mine was factory reset (with only one key) within 25 minutes, VW Germany said there’s a special sequence of buttons you press to factory reset the infotainment system, they obviously knew this.
My guess is the reset works regardless of the pin, anyone who doesn’t mind spend hours setting there car back up could try this….
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There’s another question you need to ask yourself regarding the trackers…
By all means, learn from my mistakes and don’t be an easy target, that’s the main goal for me now. However, if it’s taken, how much do you really want that car back?
Many on here are like me, you’ve excitedly awaited your new pride and joy, holding back on calling the dealer for an update because once a week is far too often, it finally arrives and you’ve spent 10 hours washing and waxing it because you wouldn’t even let the dealer do the pre-delivery wash.
You’ve enjoyed the car for 3 months looking after it so carefully, the way you wash it, the way you ran the engine in, the fact you don’t drive it hard until the oil temperature is 70 degrees…. Then it’s taken away!
I loved the car, but, from that moment it felt tainted. I’m sure even more so if it had a tracker and a thief thought he could out run one of the unmarked cop BMW 335d’s, yes you’ve got your pride and joy back, but it then has to be repaired because the insurance insist??
I’ll consider an AirTag, but, I’m not going mad on a tracking device, that’s why we pay insurance and my opinion, the monthly tracker fee is better spent on choosing a good insurance company. I won’t name and shame them (yet) but mine are not doing great, they’re so slow at sorting anything…. except discussing the off hire of the courtesy car.
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There’s another question you need to ask yourself regarding the trackers…
By all means, learn from my mistakes and don’t be an easy target, that’s the main goal for me now. However, if it’s taken, how much do you really want that car back?
Agree; I’d not want a car back if it’d been stolen and almost certainly abused - and very likely damaged - while in the possession of some low life scum :angry:.
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Years ago I had a car nicked which was recovered. The crims had tinted the rear windows for some reason which was a pain to remove.
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There’s another question you need to ask yourself regarding the trackers…
By all means, learn from my mistakes and don’t be an easy target, that’s the main goal for me now. However, if it’s taken, how much do you really want that car back?
Agree; I’d not want a car back if it’d been stolen and almost certainly abused - and very likely damaged - while in the possession of some low life scum :angry:.
I've seen some videos on the local Stolen cars Facebook groups where they have named and shamed some of the low life who have been filming inside the cars which are allegedly stolen. They certainly do use the moto "drove it like you stole it"
I'm the same make it difficult to steal to hopefully get them to move onto the next target but I wouldn't want it back if it was taken for that reason.
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There’s another question you need to ask yourself regarding the trackers…
By all means, learn from my mistakes and don’t be an easy target, that’s the main goal for me now. However, if it’s taken, how much do you really want that car back?
Many on here are like me, you’ve excitedly awaited your new pride and joy, holding back on calling the dealer for an update because once a week is far too often, it finally arrives and you’ve spent 10 hours washing and waxing it because you wouldn’t even let the dealer do the pre-delivery wash.
You’ve enjoyed the car for 3 months looking after it so carefully, the way you wash it, the way you ran the engine in, the fact you don’t drive it hard until the oil temperature is 70 degrees…. Then it’s taken away!
I loved the car, but, from that moment it felt tainted. I’m sure even more so if it had a tracker and a thief thought he could out run one of the unmarked cop BMW 335d’s, yes you’ve got your pride and joy back, but it then has to be repaired because the insurance insist??
I’ll consider an AirTag, but, I’m not going mad on a tracking device, that’s why we pay insurance and my opinion, the monthly tracker fee is better spent on choosing a good insurance company. I won’t name and shame them (yet) but mine are not doing great, they’re so slow at sorting anything…. except discussing the off hire of the courtesy car.
That's the camp sit in, definitely do all that's sensible and described on here, could not do much more, but not thought about tags etc, as the thinking is, if its gone, be happy to never see it again, and think that pragmatism has come from changing many cars, having quite a few of them damaged by carelessness and then repaired, so, tend to be in the moment a lot more and not worry about the ifs and buts, and if its there to enjoy then I will, and if not, well, its move onto the next, as there is always a next, even if there is some hassle to get to.
Leave nothing personal in the car whatsoever, definitely nothing of value and so if its gone, that be last care about it if honest, just be thinking who talk to report missing and start the process to claim,
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That's the camp sit in, definitely do all that's sensible and described on here, could not do much more, but not thought about tags etc, as the thinking is, if its gone, be happy to never see it again, and think that pragmatism has come from changing many cars, having quite a few of them damaged by carelessness and so, tend to be in the moment a lot more and not worry about the ifs and buts, and if its there to enjoy then I will, and if not, well, its move onto the next, as there is always a next, even if there is some hassle to get to.
Leave nothing personal in the car whatsoever, definitely nothing of value and so if its gone, that be last care about it if honest, just be thinking who talk to report missing and start the process to claim,
That’s my view these days. I also never leave anything personal in my car, and what few items are left in it are low value and pretty easy to replace.
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I’m with you guys, if the car is gone then it’s gone. I’d not want it back after it was violated by scumbags. It’s just a lump of tin and plastic.
The only system I’d consider fitting would be a remote detonation device :whistle:
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The only system I’d consider fitting would be a remote detonation device :whistle:
:grin:
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Thought this may be interesting and useful. The availability of resources online to steal a car is unbelievable and depressing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Kw94gVUl0&ab_channel=CarExpert