My mate left his house yesterday morning and found that..................

[andel]

.....his leather interior had been stolen from his Mk4 while on the drive right outside his window!!! He couldn't believe it. The thing was all the doors were still locked, the alarm hadn't gone off, the windows were fullly down and the door lock had been punched out. Not a very nice thing to come out to when leaving for work. Has anybody experienced this way of the MK 4's being broken into? Is it common? Do you think they somehow used the feature that open and closes the windows when you hold the key in the lock to gain entry? and if so why didnt the alarm go off. It is a standard VW alarm. If it turns out people know how to get round these I think i'll change mine sharppish!!!

[garfayliu]

  that's bad... sorry to hear about that. Is your mate sure he locked the car up properly? I guess it not impossible to copy the keyfob codes and gain access to someone elses car, need some serious equipment/know-how though. If the windows were still open, then the theifing scum could have just locked them from driver side control panel after doing the dirty business. I can't imagine them taking out front seats with doors off, pretty bulky even with door on!

Hope your mate reported it to police, try and get some prints/forensics.

[Organisys]

My Passat was broken into like this. The lock is pulled out, the wires messed with and the alarm disabled, and the windows rolled down.

Common fault on 97-98 cars I think. VW can blank out the barrel lock for you.

There was a big deal on this on BBC Watchdog.

[andel]

My Passat was broken into like this. The lock is pulled out, the wires messed with and the alarm disabled, and the windows rolled down.

Common fault on 97-98 cars I think. VW can blank out the barrel lock for you.

There was a big deal on this on BBC Watchdog.

This was a Jan 2002 model. Interesting though

[andel]

that's bad... sorry to hear about that. Is your mate sure he locked the car up properly? I guess it not impossible to copy the keyfob codes and gain access to someone elses car, need some serious equipment/know-how though. If the windows were still open, then the theifing scum could have just locked them from driver side control panel after doing the dirty business. I can't imagine them taking out front seats with doors off, pretty bulky even with door on!

Hope your mate reported it to police, try and get some prints/forensics.

The car was definately locked and the windows were up when it was left. There was some apparent damage around the mindow too where damage was caused by getting the seats out the window!!!! Some people have some bollocks dont they!! It must of taken a while and made some noise

[ub7rm]

Holy crap!  They must have had the doors open and just reached in to lock it when they finished (cheeky).  No way could they dismantle the seats with the doors closed AND get them through the window.  Unfortunatly if someone is determined there is always a way of getting round any security measures.  I'm assuming you mean that the seats were completely removed from the car?

Pretty sickening for your mate, my wholehearted comiserations

[andel]

Holy crap!  They must have had the doors open and just reached in to lock it when they finished (cheeky).  No way could they dismantle the seats with the doors closed AND get them through the window.  Unfortunatly if someone is determined there is always a way of getting round any security measures.  I'm assuming you mean that the seats were completely removed from the car?

Pretty sickening for your mate, my wholehearted comiserations

i know its weird but it seems the doors were kept shut because you can see scrape marks on the top of the door cards where they put the seats through the windows. and correct me if im wrong but i thought the doors were dead locked anyway?....and why didnt the alarm go off?

[HARDCOR3]

they probably pulled the barrel out with a slide hammer, and shorted the alarm wires (not that i know how to do things like that), the seats themselves take 5 mins to remove...

[andel]

they probably pulled the barrel out with a slide hammer, and shorted the alarm wires (not that i know how to do things like that), the seats themselves take 5 mins to remove...

it would seem the windows down thing is a known problem http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=49096.0

[Organisys]

Exactly! piss easy.