Someone has tried to steal my RS!!!!!

[mahmudf]

Hi , I came to take my car to get my gauges redone and I noticed that the wing mirrors were left in out position and the seat cushion was on the floor. Any ideas on stopping someone making off with it. Should I invest in one of those steering locks, luckily the car was not damaged.

thanks

Farrukh

 

[RSGulp]

Did someone break in to the car?
Have you reported it to the police - they can't stop crime if they don't know where or when it's happening?
Was it parked in your garage, outside your house or in the street?
How did they gain access to the inside of the car without damaging it??

There are various things you can do to try to prevent your car (in fact any car not just a Porsche) being stolen. I'm sorry to say though if someone wants your car badly enough there is nothing you can do to stop someone lifting it onto a flatbed and driving away. And with today's traffic wardens doing this routinely, unfortunately no-one passing would even bat an eyelid.

Some of these things might prevent the opportunist thief taking your pride and joy:

1. Fit a Thatcham 1 immobilser (upstream of the battery cut-off switch) - e.g. so it has permanent 12v supply.
2. Use the battery cut-off switch and take the red key with you.
3. Buy a snap-off kit for your steering wheel and take the steering wheel with you.
4. Remove the fuel pump relay or DME relay and take it with you.
5. Don't leave an RS anywhere at all dodgy, ever - not even for a few minutes.
6. Get a very large guard dog. []

 

[mahmudf]

thanks for the advice, unfortunatley the car is parked on the street(I have no garage) so i have no choice but there are places i can park it where a flatbed would not able to go do so i will do that. When i meant no damage I meant to the bodywork/paint etc . The locking barrel is gone. I will take the steps you have provided. Its getting harder to own a nice car nowadays.

thanks again

Farrukh

 

[RSGulp]

...Or fit one of these (click the quicktime movie in the link to see it in action):

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9812/11/flame.thrower.car/

 

[mahmudf]

lol.....
I have a friend from South Africa, I asked her to get me one years ago when she went back for a visit. She just looked at me funny, maybe I should ask her again

 

[juliany27]

I have a Disklok - it is silver and highly visible. My more criminally minded clients tell me that they avoid one of those like the plague; they take too long to remove/cut through and time spent means a greater chance of being seen and/or the police arriving.

I think that one costs about £80 and this seems to be good money well spent.

 

[mahmudf]

thanks Julian i will look into it

 

[Jamie Summers]

Mahmud,
Really sorry to hear this, especially given what we were discussing last week ........ I drove past your car on Sunday afternoon and all seemed to be well with it (mirrors folded in etc).
I suspect that most people trying to nick cars around us are just opportunists, and would have no clue about the battery cut out, what an RS is or even which end the engine is. If they can get in and get it started quickly then it will be gone, but if it takes any time at all they'll scarper (obviously what happened here).
I was extremely lucky last year when my other half forgot to lock our Peugeot (clearly not my fault !!!!!), parked on the street, and when we went to use it a couple of days later all that had happened was that someone had gone through the glove box and door pockets and hadn't even bothered to nick my CDs (as they were all copies !!!). They also hadn't been into the boot as there was rather more valuable stuff in there. Clearly it was just an opportunist who didn't find anything worthwhile that could quickly be turned into cash.
Clearly a little different in your case as they obviously forced entry with an intent to steal, but clearly whatever security measures you have made it difficult enough that they weren't able to steal the car quickly, which frankly I think is the best you can hope for.
If the only damage was a lock barrel you were very lucky, but I would be extremely wary that the same person may try again but with better tools this time. Short term I would have thought that a combination of a very obvious wheel lock and removing the fuel pump relay is your best bet.
Perhaps perversely the best thing about where you park your car is that anyone trying to steal it would need to do it very quickly as there is a very good chance they would be seen given the volume of traffic etc. The more you hide it, the longer someone has to work on it without being spotted. I would have thought that the likelihood of someone trying a low-loader there is next to zero. The only way to do it would be with a crane - not likely to go un-noticed !
Fingers crossed the scumbag doesn't come back - I'll make a special point of keeping my eyes open any time I drive past.

regards,

Jamie

 

[hunter]

I had a 64 RS for 7 years back in the days when they were unfashionalbe and always parked on street in the very near yours (I think) never had any bother, I suppose you boyz are all just victims of fashion, the must have craze mentality...

 

[mahmudf]

thanks for the advice guys, I need to take my car to AFN Chiswick to order a new lock and i will get a disklok as a visabe deterrent.
Maybe we should start a neighbourhood watch scheme []

cheers
Farrukh