Sat Nav stolen from car - can it be traced?

hewhoisnotintheknow

Enfieldian wrote: »

Hmm. Possible but highly unlikely.

Thief could sit outside any house and wait until any number of people come out. How does he know how many people live there?

Waits until lights go off and someone comes out. Possible but thief could do this at any house surely, not having to drive all the way to the one on his Sat Nav.

Mine has home stored on it but I live in a block of flats and the number is not part of the address. Thief could have a looooooooooong wait for the residents of all 36 flats to go out at the same time! Then he might accidentally break into someone elses flat!

:rotfl:

I think the theory is they nick your sat nav from a cinema car park for example, they know you will be in there for atleast 90 mins, in which time they nip to your house and steal stuff along with a spare car key if theyy can find it.

I think there are bigger things to worryy about though

mrbadexample

The simple solution to that is not to put your home address in. Should mine be stolen, they will find themselves driving around Morrisons car park. I know my way home from there.

Enfieldian

Even simpler solution.

Remove Sat Nav from car when not in use.

Or at least lock the doors.

Stops thieves sitting outside your house all day waiting for you to go out.

Simple.

piggeh

I would imagine someone nicking a sat nav from a car is an opportunistic thief, not the same sort of scum as those that wait outside your house and burgle you when you're on your hols.

arunadasi

Enfieldian wrote: »

Mine has home stored on it but I live in a block of flats and the number is not part of the address. Thief could have a looooooooooong wait for the residents of all 36 flats to go out at the same time! Then he might accidentally break into someone elses flat!

:rotfl:

Yep, this is the case with me. Moreover, "home" is a street with many such houses - he certainly can't tell which one is mine!

MX5huggy

My home is the local police station! Someone steals the car with the keys got house keys thinks lets rob the house, then finds themselves in a police station car park. I would not expect the police to notice, I am not that nieave!

pulliptears

There was a spate of this type of theft at Alton Towers last summer. Thieves came early morning, took Sat Navs and then burgled the homes knowing they would be in the park until at least 5pm.

They did catch them though

Unstoppable_2

Regarding the website register...

By traced, they mean if the Police end up with it in their posession, they can trace the owner. There is no way of using some gizmo to track it as it moves about the country.

cyclonebri1

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Makes a note to himself;


Must put that sciving scumbags house down the road as my satnav home address:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

pulliptears

I have found a bit about it:

Police have warned drivers not to leave their journey home programmed into their satnav systems following the theft of a device from a car at Alton Towers theme park which directed ne'er-do-wells to the owner's Shropshire home where they promptly made off with a £20k Saab convertible.

By Lester Haines for The Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
According to the Telegraph, West Mercia Constabulary's Det Sgt Chris Walsh, said: "If your car is broken into, particularly if you have an in-built satnav as part of the dashboard, all the offenders have to do is search for 'home' or similar and it will take them right to the door of your empty residence.
"In this case, the satnav took them straight to the door of the victim's house and they then stole a £20,000 convertible from the driveway. The vehicle was later recovered."
Walsh cautioned: "If you must have a setting saved to get you home, only ever put your town in to get you back to familiar territory. Don't use the postcode."
Better still, police suggested, remove the satnav from the car altogether.