Seizing vehicles

InsideInsurance

A good few years ago I remember one of the in house engineers suggesting a claim for a stolen Mercedes was rejected because the security on them were now so good that the only way to steal one was with the key/fob or by hoisting it onto a low loader and with where the car was there was no way a low loader could have gotten to it.

Fast forward to last night and as I walked through the station carpark to get home there was a RangeRover Sport that had been jacked up, what looked like roller skates strapped to each wheel and was now being winched up onto the back of a low loader.

Was the former engineer wrong and hoisting never was necessary? Is this idea of lifting the car onto coasters to allow it to be pulled about a new idea? I guess Mercedes could have some security that RangeRover doesnt but that sounds very doubtful.

agrinnall

Well either hoisting or coasters would surely set off the alarm at least, which might (if the owner was very lucky) lead to the police asking the lifters if what they were doing was legal.

InsideInsurance

agrinnall wrote: »

Well either hoisting or coasters would surely set off the alarm at least, which might (if the owner was very lucky) lead to the police asking the lifters if what they were doing was legal.

As I was going past it was still on the flat and they were struggling to get the first coaster onto the ramp. It would appear that getting it onto the coasters didnt trigger the alarm or that the alarm had already "ended" and it doesnt carry on flashing lights or anything else after the sound has finished. Didnt stop to watch.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Something like this?



Spend £70 and you can move any car on a smooth surface quietly and easily without jacking it up and setting the alarm off, maybe not a 3 ton Range Rover though !

Herzlos

That's how they move cars into shopping centres and convention halls etc. I'd have thought it'd have set the alarm off though unless lifted evenly and slowly but it's always been possible to move cars about without unlocking them.

OnanTheBarbarian

Who pays any attention to a car alarm though really?

Also, if there is a recovery truck in attendance and some hi-vis vests about, it all looks official and few, if anybody, would most likely ask to see some credentials.

It could have all been perfectly innocent and the stupid electronic handbrake was stuck on and the vehicle needed recovery.

BeenThroughItAll

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Who pays any attention to a car alarm though really?

My neighbours did at 0054hrs yesterday morning when mine went off, I can assure you!

InsideInsurance

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Something like this?

Spend £70 and you can move any car on a smooth surface quietly and easily without jacking it up and setting the alarm off, maybe not a 3 ton Range Rover though !

It was that sort of thing though smaller and had straps to hold them on, guess if its going to be pulled up the incline of the low loader's ramp they want to be more certain it doesnt fall off them.

I thought my roller skate description was perfectly adequate though

AdrianC

This kind of thing...
http://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/wheel-dollies

Been around for years - and, yes, any half-decent alarm with a motion sensor will go off. For whatever that's worth.

force_ten

car skates have been used in motorsport for years, i saw them being used in the late eighties to move a BMW touring car around after it had been in an accident and the front o/s wheel would not turn

they stuck a hydraulic wheel skate under each front wheel and it was moved in seconds

if the back wheels are braked with the hand brake then two wheel skates under the back wheels and you would easily push a car off a smooth and level drive, they dont work well on a gravel drive so dig up your tarmac and put down gravel on your drive

colino

Maybe the hapless recovery guys had came across a Sport with the transmission locked and they thought that using dollies would be quicker than getting underneath and disconnecting the propshaft? They've got anti-tilt alarms, and even with a good, shallow, tilt-bed recovery wagon, they're going to have good luck on their sides winching it on a truck strapped to dollies.