Stolen car - any thoughts welcome!

MistyZ

Hi, just heard from a friend of mine in London (NW1) that her car has been stolen. It was parked on the street, with a permit FWIW.

The same thing happened last year but 2 weeks earlier, 4 other cars in the vicinity were stolen the same night. The police told her there was nothing they could do. There was a steering wheel lock on both cars, apparently gangs simply load 'em onto the back of a truck and off they go.

She lives like a church mouse and needs the car to get out of town to support her aged parents and take them out & about. Not actually relevant information but you can probably see why I'm independently trying to get my head around this.

My main question is whether the police really are as powerless as they say ... I think she should press hard for some investigation but wondering what others think.

Carrot007

"steering wheel lock", adds 45 seconds to a thief maybe, if you are lucky.


"My main question is whether the police really are as powerless as they say". What do you erxpect them to do? Unless there is a suspect not much is the answer. The wll record it and see what occurs. Which is probably nothing.


Fortunatly this is why we have insurance.

Aylesbury_Duck

MistyZ wrote: »

Hi, just heard from a friend of mine in London (NW1) that her car has been stolen. It was parked on the street, with a permit FWIW.

The same thing happened last year but 2 weeks earlier, 4 other cars in the vicinity were stolen the same night. The police told her there was nothing they could do. There was a steering wheel lock on both cars, apparently gangs simply load 'em onto the back of a truck and off they go.

She lives like a church mouse and needs the car to get out of town to support her aged parents and take them out & about. Not actually relevant information but you can probably see why I'm independently trying to get my head around this.

My main question is whether the police really are as powerless as they say ... I think she should press hard for some investigation but wondering what others think.

The obvious question is: What do you expect them to do that they're not doing already? They'll record the theft, the details will go onto a system and if it's spotted by ANPR it'll get pulled over. If it's been taken somewhere, re-plated and other identifying marks removed, or simply scrapped, it'll be very difficult to trace it.

Short of having thousands of police constantly wandering or driving around, I'm not sure what more they can do to prevent it happening until the criminals make an inevitable mistake and get caught.

MistyZ

Carrot007 wrote: »

Fortunatly this is why we have insurance.

Yup. But it becomes more costly every time. I could handle that financially just about but not everybody can.

Interesting (though not surprising) what you say about the steering wheel lock.

I didn't have specific expectations of the police .... but wondered whether I should have. This sounds like organised crime to me, a very profitable 'business'. I suppose any investigation would necessarily be intelligence-led & ongoing and that's expensive policing.

I guess I've got my answer. Thanks both.

SHAFT

MistyZ wrote: »

Hi, just heard from a friend of mine in London (NW1) that her car has been stolen. It was parked on the street, with a permit FWIW.

The same thing happened last year but 2 weeks earlier, 4 other cars in the vicinity were stolen the same night. The police told her there was nothing they could do. There was a steering wheel lock on both cars, apparently gangs simply load 'em onto the back of a truck and off they go.

She lives like a church mouse and needs the car to get out of town to support her aged parents and take them out & about. Not actually relevant information but you can probably see why I'm independently trying to get my head around this.

My main question is whether the police really are as powerless as they say ... I think she should press hard for some investigation but wondering what others think.

Unless someone saw the theft take place and is willing to speak to the police, what sort of investigation do yo think she should be pressing for?

The_Rainmaker

Buy a car they don't want to steal next time.

thebigstillmeister

The_Rainmaker wrote: »

Buy a car they don't want to steal next time.

I have a lovely car, but ill make sure I smash the doors in with a sledge hammer when I get back tonight so no one will steal it,

Thanks for the top tip :cool:

EdGasketTheSecond

Isn't there cctv all over London. The police could, if they wanted, review all cctv in the area to see if the car itself was spotted or a transporter in the area. They could also make enquiries of neighbours to see if anyone has information. There are things they could do but they probably wont as its not high priority like domestic violence, race and lgbt hate crimes, grooming etc. whatever is in the news.

SHAFT

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Isn't there cctv all over London. The police could, if they wanted, review all cctv in the area to see if the car itself was spotted or a transporter in the area. They could also make enquiries of neighbours to see if anyone has information. There are things they could do but they probably wont as its not high priority like domestic violence, race and lgbt hate crimes, grooming etc. whatever is in the news.

Even if they weren't in the news offences against the person should be higher priority that those against property.

facade

We had a spate of cars being stolen by a recovery truck. A couple of owners had security camera footage of the truck, (which was a distinctive colour) and the people, took months for the Police to catch up to them.


Unfortunately, unless you know their names & addresses the Police can't do much until they drive past a Police car.


All to do with priority of expenditure. They spend millions chasing the odd terrorist, and not much on tackling car crime. I'd rather it was the other way round. Statistically I'm much more likely to have my car stolen than be the victim of a terrorist outrage.

SHAFT

facade wrote: »

We had a spate of cars being stolen by a recovery truck. A couple of owners had security camera footage of the truck, (which was a distinctive colour) and the people, took months for the Police to catch up to them.


Unfortunately, unless you know their names & addresses the Police can't do much until they drive past a Police car.


All to do with priority of expenditure. They spend millions chasing the odd terrorist, and not much on tackling car crime. I'd rather it was the other way round. Statistically I'm much more likely to have my car stolen than be the victim of a terrorist outrage.

That's money well spent, where as the money they spend on them and their families once they're caught is another matter.