In 2019, on one side, Australia got devastated by the worst wildfire, while on the other, the car theft rose. It was probably the worst year for Aussies in a century. When talking about car theft, the statistics show a 9% rise from 2018. Therefore, to protect your car from the smart thieves, you need to take some preliminary steps.
Well, technology is helping to change the auto theft in significant ways. There are other smart ways too to avoid losing your car in a burglary. Before we dig into it, let’s get into the intelligent brains of the thieves of Australia according to 2019’s in-depth analysis.
How do thieves steal your car?
- Keys stole in a burglary (37%): Burglars often get into the houses to loot car keys, which you may have left on the table or place where keys are easily visible.
- Keys left in the car (18%): One mistake (leaving keys in the car), and your car is gone. Thieves need only a few seconds to jump behind the wheel and drive off your car.
- Forced ignition (14%): Older cars that have hot wiring (without immobilisers fitted) are more susceptible to theft rather than newer vehicles. Nowadays, sophisticated immobilisers present in new four-wheelers have forced thieves to think about new robbery techniques.
- Other – using car keys (12%): In this category, thieves can steal your car with the help of keys in various ways. For instance, they first learn the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) and registration of your four-wheeler. And then they approach the key dealers to make a duplicate key for robbery.
- Taking the car without consent (7%): It happens when someone (your relative, friend, family member, etc.) drives the four-wheeler without the your (owner’s) permission.
- Keys stolen in robbery (5%): This occurs when a criminal threatens you to handover your car keys, and you do the same to save your life.
- Fraud (5%): Forgery can happen in many ways. One of those is the buyer hands over a bogus payment to a car dealer (late on Friday) to make their getaway during the weekend. When the dealer reaches the bank on Monday and comes to know about the truth, the fraud has taken place.
- Car looted by being towed (2%): Smart thieves use a tow truck to steal your car and later on sell the parts to earn money.
Ways to reduce the risk of car theft:
- Keep your car keys in an aluminium foil:
There are some gadgets thieves use to intercept the signal of your car keys without your notice. This way, they can gain access to your car and steal it. Generally, it is called relay attacks. Hence, to protect your four-wheeler from getting stolen without keys, you can wrap it in an aluminium foil.
Also, instead of hanging keys near your front door, place them in:
- The refrigerator
- A microwave oven
- A faraday wallet
- Mark the glass with VIN:
It is a less costly service to save your car from being theft. You only need to mark your windshields, windows, and mirrors with a VIN. Thieves wouldn’t try to rob any car with VIN, as that would lead them to spend money on changing those parts. Well, smart criminals will not go for a deal with fewer profits.
- Hide an old cell phone in the car:
If you are unsure about the safety of your car while leaving it an unusual place, then hiding an old cell phone would be the best idea. Consider it as one of the must-have tech accessories for your car for tracking purposes.
It will help you to track your car by using the “Find my phone” function. All you need to do is the phone should be switched on, synced with your Google account, and should have an Internet connection. And thus, within a fraction of minutes, you can track your car with an old phone.
- Put the wheels turned towards curb while parked:
When you keep the wheels of your car turned towards the curb, it creates difficulty for thieves to manoeuvre it for stealing. It is especially complicated for those who steal cars with a tow truck. A criminal will take more time than required to theft your four-wheeler and finally would lose interest from it.
- Keep your car clean and tip-top:
Potential car thieves check the exterior part of your four-wheeler to determine whether they can steal it or not. If it is in tip-top shape, they will assume that an alarm or GPS is present in it to find your stolen car. Hence, the neat and clean four-wheeler would take off the interest of the car thieves promptly.
- Give the nod to the anti-theft devices:
As said earlier, technology is merely forcing thieves to think about new tricks for stealing. Place some anti-theft devices in your car, which will make it harder to loot and easy to recover. The undeniable relief is the cost for your peace of mind is too little. Let’s take a look at some equipment for 2020.
- Baby monitor: It is a kind of replacement for expensive video cameras. You can use them to listen to and watch everything happening in your car. It can transmit pictures and also can run on a separate battery to keep them off of your car’s power supply.
- Steering wheel lock: It is one of the oldest yet trendiest devices on the market today. You can attach this equipment to the steering wheel of your car to lock it in place, preventing someone from driving away.
- Electronic tracking system: Well, this is not an anti-theft device, but it can help police to find your stolen car. Smart carjackers can figure out how to remove the steering wheel or tire lock and steal it, however. But this device will take you to your car in a few minutes.
- Be aware of the typical theft schemes:
Sometimes, you can also make things easy for a thief to steal your car. As shown in various movies, thieves come up with typical plans of which you should be aware. It could also be vice-versa, thieves could be taking inspiration from the films.
Well, jokes apart, they can distract you with a small accident, after which you go into shock for a while. As soon as you step out of your car to see what happened, they’ll bump into your four-wheeler and steal it without harming you.
Conclusion
Generally, cars get stolen from places like public parking lots, ATMs, gas stations, etc. Along with your expensive four-wheeler, there are high chances of your gadgets kept inside your car to get stolen. It may be your laptop, cell phone, phone holder (in case you don’t have, learn the benefits of a mobile phone holder for your car), etc. Hence, there would be huge losses if you haven’t taken extra care of your four-wheeler.But we hope that you would be successful in avoiding it by following the above-listed steps.