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Monday 8 November 2021

Beating them at their own game

I realised as I was looking through my blog posts the other day that I hadn't told you the rest of the story about Marks car being stolen, I thought it would amuse you.  

First off let me say that i'm not the most observant person, I would make a terrible PI, you will see why. 

 Mark had been suffering a bad back that weekend and as we have a memory foam mattress in the second bedroom he had slept in there on Sunday night to see if it would help, that bedroom overlooks the garden.  I got up as normal on Monday morning and opened the curtains, our bedroom faces the front and overlooks the drive.  I didn't realise at first that Mark was still in bed having decided to go in later because his back was still playing up.  I had to pop out so I left him where he was and off I went. 

 He called me around 10.30am and said 'where's my car?'  I thought he was having me on so I said what do you mean? it's on the drive.  Only it wasn't.  He had got to the front door with his bag only to find his car gone.  

I had opened the curtains in the bedroom and not noticed, gone out to my car, which I park right next to his car on our drive and not noticed or registered that his car wasn't there but he was in the house!!!

I was on my way home when he called me and he had been on the phone to the office to tell them and was trying to get through to the police to report it stolen.    Now, the car has a tracker, so the office knew what time it had moved off our drive, where it was and what time it had been parked up and they called Mark back to tell him.....It had moved off our drive at 9.05pm, the engine started at 9.10pm and was parked up at 9.40pm.

I'd been sitting in the back sitting room watching the last episode of Handmaid's Tale so wouldn't have heard anything going on at the front of the house but Mark had been sat in the front room and not heard a thing! (I think you could safely say neither of us would make good PI's) lol.

We have since found out that these keyless cars are very easy to steal, thieves use a device to pick up a signal from the keys in the house, all they have to do is stand on the drive and look for a signal and the car door can be unlocked.   Now Mark's car is one of those big Navara's, when it starts up you can hear it, he would have heard it, our drive has a slight slope to it so we think they must have rolled it back and let it roll as far as it would and then started it away from the house.  It was then driven less than 10 miles and left on a side road on a small estate.

That's apparently what they are doing now, stealing a vehicle parking it up somewhere and waiting to see if anyone comes for it, if it's still there in a couple of days they go back and collect it and do whatever it is they do with stolen cars!  But, as we knew where it was from the tracker we drove there and low and behold his car was parked up, nothing damaged, all his tools in the back, everything still as it was inside, except his phone charger, they had taken that (!)

Lucky or what!? 

Another thing we didn't know, if you have a keyless car your 'key' should be kept in something metal to block the signal.  Lesson learned  

-X-

15 comments:

Vickie said...

Oh my. Such a different experience than when our oldest son Jacob had his car stolen from him last year. Then again, he left it running, with the keys in it. He ran back in the apartment for about thirty seconds and came back out and two teenagers were getting in and stealing it! He tried to stop them! The police found it several weeks later. Too late. The insurance had already given Jacob a check to get another car. So that was the insurances' problem to deal with. They stole everything out of Jacob's car.

Debi said...

Wow... that's crazy. I just sent my daughter a link to your blog so she can read your story. She just got a new car and it has a keyless entry. Thanks for sharing your story.

Carol said...

So glad you recovered the car with only a phone charger missing, Maggie. That's good to know about the keyless ignition issue, too. Our cars are ancient (2010 and 2013 so we don't have to worry :). Hope you have a great week ahead!

Jackie said...

We had heard about this happening in Canada so try and keep our keys as far away from the driveway as possible. Now I am thinking we need metal cases.

God bless.

Jules said...

Thank goodness he got it back. That wasn't the ending I expected to be honest. X

butterfly said...

How Lucky you are .
It's not nice to have your car stolen we had ours stolen twice once in Plymouth
and then Halesowen would you believe , we had taken my Mom and Dad out for a meal .
The last time it was many years later they told us at last they had found it .
To late then we had already been paid up.

Jo said...

That's an awful lot of trouble for them to steal a phone charger, haha. Glad it all turned out well in the end, you hear so many stories of cars turning up burned out or never surfacing again so Mark was very lucky.

Poppypatchwork said...

Advanced tech is now so open, and ready for abuse, I am glad you found the car OK and they did not wreck it. I am not happy with our bank card now contactless for up to £100, it's so easy for them to be close to you and clone your card.

Shrimpton and Perfect said...

Very interesting, and so funny you didn't notice it gone. My hubby would be the same, never notices the obvious, ha ha. Glad you got it back in one piece. Jean

Linda P said...

Thank goodness you could track the car once you realised it had gone. Also it was not damaged. We heard about this on TV and ever since have kept the car key in a metal container hoping this will block any criminals trying this sort of thing on. Take care and all the best.

Lowcarb team member said...

Goodness me!
I am so pleased you were able to find the car with only a phone charger missing.

All the best Jan

Miriam said...

Oh my God! But “ all is well what ends well “ .
Miriam

Clare-Aimetu said...

Thank goodness you had the tracker and the car (and tools) were ok. Hubby bought a pouch specifically made to block the key signal. We always put our keys in it and the spare is in a tin (people forget the spare still emits a signal). We even take our pouch on holiday.

Dee said...

I'm very glad Mark got his car back. These thieves get trickier and trickier every year.

Robin said...

Thank goodness you got the car back. Probably better your didn’t hear anything and go out to try to stop the theft. Never know what these crazy people will do.