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Leave the luggage cover closed again and you can expect the Megane to be broken in to again in a few weeks, when enough time has elapsed for the stolen laptop to have been replaced with a nice shiny new one.
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Back in '94, when my original Mondeo Estate was 4 days old, the boot-cover was a bit of a novelty so I pulled it over when parking near Greenwich on a visit to London. We returned to find a smashed rear quarter light, the cover pulled over and an old rucksack containing some old cagoules had been stolen. The value of the goods stolen was practically zilch but the real loss was the window cost and inconvenience. Also, I never did manage to clear the broken glass out of the cover roll.
I've NEVER used the boot cover again and accept that, although an estate is a very practical vehicle, I cannot leave anything in it that is of any value. The cover for my present Mondy estate sits in the garage.
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I had a laptop stolen from my company car about 6 years ago, Parked at a petrol station 300yds from home, went in to pay, as I was stood in the queue some scrote threw a brick in through the back window and ran off with it.
We had a discussion about this at work and many people thought it was ridiculous that I always lock my car while paying for fuel. I guess if thieves are going to smash the window then it is a bit pointless!
I also always take the laptop with me at motorway service areas / cafes etc. Although twice I've left it behind, but both times it was happily sitting there when I returned a few mins later!
4 of our team had had them stolen from the boot whilst having meetings on the road in cafes etc,
What's really annoying in our place is that it's office based staff who take their laptops home who seem to get them nicked - they stop off at the gym or supermarket etc on the way home and they get stolen then.
I have one for my own business that I have to buy I got the cheapest lowest spec model that will do the job, at least if it gets stolen it is cheap to replace
You can pretty good cover against theft (from a car boot) and useful accidental damage cover) for about £50/yr. I bought it for my teacher daughter's laptop - it would cover a kid nicking it from her classroom, for example.
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Laptop insurance for teachers with laptops etc in school - might be superfluous - In Scotland at least, membership of the Union (EIS) carries insurance cover for teachers in school - may be different for NUT or the other Unions.
Best plan is to buy an inexpensive laptop that does the job (Dell /Siemens etc around £350 upwards) and put the £50 insurance in the rainy day fund (along with the £6.00 / mth for the mobile and the £3.00-£8.00 / mth for the cooker / dishwasher etc etc) and INSURE YOURSELF with the money in the Rainy Day Account..
That is unless you are like a former Accident Prone former work colleague who lost keys, laptops/had phones stolen on a regular basis. It must be genetic as his son & daughter were likewise accident / theft prone.
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Laptop insurance for teachers with laptops etc in school - might be superfluous - In Scotland at least, membership of the Union (EIS) carries insurance cover for teachers in school - may be different for NUT or the other Unions.
Well that's only £350 worth of cover, and it's not new for old. It also (obviously) doesn't provide cover out of school. Still useful for 'free' though. Her union has a similar thing, but limited to £125.
Best plan is to buy an inexpensive laptop that does the job (Dell /Siemens etc around £350 upwards) and put the £50 insurance in the rainy day fund (along with the £6.00 / mth for the mobile and the £3.00-£8.00 / mth for the cooker / dishwasher etc etc) and INSURE YOURSELF with the money in the Rainy Day Account..
Two points:
1) The '£350' laptop is a very recent thing - hers cost £850 2 years ago.
2) You're confusing theft and accidental damage cover with breakdown cover. I don't need separate cover on my cooker / dishwasher - they're covered on my household policy. Indeed the laptop is covered to some extent, but I wanted broader, no arguments cover, which Compucover provides.
It's NOT a breakdown cover, it's theft / damage only. You don't need extended breakdown cover - Sale of Goods act 'provides' extended cover. It's just a pain enforcing it, but I've done it twice in recent times.
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>>My wife's laptop was stolen from our estate last night. I know you're not supposed to keep it in there but >>she's 32 weeks pregnant and it's kinda heavy.
>>anyway...how did they know it was there?
Who said that they knew it was there? If it was the one and only time that you had left it in the boot then yes, you would think that it was a bit too much of a coincidence. But...
>>We've lived there 3 years and the computer has always stayed in the car overnight when she does her part->>time work
So exactly how often does it get left in the car? It would appear that it is somewhat more often than you originally insinuated, so maybe it was spotted in the boot on a previous occassion and the thieves banked on it being there in the future? Or maybe you were just unlucky, your car was going to broken into that night no matter what and the thieves just happened to find the laptop by pure luck. Be honest, how many times a week was that laptop left in the boot of that car on average?
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Sale of Goods act 'provides' extended cover. It's just a pain enforcing it, butI've done it twice in recent times.
Tell us more please.
v v br.........MD
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I let my laptop in my estate car. Once. Only once.
It was promptly nicked :(
When I got my new laptop lastyear, I took the oppportunity of getting a trolley case for it: catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Produc...8
Brilliant device, highly recommended, and removes all the lugging from carrying a laptop around
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Sale of Goods act 'provides' extended cover. It's just a pain enforcing it, but >> I've done it twice in recent times. >> Tell us more please.
www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/Fact%20Sheets/page24700.h...l
It's the 'six years' bit (5 in Scotland) that is your friend.
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"many people thought it was ridiculous that I always lock my car while paying for fuel. I guess if thieves are going to smash the window then it is a bit pointless!"
If the worst comes to the worst, at least you'll be able to show due care to your insurance company. There was a highly publicised case here in Ireland last year where a well-known sportsman had his car stolen - with several days' worth of cash takings from his business inside - while he paid for diesel.
It didn't make the thief's job any harder that the car was unlocked and the keys in the ignition!
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Is the car anyway distinctive, private plate maybe?
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nope. Normal car. Not even got alloys. It really does look like a car of a mum who pootles around the local villages having coffee mornings. Which is what it is!
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A qustion springs to mind, why does she bring her laptop home if it remains in the car ?. We've stopped our staff doing that for 1. Welfare issues - they put in too many unrecorded hours anyway and 2. Security.
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Hot desking. There's nowhere to store it at work (and she may have to go another office 20 miles down the road at short notice)
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Just to hammer home the main point many others have mentioned here: estate car + closed luggage cover = break in.
Try to imagine how an opportunist thief works. They're strolling along, looking around and spot an estate car (yours) with the luggage cover pulled across.
Now, because nobody ever bothers with these *unless* there's something valuable in the boot, they now know all they need to know. i.e. you have something worth nicking from that car. They don't know what it is, but do know whatever it is, it could fetch some decent cash on eBay.
So, our common or garden thief breaks in, and bingo, it's a laptop. He (for it is always a He) will be off to sell your hard earning property before you can say "Drug fix".
This is why I love estate cars for their practicality, but prefer big hatchbacks because of the lower security risk. Nobody ever got a hatchback broken into for leaving the parcel shelf in place!
Sorry petsco, but it probably is that simple.
Fingers crossed you and your wife don't have the same bad luck again. As has also been said, please don't make the same mistake twice. They will almost certainly be back for seconds.
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"Nobody ever got a hatchback broken into for leaving the parcel shelf in place!"
It's probably less likely to happen but it does. My friend who lives in posh Clifton in Bristol had his hatchback broken into and the parcel shelf ripped out. There was nothing of value in the car but the thieves are opportunists.
If I have to leave my car parked in an unfamiliar area, then I always leave the parcel shelf down.
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:)
I never said you won't get broken into in a hatchback, just that you won't (generally speaking, of course) be targeted simply for leaving the parcel shelf in place, because it is normal and signifies nothing. Whereas closing the luggage blind on an estate sends the message "I have something to hide!".
Your friend was probably targeted for another reason, nice car or valuables seen entering the boot at some stage etc.
After all, each street is full of hatchbacks with parcel shelves (not trying to hide anything), but few estates and fewer still with the blind in place...
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"Your friend was probably targeted for another reason, nice car...... "
Er no. A scabby old Nova with barely an undamaged panel to its name. Hideous light brown/yellowish interior.
Anyway, things are looking up, he has a Micra now.
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Even more reason to be targeted then! Old cars are very easy to break into, shamefully so.
IIRC old Vauxhall's are *much* more likely to be nicked, simply because it's so easy.
Maybe they just attacked it because they were offended by the appearance of it!! ;)
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I work in an almost excelusively mobile company and we have an estate of well over 10,000 laptops. I advise companies that are moving to be mobile workforce compliant and how to mange the therefore required laptops.
I have extensive experience of latop theft (and user damage, but I am keeping quiet about that to write an hilarious best seller when I retire)
Laptop theft is nearly always targeted. Its very rarely a "get lucky" crime. We have had people followed for miles, then stop for less than minute to come back and find a brick through the rear window and the laptop gone.
Its a targeted crime because the damn things are so easy to spot. You can always tell when someone has a laptop regardless of the method chosen to carry it.
Your theft has all the hallmarks of a target crime.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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In what way, exacty TVM? I wouldn't argue that some are targeted, but why shouldn't there be lucky swipes?
Please elaborate....
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There are lucky swipes, of course there are. Most of those are regular car break ins, or home break ins where the lap top went as a consequence of the break in, but was no the reaon the break in occured.
However, this single car was targeted, not in a random way. The theft was not random, straight for and only for the laptop from the sound of it.
The targeted nature of Laptop theft, is as I said, is because they are so easily identified in transit. Transit into your car boot, over your shoulder, in your laptop backpack, on one of those silly girly trolley things. How many times have you driven along the road and seen someone put a laptop in the boot/hatch. Ever thought why you knew it was a lap top.
Its silly really, of all the devices that can be knicked, laptops are the most easily disabled if identified as astolen, because they are jam packed with the technology to do it, and all end up on the same network.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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on one of those silly girly trolley things.
A friend (roaming IT consultant, criss-crossing Europe for a major UK IT form) was invalided out of work after several years of lugging a laptop around on a sahoulder-strap. Sure, the latop only weighed 6lbs, but add in the PSU, cables, carry bag etc etc, and that was 10lb+ hanging off her shoulder for rather a long time, with the result of longterm back pain.
If I was an employer sending people out travelling with laptops, I think I'd be inclined to make the trolley cases compulsory rather than risk being sued for the inevitably back injuries.
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NOw listen here NW, I have been carry luggables and laptops around when you thought PC was a man in a blue suit with a silly hat. Not done me any harm. Nicole quite likes my bent spine look.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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NOw listen here NW, I have been carry luggables and laptops around when you thought PC was a man in a blue suit with a silly hat.
Ah, but it was! I used a DEC PDP-11 in them days, and didn't bother with PCs until the PC-AT started being cloned :)
Not done me any harm. Nicole quite likes my bent spine look.
My sincerest apologies, Quasimodo ;)
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IF I was a thief, I'd target estates.
Why?
Often new houses, new owners, not well known, all off to work, lots of mobile execs, .
Hang around in a car - no-one will notice (especially if a white van - assumed you are doing some work on a house). Note who has valuables in car at morning or night.
Then break in.
Lots of very smart estates . Old cars are so easy to break into. And people get careless when tired.
We have spates of burglaries stealing figurines here.. (Potteries). Easy for thieves. People advertise what they have to be stolen by putting them in windows or on fireplaces in front rooms visible from the road.
Try taking a walk one evening as it is growing dark.. round your neighbourhood as families come home and switch on lights. Amazing what thievable goods are on display.
Way to stop theft is to start by thinking like a thief and seeing what is readily available... Look into car and house windows. If you can see it it is thievable.. And if it is a 106/Fiesta/Golf or E36 BMW 30 seconds with a screwdriver and hammer and the locks are gone.. no noisy glass breaking..
madf
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Ah, but it was! I used a DEC PDP-11 in them days, and didn't bother with PCs until the PC-AT started being cloned :)
Ahhh now talking proper 'puters say he who started on PDP11/02 & ended up trained & having worked on the entire PDP range & trained on up to Vax 6850. & all the peripherals such as tapes & drives etc. Ah those were the days.
Now faced with a sea of Intel stuff as I work for a major manufacturer!
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My previous car was a Passat saloon with (key) lockable rear seats. The boot felt safe(r).
Replacement time I got a choice of Ford and VX group cars (better now including Toyota) and it was either an estate or h/b Mondeo. got me... my choice. One reason for taking the Mondeo hatch back was perceived security. As mentioned above, you only use an estate's boot cover if there is something to hide. Hatch back "might" conceal something but not definate. Did like the Passat saloon for this security reason....
PS Work in IT so always have laptop(s) in boot when working, so to speak. Obviously when working in office it's not there.
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The "AH" was meant for petsco in response to his hotdesking explanation.
We have the two Honda IMAs as Office hack now, these are booted cars with the batteries stacked behind the rear seat. Pretty secure ? well no. Honda have seen fit to put a boot release next to the driver's seat. We've had these immobilised on our cars for this very reason.
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Thanks for all the input lads (and lasses) - i guess it's in the past now. Window fixed, new laptop already, and parcel cover taken out. Bit of a pain but I guess it's necessary. Got more important things to worry about at the moment and life goes on!
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