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Noticed the car was a bit noisy last week , like the door wasn't shut properly. On closer inspection, I found the front passenger door way out of alignment and a number of marks in the paint where someone had obviously tried to lever open the door at the top . Is this a tried and tested way to break in to a vehicle ? - you'd certainly need a lot of force to gain entry - personally I'd break a side window for quick access...
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yes it is a known way to break into a car........... {8< SNIP - as per the comment in my post below - DD}
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Is this a tried and tested way to break in to a vehicle ?
Without going into too much detail - yes. Not helped by TV programmes like Eddie Jordan's "Bad Boy Racers" that was shown a few months ago whose bad boy youths demonstrated how easy it actually was.
::moderators hat on::
As a footnote, please try and keep this discussion to general comments, rather than the exact science of breaking and entering cars. Yes, most of it *may* well be common knowledge, but it's the few yoofs out there that don't yet know how to, that this information needs keeping from. DD.
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"common knowledge"
It is in France also - happened to us this summer.
--
Phil
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So does the latch give if you apply enough force ?
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My car was broken into a few years ago. It was a Nissan micra. I didn't notice until when driving along I put my hand out to turn on the radio, and my hand went through the hole in the fascia where the radio had been. On examining the door, I found the part of the lock where you insert a key was missing. I guess they used a chisel and hammer to bash out the lock. I would have thought it a noisy method guaranteed to attract attention. But maybe no-one cares these days and ignore anything. (Having once seen some children stealing a car while people ignored them, I suspect that is the case.)
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Did you ignore them???
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This happened to me many years ago with a Cavalier SRi. The alarm went off whlst I was in an evening meeting. I went to the car but found nothing amiss, so went back in and the alarm kept sounding. I couldn't work out what was wrong.
When I drove home, I though that one of the rear windows was open, but I could not close it, from the switch. When I got home I spotted that the whole top of the door had been bent outwards! It has also happened to a friend's car - also Vauxhall, although I am sure that is a coincidence.
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A couple of guys working for me resorted to this technique when they got locked out of a van with the keys left on the driver's seat. It's very hard to do when you you're being careful and trying to minimise the damage. It took around half an hour, but sufficient room was made to pass through a coat hanger succesfully, fish for the keys and then pull them out. A quick bit of bending the other way afterwards and you wouldn't know it had been done !
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Did you ignore them???
No. I rang the police and gave chase. But I was carrying a rucksack, and wearing walking boots, and things fell out of my pockets, so I didn't get the little so and sos.
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- johnny if you are repairing the damage yourself be very careful as the frames rarely go back to their original positions.
a local indi bodyshop will have done loads of these as cheap repairs and most will know just where to pull and push it
good luck
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When my car locked me out (the last original barrel, on the tailgate door, having gone kaput while I was in the pub) I had to get my poor wife, an AA member, to come there with me so that the AA man could do the trick. He did it in the way we aren't allowed to describe after making me say I wouldn't scream the place down if he did any damage. He did remarkably little, and the door still shuts properly. I did wedge it open and give the top a bit of a shove, but I don't think it made much difference.
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It wasn't warped more than about 5mm, I manage to push it back and it all seems to line up properly and close OK although it seems rattly when driving - is it likely there's hidden damage to the latch ?
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So does the latch give if you apply enough force ?
Email sent. DD.
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Sounds like too much hard work compared to this alleged method urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_car_thieves_vin....m
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Yes.Same happened to my fathers volvo about a month ago.Strange way of gaining entry,especially as the car has a factory fitted alarm system.
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Specialities in my area for the toe rags are the Ford Mondeo and Focus - all too easy judging by my best mate's experience at having his Mondeo's radio/cassette unit lifted without the alarm even going off. What's more the car was parked under a lamp post.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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was done 2 years ago outside a resto and didn't notice for 24 hrs. Reason was it was dark and the beeper worked to open and lock the car that night and the following morning at 7am (still dark) and we didn't notice anything was missing till we looked in the back. Believe it or not they stole a long raincoat and box of 500 A4 envelopes
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Are frameless doors a la Subaru better or worse in this respect?
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In Brussels last year I watched, from a cafe ,as the 'parking police' removed a whole line of vehicles by forcing a crack in top of door, inserting wedges and then using a sort of 'endoscope 'undid the handbrakes and towed the car onto a lorry.
Is that better than the 'crane' they use in London?
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