Stolen Car

[mmylonas]

My 993 Carrera Cabriolet was stolen last Friday from the garage - burglers broke into the house first and took keys and all the documents. Metallic black. If anyone sees one offered for sale cheaply or (worse) sees any parts/panels/roof mechanism etc offered cheaply could they drop me a mail.

Many thanks

Michael

 

[spyderman]

Crikey - sounds like they were in the house for a while. If they took the documents, they're certainly wanting to sell the car in one piece - almost certainly stolen to order. Hope the Police had given you the proper attention.

 

[zwhitea]

No Tracker..?

 

[Mark Elder]

Michael, that's awful news.
What year? What area are you in?

 

[craig2105]

Blimey. Nightmare. Commiserations - hope you get it back

 

[sebrussellsmith]

Michael, really sorry to hear that, b......rs should be hung! As below where are you based?

 

[day1zero]

Sorry to here the news....defo sounds like stolen to order....no doubt the police are pulling out all the "stops" !!

 

[Johnny C]

Commiserations

I keep my docs in a locked drawer at work. Partly for that reason, but also because I'd lose them at home (well the missus would tidy them away permanently).

 

[Mark Elder]

Call me naive, but I don't understand the "stolen to order" idea. Is it simply that the thief is selling it to a buyer who is stupid enough to pay cash in a pub to a bloke he's never met without doing an HPI check?

I guess you might get a couple of months driving before being picked up by an ARPN system, and if you're really that stupid you also might "forget" to register the car in your name so DVLA won't pick it up until the tax disk runs out and you want to park it in the high street.

So you can get away with it if you can find the really dumb cash buyer...

 

[kbooker]

Yes Mark, naive just about covers your post above![]

 

[Johnny C]

Stolen to order cars go abroad, to Australia and places with RHD cars where they can re-register. Or some have the RHD replaced with LHD, the car sold in Eastern Europe and the RHD gear sold to Aus where they replace the LHD on US imports. There's a trade importing write-offs from Japan to Eastern Europe. Japan is RHD so they replace the front end with a stolen LHD.

If it was stolen to order, sadly the chances are it was on a ferry in a container within 24 hours.

You should notify Porsche, if it is bought abroad by some unsuspecting person, they may take it to an OPC over there and they would pick up that it was stolen. I've no idea what would happen if it was, but there's a chance it might get recovered.

 

[Mark Elder]

OK, but then what is benefit of the car's documents? Perhaps when you try to re-reg a car in Australia you need the documents, but the re-reg process never checks back to the original country that it's not stolen. Why should they, just extra work...

 

[mmylonas]

Car Recovered - unharmed and with all docs inside.

Early New Year's resolutions:
Get a Tracker
Never leave car docs anywhere obvious (file drawer with "Cars" - not a good plan)
Keep a copy of all the car docs in the office just in case the originals are stolen or lost
Have a secure key safe or hiding place for keys for all the cars you own - or leave them with a neighbour

Congratulations and my thank you to DC Georgina Bradley at Thames Valley Police and to the observant Surrey officers who spotted the car.

Good thing the car turned up - had just about persuaded myself that a 997 or V8 Vantage was the answer with prices dropping like stones.

Thanks to everyone who mailed with ideas.

 

[Jane Smart]

Delighted to hear that you got your car back and unharmed too.

Jane

 

[craig2105]

Brilliant news! I'd definitely get that tracker sorted out...

It'll be interesting to see how your insurance company treats this. I made a small claim this year after my wife had an altercation with a concrete post in her office car park. Insurance with the same company has gone up about 75% and switching to another insurer revealed quotes over 200% higher than last year's premium.

Painful...

 

[Jane Smart]

When I got my porsche a few years ago, before he arrived, we had the garage alarmed.

You learn things off threads like this, as the documents for Taffy are here in the study on the book shelf.

Well they were lol []

Jane x

 

[thboxster]

Getting the garage alarmed is something that had not crossed my mind but i've often considered that even though the car is usually tucked away in it's dry warm home, the main garage door is not much of an obstacle.

Maybe i'll look into this aswell.

I bet I could extend the AlertMe system if I get an extra set of contacts and PIRs.

 

[mmylonas]

I've already looked into garage/house alarms and they often aren't much of a deterrent especially if the house is hidden away (and the phone through alerts provide a tantalising warning whilst abroad that your car is being stolen but by the time you call anyone and they respond it'll be long gone).

Tracker & new alarm & immobiliser seem the way to go. Plus machine gun nests on the end of the driveway, razor wire around the perimeter and a blow up model of Anne Widdecombe in the driver's seat... (although someone in my office finds her curiously attractive)

 

[spyderman]

I think camera systems are the best bet. You can buy a complete package of a controller and up to four wireless cameras that uploads the (motion triggered) video it captures to a web server, so even if they find the system and trash it or cut the power, they can't destroy what's already been uploaded. You can also monitor the cameras over the Internet, from anywhere in the world.

There are also systems that include monitoring for an annual cost - and it isn't massively expensive.

The mere presence of a camera is a deterrent, so you fit some that are visible (perhaps out of reach) and others that are hidden, so if the deterrence fails, you might at least capture images that would help the police detect and recover.

 

[Mark Elder]

Good to hear you have her back.

Tracking device: I recommend iMob - very helpful company (unlike "Tracker" who I put up with for 2 years). You can do things like setting "speed alarms" (eg when I'm away, even if keys are stolen, it will call or text me if car goes over that speed). It's got all the normal features like central control who respond if car is moved without the keys. You can even text your car and it will text you back with it's GPS location!