Classic Car Theft on the Rise

[trw99]

Timely reminder that we need to be mindful of how secure our cars are: http://www.classicandsportscar.com/news ... oss-the-uk

I guess even cars in bits for restoration will be vulnerable, so keep that garage, barn, lock-up well locked. Keep the VIN plate separate from the car, perhaps with your car documents, until it's time to re-affix it. And it's not just at home that you need to keep the car secure. If you are away attempt to keep it garaged overnight, with a visible security device. The article talks about fitting trackers and that may be good advice, though I'm not sure how viable that is with our cars; anyone tried it?

Not trying to be alarmist, but if classics are becoming more attractive to the criminal it behoves us to be sensible to review our security.

Tim

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

I would have thought that the "Lotus World" is so small that any attempt to sell a stolen Elan anywhere would be extremely difficult.

We Zetec Elan owners are even further protected by the scarcity of our special cars.

When building mine I did take the precaution of putting a personal obscure identity on every "sellable" part to make the would be thieves life a bit more difficult.

Nevertheless sound & timely advice Tim, thanks.

Cheers
John

[billwill]

From that article.

He repeated that all owners must be vigilant and, if their classic is taken, the best chance of getting it back is to use the internet to spread the word so the car becomes "too hot to handle".

Not really a good idea in my opinion, far too likely to ensure that the stolen car is burned out to remove evidence or dismantled and sold as parts.

[stevebroad]

Agree. If I was into nicking Elans and knew what I was doing, I would strip and sell for parts as they are untracable except, maybe, the engine. The market for parts is worldwide so selling is easy.

[AHM]

Not trying to be alarmist, but if classics are becoming more attractive to the criminal it behoves us to be sensible to review our security.

Indeed Tim but the first thing to understand regarding security in the internet age is your digital footprint. Hence my recent comments about privacy on the site.

PM me if you would like to know more - I'm not going to write it here!

[Maulden7]

Had an Elan+2S/5 & a Cortina stolen (from supposedly secure parking) some years ago, never to be seen again. Both very nice cars.

The local CID plod was a classic car enthusiast & took a special interest, but he was certain that the cars were either in a container on their way to Russia within 24 hours of going missing, or broken up for parts. He ensured that the id's were recorded as stolen at Swansea, so it would take some work to change these on the cars (as well as resprays etc) & sell on as complete vehicles.

I've probably seen a lot of the parts at auto-jumbles!

[MickG]

Has anyone considered or indeed applied the Selectadot or similar marking system.
I can remember some time ago the chap next door painting this stuff on his motor bike for identification purposes.
I know this doesn?t stop the theft of a vehicle but it would at least make the car and its parts parts traceable.
https://www.selectamark.co.uk/selectadot

Mick G

[69S4]

Has anyone considered or indeed applied the Selectadot or similar marking system.
I can remember some time ago the chap next door painting this stuff on his motor bike for identification purposes.
I know this doesn?t stop the theft of a vehicle but it would at least make the car and its parts parts traceable.
https://www.selectamark.co.uk/selectadot

Mick G

When I reinsured my "classic" motorcycles a month ago the insurance broker sent me along a bottle of something like that for free so presumably they think it has some merit. Either that or the manufacturer has given them a promo supply and they're happy to pass it on the basis that it can't do any harm. Once I paint it on I have to send back the paperwork to get it registered but I'm still trying to decide which of the five bikes I insured to use it on as they only sent one bottle.