A

abmcelln

New Member
Hi Guys

Unfortunately this is the second time that the lights have been stolen from our drive in under 12 months. It's a company car. This happened at 02:58 in the morning of the 22/11/18. This time we caught them on Camera. The Plod have been useless, haven't even been out or asked for footage.

Needless to say that being a loans company, we have a few handy debt collectors who have managed to secure the identities of these 3 guys within 14 hours. I don't want to say too much about that stuff. Just shows that plod is not fit for purpose and if you want things fixing, don't sit around waiting for them.

Apologies for the branding on the video, this is the software that we have built into the editing software at work.



 
Agree with the police being useless in this type of situation,
I had my work van turned over in May, approx £7k tools stolen.
Reported to police who replied by text, stating there’s no point attending, as there will be no evidence. Even though there was a big print on central locking button they still wouldn’t attend
 
MJI said:
Got any close up stills of faces?
Click to expand...

Hi Mate

Strangely enough they were recognised from the way they, more specifically, one of them walked, several people contacted us with information all with the same name. After a bit more checking, we confirmed the identity of the three. There was possibly another car involved waiting up the road. We think as a look out for the cops.

Got to be honest, was a bit disappointed in the camera's. They were Nest version 1, the HD version 2 which came out this year is supposed to be better, can zoom in more and the incoming light doesn't overwhelm the camera. The glare from various light sources and the wet road made this almost impossible to identify any features. Their car was a stolen one so the license plate wasn't of any use but we could't read it which was disappointing.

We've decided to sell it when it comes back from Land Rover on Monday. It's a shame as it is a cracking car, but we are just unable to protect it. We think we'll probably go with a new 5 with the new engine spec.
 
johnlad said:
Agree with the police being useless in this type of situation,
I had my work van turned over in May, approx £7k tools stolen.
Reported to police who replied by text, stating there’s no point attending, as there will be no evidence. Even though there was a big print on central locking button they still wouldn’t attend
Click to expand...

It's an amazing thing and people in the 21 century, they no longer leave finger prints or DNA apparently. If they just put all their afforts into catching one and increased the sentences to 10 years for anyone caught, one would imagine their workload would fall and then they could focus more and more on the ones that do exist. Maybe we are all being a bit too simple there though.
 
Why is the vehicle so easy to get into to pop the bonnet and for the lights to be removed so easily?
 
DanClarke said:
Why is the vehicle so easy to get into to pop the bonnet and for the lights to be removed so easily?
Click to expand...

Good question mate, that question is one of the things that is putting me off the Discovery 5.

1) Why didn't Land Rover tell me about this problem before I bought it? We only found out about this being a common issue when we went to replace the first set of lights from Land Rover. They told us they get 2-3 a Week, and their dealership is targeted over and over again.
2) Why haven't they recalled them?
3) Why should they benefit from us buying a new vehicle from them because they designed this one badly?
4) If there is a similar issue with the 5, they won't recall them again.

I was thankful to this forum yesterday when I read a thread on how to disable key-less entry. I wasn't aware of that, when the vehicle comes back. We'll disable that.
 
The thieves on the black market are worth quite a bit for kidneys and the like.

May be worth investigating as a way to recoover costs.

Failing that sell to a sex trafficer
 
Engrave the cars reg number into the clear plastic lens, they might nick them the first time, but sure as hell will check the second time and just not bother.

The glare from the thieves cars brake lights really screwed up the camera.
 
lynall said:
Engrave the cars reg number into the clear plastic lens, they might nick them the first time, but sure as hell will check the second time and just not bother.

The glare from the thieves cars brake lights really screwed up the camera.
Click to expand...

D2 facelift headlights are still at risk in some areas of the country too, but there were some aftermarket security fittings available in days gone by.

Regarding the camera and the glare off the villain's brake lights, most CCD photographic elements are extremely "red sensitive". That's why infared floodlighting can work so well as a method of covert area illumination.
 
Just wanted to take a few seconds to show what I'd done to try and limit the opportunity for them to steal the lights again.

1) Removed the handle for the bonnet catch, I've actually made a custom handle to they can't just bring a standard one with them. I keep it somewhere secret inside the car, chances are they won't spend time looking for it with the alarm going off.

Also modified some gates, drive the car under them so the bonnet will no longer come up. Hopefully some ideas for others with the same issue. Pics below
 

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abmcelln said:
Just wanted to take a few seconds to show what I'd done to try and limit the opportunity for them to steal the lights again.

1) Removed the handle for the bonnet catch, I've actually made a custom handle to they can't just bring a standard one with them. I keep it somewhere secret inside the car, chances are they won't spend time looking for it with the alarm going off.

Also modified some gates, drive the car under them so the bonnet will no longer come up. Hopefully some ideas for others with the same issue. Pics below
Click to expand...


Did you engrave them? engravers are pretty cheap
 
abmcelln said:
Just wanted to take a few seconds to show what I'd done to try and limit the opportunity for them to steal the lights again.

1) Removed the handle for the bonnet catch, I've actually made a custom handle to they can't just bring a standard one with them. I keep it somewhere secret inside the car, chances are they won't spend time looking for it with the alarm going off.

Also modified some gates, drive the car under them so the bonnet will no longer come up. Hopefully some ideas for others with the same issue. Pics below
Click to expand...
Hate to be your neighbor when that gate is open, or someone who runs into that thing, or a neighbors child getting hurt with that thing.
 
lynall said:
Did you engrave them? engravers are pretty cheap
Click to expand...

No we didn't mate, we did think about it but we were told it would do no good. The reason being is that they are being stolen to be used for lights in Cannabis farms. That being said, if it is cheap to do then it's worth having a go. Just didn't want to damage the lights. When we weighed up the risk versus reward, it seemed to stack up against.
 
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