The insurance companies and the police exhort us to lock our cars and secure them against theft. But why would our cars be stolen and what are the chances? Essentially there are two types of car thieves, the casual and the professional. The casual thief wants a car here and now, they don't care what, but they'd prefer it to be easy. The professional wants a specific car and doesn't care where or when they find it. And there's little that you can do if it's your car that they want. According to information from some police officers, the casual user only wants a car for a specific short term use. Be it to get from Beenleigh to the city, or home again, or to use in the carrying out of another crime, such as a getaway car or ram-raider, this user hopes that the car that they find will be easy to start and drive away, for as long as this immediate need lasts.
On the other hand, the professional thief has a shopping list of cars. They are looking for specific makes and models. The fine details of wheels, colour and kilometres are irrelevant, they'll all change inside a day or two anyway, as the car is repositioned, reidentified, and passed to a new, possibly innocent, owner. In this case, the worlds best burglar alarm, engine immobiliser, steering lock and wheel clamps won't make any difference. We've seen the movies where the victim car is gone in a matter of seconds, into the back of a covered van and out of the state in hours, never to be seen again. In this situation the car will cease to exist and reappear with new colour, new engine and chassis number, and different odometer reading. All part of a vast industry where crash wrecks are used to disguise the stolen cars. It is well organised and global.
Meanwhile, back in
the local park and ride car park, someone who finds the public transport
timetables too inconvenient, and they threaten you with all sorts of bizarre
penalties if you don't pay the appropriate fare, is looking for an easy
way to get somewhere else. Their only requirements is that it'll get them
where they want to go, if they've got mates, that's about how many seats
they'll need. But remember that they don't care about obeying too many
of the road rules. And if they have to break something, anything, to drive
it away, they don't care, it'll be discarded in a couple of hours. If it's
used in the committing of another crime, bank holdup getaway or ram
raid, it may well be burnt out to disguise fingerprints etcetera.
This user will be deterred by steering wheel locks and engine immobilisers, they only want a simple life. I have heard of these users just getting tired of walking and because they were walking past an accessible" car, took it to help them on their way. The professional car thief, however, can only be deterred by not having the car that they want. So if you really must have a Type R, or other desirable cult car, and want to keep it for a long and carefree time together, don't leave it out and about unless you have to, and get an EB Civic as your hack car to drive to the Ride and Park, it'll probably cost less than your excess on the Type R's insurance.
Really most of us aren't at risk of having our cars redeployed under the Marxist scheme of things unless we virtually hang invitations on the car. So relax and sleep well at night, knowing that with a steering wheel lock in place and the car locked, your car isn't very desirable and it really is the neighbours burglar alarm anyway.
