A friend of mine just had her vehicle stolen, with very little chance of recovery. Last night it was there, this morning it’s gone, and how far is it to Cambodia?
With number plates being the only way to identify your car from the outside, with one screwdriver and five minutes, your car has become anonymous.
Gone in 60 seconds.
GPS and GPRS tracking devices are available in Thailand, and these represent the most intelligent way to protect your investment in my opinion. No matter how ‘clever’ the anti-theft system is in your car, it does not stop the skilled thieves (remember the movie Gone in 60 seconds), who if they can’t open and operate your vehicle where it is parked, there are always the slide-on recovery trucks and they can drag it away.
Interestingly, I came across a report of one of these types of devices in the UK, and how it thwarted the thieves. The West Midlands Police recovered four stolen vehicles worth a total £98,000 in one hit thanks to Tracker, the UK’s leader provider of stolen vehicle recovery solutions (SVR).
A BMW X5 worth £35,000 was reported stolen overnight from Edgbaston. Luckily it was fitted with a Tracker device which was activated and West Midlands Police began their search. During the hunt for the BMW, a report of three other stolen vehicles from an address in Olton, two of which were fitted with Tracker devices, also came in. The owners of the 3 cars – a Range Rover Sport worth £42,000, a Mercedes ML 350 Sport worth £11,500 and a Nissan Micra worth £9,000 – were on holiday; luckily for them a neighbor alerted the Police to the fact their premises had been entered, and in turn the cars were discovered to be stolen. In less than four hours the Police had located the BMW X5 as well as the three other vehicles.
PC Alan Meredith of West Midlands Police Air Operations Unit said, “Thanks to the timely activation of the Tracker devices, we recovered approximately £98,000 worth of vehicles before thieves could sell them on or ship them abroad. This is a great result and Tracker played a key role in the success of this operation.”
To be able to locate the stolen vehicles within four hours means your car, with its robbers, could be stopped at the Cambodian border and the thieves apprehended. The cost of these devices in Thailand is around THB 4,000-5,000, which compared to the cost of your car and the hassles you avoid, makes them very cheap.
