Thieves, mods and satnavs...

Soldato
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Recently a colleage got her car broken into. Wasn't a massively flash was a Yaris I believe - they smashed her window and searched through her glovebox. Why? Probably because she had a satnav cradle...

Her car was the only car that was broken into, despite the fact that there were at least 4-5 more expensive cars down that long road with many cars...

What I figure is that guys go around in a car, looking down rows of cars for satnav cradles, then smash to see if the satnav is in the car and then just drive off...

We know that satnavs get a thieve's attention - but would obvious mods do as well? Think of it this way, if someone has spent lots modding their car chances are that they may have expensive ICE in the car as well...
 
Soldato
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If the cradle is the type which sticks to the windscreen then removing and hiding it often isn't enough as the thieves will actually look for the tell-tale sucker marks on the screen. Make sure you not only remove the cradle but wipe the screen too.
 
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Vertigo1 said:
If the cradle is the type which sticks to the windscreen then removing and hiding it often isn't enough as the thieves will actually look for the tell-tale sucker marks on the screen. Make sure you not only remove the cradle but wipe the screen too.

But better to remove it and leave marks than leave it on there. Only pro's or clever thieves (and lets face it, if they had brains they wouldnt be nicking sat nav!) will be looking for marks on the windscreen!
 
Soldato
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I try to always pack the sat nav and road angel away, stowing the accessories in the glove box but takeing the units with me. If its a very dodgy area then I also remove the cig multiway power sockets so that it doesn't look like I way use expensive kit in the car. The headunit is stock as is the cd changer so I hope to not have any problems there.
 
Soldato
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:) good thing about having sat nav on my phone, take it with me as i always keep my phone on me, and it's not a hassle as it's not a seperate device to carry

Tom.
 
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MrMoon said:
take the satnav unit with you and remove the cradle as well

Yeah, all well and good, but if your like me and can't stand wires hanging around, and cant stand random things stuck to the dash or the screen, then you'll have it modified to be as close to part of the dash as possible, and hence not removable without re-modifying the dash.

Not something I can do everytime I park the car :(
 
Soldato
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what is the world coming to, its sad when we have to take so many precautions to save our cars/in car stuff.

i do have tomtom go, take it out every night aswell.
 
Soldato
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TBH leaving your (empty) glovebox open sounds like much less hassle than taking out the cradle. Mines a PITA to move, infact if I need to use my satnav in another car I just bung it on the seat as I can't be botherd faffing about taking the cradle out :o
 
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Well this thread has me thinking! I leave my tomtom gps on display on the dash, the ipaq goes in the storage compartment, and the ipod sits in the glove box.
None of the above ever gets removed!!
 
Soldato
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i just leave the RA2 cradle and the PDA cradle suckered to the windscreen permanently... i just assumed that if they see theyre empty they'll leave it alone. Nothing else is left on display in the car, no indication that there may be valuables inside. Am i just being naive? :o
 
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Phantom said:
i just leave the RA2 cradle and the PDA cradle suckered to the windscreen permanently... i just assumed that if they see theyre empty they'll leave it alone. Nothing else is left on display in the car, no indication that there may be valuables inside. Am i just being naive? :o
Their thinking is that if the cradle is there, then someone's just taken it off and stuck it in the glove box, and 9/10 they are probably right.

The best thing to do is remove it all from the car, and if it's a suction type holder, clean the windscreen, they will also look for the ring that would be left - it's easy to spot in this weather with the condensation in the cars at night.
 
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