Replacement van - more security

maureenandtom

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We have a replacement van. This one will be better protected than the one stolen.

First:-


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But then - a wheel clamp. Which, when it arrived, I thought would be easily femoved with a cordless angle grinder. So - a little modification.

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I stuffed all three arms with steel bars and threaded and inserted studs in all those meccano holes.

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It won't fully stop the angle grinder but it should make it much more difficult and noisy. With luck the bars will bounce around inside the hollow box sections and shatter the cutting disc. With luck it might even damage the thief too.

And I'm not finished yet. Electronic aids next.
 
I've been a bit forgetful about passing on what else I've done. I found this in the van

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and it turns out to be a burglar alarm. It alarms the front doors but has no effect on the other door or the windows. But ... if you enter throught the habitation door and start the engine the alarm goes off when the engine starts.

Also, I've put a padlock locking the driver's seat in the reversed position.

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and I've a tracker. Though when I researched trackers I found that GPS jammers rendering the tracker ineffective can be bought for about £25. There are very cheap trackers and I've thought about buying a cheap tracker and hiding it where it will be found leaving the better hidden one to continue to tell me where it is.

So, the object is a layer of problems for the thief to solve and, though all will be easily solvable, perhaps the time to solve all these things will deter the thief. The van is just outside the bedroom window so given enough time perhaps we wil wake in time to save the van.

When it was stolen two years ago we heard nothing and I think the van must have been pushed away and either started down the road or maybe towed away. Or even on a recovery truck.
 
Are you changing the door locks ? I did on mine ,disconnected the cdl and fitted a Abu’s lock to hab door .both front doors have brackets on them and a strap goes across both doors so they are harder to get opened .all nightly thing to perhaps deter ,pics available if you want to see
 
A Really good one if it’s a transit and especially a motorhome that’s going to be sitting around a lot is if you lift bonnet you’ll see a fuse box right in front of you pop the lid and there’s two small grey relays they are both linked to the ignition takes two minutes to pop one out and two minutes to put back van will never start and doesn’t show on a reader.
 
I like the idea of locking the drivers seat in the reverse position. I’ll have a look at that.
I had a note put through the door asking if it was for sale. That concerned me. There are now several new, hopefully, anti theft devices on the van
 
I like the idea of locking the drivers seat in the reverse position. I’ll have a look at that.
I had a note put through the door asking if it was for sale. That concerned me. There are now several new, hopefully, anti theft devices on the van

That's dodgy. When our van was stolen we had a guy at the door, asking if it was for sale, not long before. I've also had a someone at the door recently asking if we had any trees needed felling (!!). While he was there he might as well ask if the van was for sale. Then two cards through the door (with phone numbers) offering to buy the van. I thought - our van is about to be stolen again.

In the light of experience I told the police all this but without a reply so I asked them if they were doing anything with the information. The gist of their reply is that no crime had been committed.

"I do understand your concerns and I do understand your frustrations (believe me I share the same frustrations!)"

"As the male has not committed any criminal offence (that we know of!!) this would not be authorised. There is nothing to link the male, other than pure suspicion, to any theft and there is nothing to link the numbers to any thefts.

As I say, I do share your frustrations but we have to work within the law and within the Humans Rights act which governs how we conduct intrusive enquiries."


The reply was fuller than that - explaining who could authorise an investigation into telephne numbers - but the gist was that no crime had been committed - soi nothing can be done. And it's hard to disagree with that. Perhaps if the van is stolen then some of the information might be useful.
 
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I’ve kept the note in a plastic ziplock bag, been watching to many CSI programs ?. There’s a tribe (?) of travellers in the area, so probably nothing is safe.
I’m aware the last sentence is probably racist or something similar. That doesn’t alter the fact that nothing is safe while they are in the area. ?
Going to check on how to padlock the seat. Simple idea. And might just slow them down. Shame you’re not allowed to Booby trap the air bag. Then again, I’d forget to disarm it. Now that would spoil my whole day.
 
Thank you for posting this. We get our replacement motorhome tomorrow. I posted "our motorhome was stolen last night" and had lots of helpful advice. Definitely locking seat rear facing on top of .... tracker, disclok, thatcham alarm and immobiliser, hidden power kill on starter battery, cutting off OBD port.... police say theives look for the easy ones so every layer adds delay.
Best wishes with new motorhome.
 
An alternative solution to the drivers seat - turned to face inward then we use our Gold Standard bike chain which will run through the seat frame and under the handbrake before locking - seat won’t move and handbrake won’t release properly unless you unlock or cut through the chain. Not going to stop a portable angle grinder but it will take some time and acts as a further deterrent..... just thought I’d mention it in case anyone carries a decent bike chain lock .... dual purpose ??
 
I like the idea of locking the drivers seat in the reverse position. I’ll have a look at that.
I had a note put through the door asking if it was for sale. That concerned me. There are now several new, hopefully, anti theft devices on the van
That is one of my security measures I chain both front seats together and also a wire bond through the door handles and lock them together
 

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