Top tips for keeping your car secure
What do you do if you see a Spaceman? Park your car, man!
I seem to have developed an addiction to sniffing brake fluid but it’s okay… I can stop at any time.
What happens when a frog’s car breaks down? It gets toad away.
Yes, you’ve joined me bang in the middle of my car jokes marathon. Although I use the word “jokes” advisedly. I have a lot more of them, but for the sake of your sanity I’ll leave it at just the three. But all this just serves as an introduction to today’s blog which is all about, take a guess… yep, cars.
“Now, hang on,” I hear you saying. “This isn’t Top Gear. You’re not Jeremy Clarkson or Quentin bloomin’ Wilson, what are you doing banging on about cars.” And you’d be right, I am neither of those people, and it shows my age in that they’re the two names that come to mind when I think about Top Gear.
I know you come here for cutting-edge home security chat, and witty repartee (less of the sarcastic laughter please) about the locksmith industry, not for car conversation. But let’s face it, car and home security is linked – they are usually your two most expensive possessions, and houses can be targeted purely for the purpose of stealing the car parked outside. Although I don’t profess to be a car expert, I do know about security, so thought I would put together a few tips on how best to keep your four-wheeled friend safe. (Apologies to any Reliant Robin owners)
Top tips to secure your vehicle
First up is parking. That’s parking, and not parkin – easily confused given that Bonfire Night is coming up. When you’re leaving your car for the night, are you leaving it in the best place? Many people have a garage, but use it as a storage room instead of a place to keep their car overnight. The safest place for a car is inside a garage if you can make room – this will likely lower your car insurance premium too. Failing that, use your driveway as close to your house as you can get, and if you must park out on the road, pick an area that is well lit by street lighting, as darkness is a friend to your local car thief.
Many’s the time we’ve all got out of our cars, clicked the remote-control key and not looked back. We just assume that the button has activated the central locking, leaving the car secure. However, there are several reasons this may not be the case – the signal may have been too weak, the battery in the key may have died, or you may have been distracted and not properly depressed the button. We’re all guilty of rushing and not checking the door is locked, but try and make it a habit to always check the door handle after locking, just to make sure it has locked. It only takes a second, and ensures you’re not leaving your car totally vulnerable to an opportunistic thief.
So we assume you’ve found a safe place to park, and also properly locked the car. Top work. But this good work can be immediately undone if you get in your house and then leave your car keys on a hall table or in a porch where they can easily been seen from outside. This is a double problem. One, it means a thief can quickly snatch the keys and make off with your car, and two – it adds a house break-in to a car theft, meaning double the heartache and insurance admin for the victim. Car keys are often the motivation for a house burglary, with the car the true target of the theft. Leaving them on display is simply giving the burglar an easy life. Hide them away, deeper inside the house. If you must keep keys near the front door, take them away from display so it’s less of a lure for any passing burglar.
You might think that as I’m talking about cars today that I will have a month off from mentioning lock-snapping. Well you’d be wrong. Help prevent your car keys being stolen from your house by getting 3-star Euro Cylinder locks fitted (TS007) with Solid Secure Diamond Standard cylinders. See, even in a car blog, I can crowbar in lock-snapping. And a reminder, that if you don’t have the anti-snap locks, the burglar won’t even need a crowbar, and can be in your house in under ten seconds. Don’t risk it. Get those locks updated.
There are other ways you can look after your car – remember not to leave valuables on display in the car as these will tempt someone to break in for an easy acquisition of your laptop or handbag etc. An additional step you can take at home is the installation of CCTV looking over your car – this is known to be an effective deterrent to burglars knowing they’ll be captured on the footage. Security lighting is also useful – I’d always recommend motion-activated lights which can scare away a burglar approaching your car in darkness.
Out of my specialist area, and there are various car alarms and immobilisers available on the market – I won’t go in to these in any detail as it’s not really my thing, but take a look at www.thatcham.org and navigate to their security section to see what’s available to fit to your car itself as a deterrent.
Expert Barnsley locksmith advice
I hope the above tips have been of help. No-one wants to be the victim of car theft – it’s not only financially costly, but the practicalities of being without a car in winter are also not much fun, especially if you rely on one for work and carrying around the family. Anything you can do to reduce the chances of being the victim of a car theft is therefore well worth doing.