February Recovery Roundup – £2.3m recovered!

It’s not just cars that are stolen

As mentioned above, one of our recoveries this month was a Kubota KX016-4 mini excavator. At the start of the month our customer called in during the evening to report an ignition alert on his Kubota and  whilst on the call, our Stolen Vehicle Recovery team also received an alert that the vehicle was moving. Confirming with the customer that this shouldn’t be the case, the customer obtained a crime reference number from the police whilst we began to mobilise our dedicated Repatriations Recovery Team. 

Armed with the location, our team headed straight over to Wales and began the search to find the missing Kubota. Within an hour and a half, they located, secured and handed over to the police to take for SOCO investigations. 

How are vehicles being stolen? 

Keyless techniques are still proving to be the main source of thefts around the country;  46% of stolen vehicles we recovered during February were taken without the keys. The ‘relay method’, which consists of utilising a signal replicator through laptop or stand alone device, is still one of the simplest and most popular methods thieves are using to gain entry.  The device picks up a car keys signal from inside the house, replicates it on to the device  which triggers the vehicle to unlock and allows it to be driven away. 

The use of Faraday pouches, supplied with all of our S5 devices, can prevent this key replication from occurring.  A Faraday pouch blocks the wireless signal from a key fob, preventing criminals from capturing or relaying the signal.

Alternatively, our S5+ iMOB device (commonly referred to as ‘No Tag, No Start’) will stop the vehicle from starting unless the Driver Detection Card or Tag is in the vehicle. This means even if the key’s signal is relayed to the vehicle, without the card or tag it still wont start. 

Quickest Recovery

A Valentine’s Day to forget for the owner of a BMW X4. Our customer called into our Secure Control Centre to report  that their BMW wasn’t where they had left it earlier in the evening and that it must have been stolen. Armed with a crime reference number, this was passed to our team who headed into London to recover the vehicle. Just 20 minutes from the original call, we located and secured the vehicle. 

Hotspots

A familiar tale for February as London once again stands atop of the list of locations most likely to have your vehicle stolen. 28% of all vehicles recovered were from a London borough with Barnet, Croydon, Lewisham, Newham and Westminster all being jointly targeted more than other boroughs.

West Midlands once again finds itself in second position with Essex in third. 

The Season Opens 

March marks the start of the season for car events and car clubs around the country with two of our partners hosting their Season Opener events in March.

For the first time Global Telemetrics attended the SCC Private Members Season Opener. We had a great day meeting members and seeing some of their amazing vehicles. We cannot wait to attend more events throughout the year. 

Later in March, we will be attending once again the Supercar Driver Season Opener and are intending to bring a special guest within our garage. Not only will our owners be out on track giving passenger laps in Ferraris, our garage will also host the prestigious Ferrari F80, the second delivered in Europe. 

If you are at the event or see us at future events please do come and say hello!