Bring Back Hanging etc etc. and Alarms?

[street]

Well my worst automotive nightmare was realized this morning when I woke up to find my mk3 Escort had been nicked

I was totally gutted, had the thing 10 years (it was my first car) and it has a lot of memories attatched and time invested in it, so I was just mortified.

It must have been nicked early in the night really because there was a bright red Citroen C5 sitting in the exact spot where I had left mine..... This Citroen guy irritatingly always nicks my space when i'm not there so for a few irrational seconds when I saw his car in place of mine my anger was directed at him. HE must have done this
But my rediculous sleepy assumtion soon wore off and I started to think what to do.
I was just about to go out looking for my beloved Escort on my pushbike when I spotted a note had been pushed through the door. It read:


To the owner of the black car. I have seen it this morning, it has been vandalised and dumped 3 streets down.


Thats a start, i thought. I was happy that it wasn't at the bottom of the canal after some high speed 'fun' by the perpitrators, but dreading what I would find.
I went straight round there and sue enough I saw it sitting in the road next to some flats.
As I approached it from the distance I could see that it wasn't burnt out. Phew.
As I got even closer I saw lots and lots of broken glass around it.... not so good.
But as I got even closer I saw that the broken glass was just dozens of beer and vodka bottles, the glass on the car was intact apart from the rear quarter window, which is where they had got in.

The bonnet was up, but nothing disturbed in the engine bay. The drivers window was down, steering lock broken, wires trailing out from under the dash.... looks like they'd failed to get it started!!
I always disconect the ignition plug under the dash as a half ar$ed affort to immobilize it, and it seems it had worked!!!

Whats more, there was nothing missing out of the car- The maltese cross interior mirror was still there, as was the breaker bar I keep in the footwell to undo the wheel nuts.... everything was still there!

I hope the plebs were watching from their flat as I got in it, plugged in the ignition wire, inserted the key and burnt off to take it back home

So after that fright, I REALLY need to get an alarm, because even if none of my neighbors would have reacted, I would have heard it and I would have been able to run outside and open a sachet of WHOOPASS on the thieving scum (maybe).


So, to add some constructiveness to this thread- Who can reccomend a decent alarm that isn't expensive? Is there such a thing?
I'm thinking loud, irritating sound, difficult to get past, that sort of thing?

Cheers for reading my essay

[penski]

A fecking big dog with an elastic band wrapped around it's willy?

*n

[reanimation]

Holy Shiaaaat dude. I could cry for you Aaaaaand do another 95 mile drive over to kick some scumbag ass! too!

Hope ya ok, good for you for making an effert to immobilise it! add a few more visual one then, its a distinctive lil thing, but they know in the day of high tech our retro fords are 'easy' to nick - they think!

How did they get that far, pushing


general

[drew]

That sucks, glad you got it back and not much was taken.

Depending on your auto-electrical abilities, I would say ebay. You can get a toad cat2 immobiliser there for £40, then also a cheap noisy alarm £30? If you can fit it yourself you should be sorted.

Or you can get a cat1 alarm for about £100 (again toad). I've not had any experience with these, but it is the approach I intend to take when I can afford to. Also have you considered a mechanical immobiliser like a disklok? These are supposed to be really hard to get through.

[monster]

Its every car owners nightmare, I'm glad to hear you were fairly lucky in that you've got it back with not too much damage. Its sad that old fords are rediculously easy to nick, though not on this occasion thankfully! I thought when i was first reading your post it was going to end up that it was gone, probabaly never to be found, which would be curse word as your escort rules!

[Paul H]

Really sorry to hear about the theft, but such good news that you've got it back so quickly & with such little damage. Good on your neighbour too for telling you where it was

[SeventyNine]

i fitted my toad ai606, £109ish and its cat 1 and a fairly decent alarm.

there not as hard as you may think to fit, get the interior out, then its a case of finding wires such as indicators, ignition live, a good earth, door sensors etc, imagine it as one above fitting a car stereo.

then get it checked over by a specialist for a few more pennies and save money on your insurance too

[vicsmith]

Thought that was gonna be an awful story until it got to the end - that could have been a lot worse. I use a mobile auto electrician that comes out and fits Toad Sterling touch immobilsers for £75, they are supposed to be the best low cost immobiliser in the business, the Capris got one, but I also use a massive disklok as well, which coupled with the flashing red light of the immobiliser and the various stickers just says (I hope!) "don't bother, I want to keep this car a lot more than you want to nick it" and with a bit of luck they`ll go and do us all a favour and get caught trying to get a Mondeo going or something.

[Pillock]

Cat2 is immobiliser only, not alarm - cat1 is alarm. It's only really thatcham approved if fitted by a trained installer anyway but sometimes ebay sellers will give you the certificate to fill in yourself. they can be a bit fiddly to fit though, one of the specs of it being approved is all the wires are the same colour!

i had a Sterling alarm, which is made by the same people as Toad, fitted to my G40 for £140. It's not approved but it was a good alarm with ultrasonics and it was mobile-fitted the same day. never had a false alarm, only went wrong once when i slammed through a puddle too fast and filled the sounder with water. was fine after being parked in the sun for a day

Been quoted £195 to supply and fit a Toad Ai606, which is Cat1 and pretty highly recommended by most. It's the standard Cat1 alarm these days. Clifford seem to have more 'goodies' such as remote engine start, microwave warn-away sensors etc but you pay big money for them.

[surprisingskoda]

a deterrent is obviously a very good first step.
as are huge 'alarm protected' stickers in my rapids qtr windows... despite me disabling the alarm...

so glad that wasnt the story i thought i was reading! in the end you've learnt a lesson at a very small cost mate, gotta be a good thing

[reanimation]

thatcham steering lock, alarm, and any other trick security additions, don't post here as you have the sticker is on ya car, lets just say they wont get it next time, so glad its ok though.

[Deleted]

Glad you found it

[goaferboy]

pillock said:

Clifford seem to have more 'goodies' such as remote engine start, microwave warn-away sensors etc but you pay big money for them.

tell me about it and the bloody thing keeps unlocking itself

edit: after a bit of research it seems the key has a rediculous range on it so i may be accidentaly pressing the button. handy...

[SeventyNine]

£200 fitted for a toad is a good price, i ive fitted mine with a few mods, like its wrapped into the original loom tape, all fused through the original fusebox and i could choose where i picked up the 2 seperate intercept points to intercept and also what to intercept. purely because i don't like anyone else working on my car other than myself, and I'm willin to give anything a shot, plus if it goes wrong ill have more of a clue as to why and where its gone wrong.

the certificates have to be stamped by an authorised fitter - working where i work that wasnt hard to come by though

but thats just me

[bryn]

Glad to hear you got it back, that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when the reality of what's happened sinks in is horrible.

In all honesty, as much as I think alarms are great... I would recommend a Disklok device. For between £50-60 you can guarantee that nobody is going to be able to drive away.

Then just get a cheap alarm that you fit yourself, so that it'll make a noise. Everybody these days ignores a car alarm, so the only thing you'll need it for is to arouse suspicion when it's going off on the back of a Hiab lorry.

I also wire up a hidden switch to turn off the feed to the fuel pump, this is only any good when you've got an electric pump of course.

I've relied on an alarm before and been let down, mechanical, physical means coupled with a flashing LED seem to be a pretty comprehensive deterrent for around a £100 all in.

Good luck

[street]

Thanks guys
TBH I really was just asking for it with no security, but its one of those things that I didn't get round to doing because of money or time.... but i've learn my lesson with this incident!
I'm amazed it wasn't burnt out, thats what they seem to do to other cars around here. I got off really lightly I reckon.

Cheers for your alarm reccomendations, i'll look into those today. Think I should be able to do it, even though i'm rubbish with electrics I should be alright with fitting it if I take my time etc. Also I may well get one of those Disklok things, i've heard good things in the past so I think its time I invested.

Reanimation: Yeah they appeared to have pushed it, because the back bumper is all dented in where they were pushing on it I assume. If the primitive muppets would have figured out how to start it, it would have been the last i'd seen of it for sure!

To the linconshire police's credit they came round within the hour. The SOC officer looked at it but didn't take any prints, gave me the old "it'll cost more to fix than its worth" routine though. Very useful

[kP_Nuts]

How much of this is correct i don't know as it was "read on the internet" but i have read that some insurance company's reckons those "snap-off" removable steering wheel boss's as cat 3??? but will only pay out if your car is stolen and you still have the steering wheel. Not much good though if you still only have the std wheel fitted.

Also p.m. sent about local alarm place mate.

Simon

[Mr K]

glad you got it back, i love your scrote! (oooo errr)

street said:

, gave me the old "it'll cost more to fix than its worth" routine though. Very useful

a smashed window will cost more than a whole escort with loadsa goodies? i think hes abit deluded!

[reallyloud]

Sorry to hear about this. Its a sickening feeling when you realise that your car has been nicked. Deterents are the most cost effective way, make sure whatever you fit to the car it is highly visable.

[TwincamGTi]

The SOC officer looked at it but didn't take any prints, gave me the old "it'll cost more to fix than its worth" routine though. Very useful

Typical Tw4t of the British police force these days

Happy to say where I am at the moment (country I'm in ) you can 'gun the w4kers down' for doing this sort of thing with a comendation from the local law enforcement establishment

You are very lucky to have found it and I can fully respect the sentimentallity of the vehicle (i.e 10+ years ownership).