DO NOT LEAVE HOUSE OR CAR KEYS WITHIN 5 METRES OF YOUR FRONT DOOR AT ANY TIME.
Sadly this Saturday we discovered at about 9am that our Volvo was missing from our driveway. We quickly discovered that the keys had been lifted from a hall table by some b^$&*%d using a pole through the letter box.
The saddest thing is that the thief thought nothing about taking a car with two baby seats, a pram and our children's special toys and leaving us in limbo until we hear from the insurers that we should look for a replacement car.
The police were fantastic - arriving within 10 minutes of our call - but we're not holding our breath that we'll see our family car again.....
My mate had his ford focus nicked by the same method on South Croxted Road a few years back and the car was recovered in Croydon a few days later; driver said he bought it for £400 off a man in the pub and log book was to follow. There was a speight of these around that time but the thieves were caught eventually, hopefully the police will get these ones soon too.
Very sorry to hear it, I know with insurance you get it sorted in the end but its the inconvenience that is so annoying.
Sory to hear of your situation must ne honest not the first time I have heard of such a thing. People must keep their keys on their person.
Also I am sure they would not do this particular weeze if they thought a dog on the other side.
This happened to me last year and I think we posted a warning on the site not to leave keys in hallways. My car turned up 100 miles away part of a securicor armed robbery which was recently front page news in the nationals when the gang went to trial.
Got a call from the police today - our car has been found!
Unfortunately it turns out the car was given false plates, and used in an attempted armed robbery on the bookmakers on Sydenham High Street, before being involved in a hit and run on Tower Bridge Road, and then tracked down to Crystal Palace Road in Dulwich!
Just hope the baby seats are still in the car when we get it back from Forensics....
... all in all a sad episode, and a reminder that Sydenham is still not as safe a place as I wish it could be - but the efficiency and effectiveness of the police throughout has completely restored my confidence in our police service.
At least the false plates is good news. When my car was stolen I had the usual load of penalty tickets even though the computer system they used to get my address marked the car as "of interest to the police" (a legal euphamism for stolen I believe).
They make it difficult for you to get them withdrawn. I did succeed.
Oh and I had to pay the police costs for forensics. Don't worry its covered by insurance they said. But only the innocent pay insurance methinks.
And it happened to us some years ago with 2 14 year olds using our son's fishing net from the shed. They took car, TV & Video, not much else though. Caused a lot of damage to walls etc quite far away - which we had to pay for. At least the police noticed 14 year olds bombing around in a Carlton Estate.
~I take everything upstairs at night including handbag, mobile, camera etc etc and have been a much lighter sleeper since it happened in 1993, I was 6 months pregnant at the time too so it caused a lot of stress not knowing if they crept upstairs to look around while our sons and us were sleeping
I would be loathe to use the children's seats again as they may have been damaged while they were driving it around. They are only polystyrene inside and can crack.
