Tuesday morning at 0100hrs got woken by flashing lights in the house stairwell - we have bloody burglars to the house!!
Me and the wife fly downstairs and they scarper with the keys (and Tina’s bag with her car keys in it) to the Sportsbrake.
Can’t open the front or rear house door to get outside (appears they locked them and took the keys) and the Jag disappears down the road at breakneck speed - they’ve nicked it!
Phone police who were round pretty quick and they ask why the garage door is open? - turns out the lowlife’s forced the garage door went past the 2 parked cars (inc the Exige) in the garage and entered the house that way…
So Tina posts it up on social media and we find a trail, car seen being driven recklessly through the next village, next day contents of Tina’s bag found in scattered through the next village. A friend who lives there has a drive around the village and at 2330hrs on Tuesday night he phones me to tell me he has found it! So drives up and sure enough he has - quite a bit of damage, 2 alloys scrapped with shredded tyres and seems to have an oil leak somewhere. Phone police and at 0200hrs Wednesday morning it eventually gets transported to forensic lab who will have it a week minimum - so it will be a week before I can access it for my belongings.
Prob is Tina’s bag contained keys to her car - so they could possibly return to lift that! - phoned Toyota up - £900 to replace locks and programme new keys!
After seeing my car not sure whether I would want it returned after it’s repaired! - pending cost of repairs if it isn’t written off.
Oh and does anyone have a home for a non-barking dog??
That’s shit whichever way you read it. Sad to hear.
Does make you wonder about having Exiges as an open forum, where people say what they have sat on the drive, and any random can have a looksie?
Working in the motor trade, can regale all with some real horror stories going back to the early 90’s, and still going on today. Probably not the place, but if you really want to know knock twice for yes.
I’m getting increasingly anxious about having the garage door up for all and sundry to see the Exige uncovered or even under its cover. We’re in cul-de sac in a quiet village but every random Transit or delivery van that calls close by raises my fears someone will target it or mention it to some dodgy mate who will come looking for it.
And for all the handy lads who do jobs here and admire the car, who knows what they tell their dodgy mates?
I might be becoming paranoid . . . But keys in safe, car is immobilised. . . Maybe the tyre lever should be by the bed?
^ Are you sure you want to do this?? Know a couple of guys that had a new V10 M5 each when they first came out and lost them. Really nice area of Surrey, pretty much a dead end where each lived.
One came down and played hunt the key to his car one morning. Followed by play hunt the car. Then he realised neither were where he had left them. Keys and car gone, laptop, wallet, cash, tech all where he left it inside the house. All they wanted were the car keys and the car.
The other awoke in bed, when they tapped him on the head with a baseball bat as he had put the key somewhere ‘safe’
Makes me angry reading stories like this. You have my sympathy. Hope you can both reconcile the situation with time.
We used to use the alarm at night but have got lazy since getting Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Probably ought to revisit a double protection. ( Much alike double skinning in Brighton…)
Update - police still have car and won’t probably know until Thursday extent of the damage but they do have some cctv footage of the thieves whilst attempted to repair one of the tyres with the foam repair kit - must be total idiots the hole in the tyre was the size of a cricket ball. A white transit then collected them at 0400hrs and they took off in that - so looks like it was a well organised party operating out there that evening.
Bloody Hell Simon, sorry to hear this matey. There are similar stories in my area. I’ve putt ram posts at the end of my drive, CCTV, house alarm and all keys go in a safe over night. I have also become a baseball fan and got myself some wooden merchandise. I know a lot of people say, “it’s only a car, let them have it”, I was that way too, but now I think, “NO, fuck you, I will keep my car and introduce to to my baseball merchandise if you come and try and take it”. Ultimately if they bring more, bigger merchandise, then I’m not stupid, so I’d let it go, but I’m not just gonna roll over for any snot nosed kid that comes looking.
I hope you get everything sorted to your satisfaction Simon. Chin up buddy!!!
Continuing the discussion on this, what are peoples thoughts on preventative measures? I know that whatever you do security wise, it is only preventative. If they really want your stuff, they will find a way to get it. I also think whatever you do to make it harder for them, you’re just moving the problem down the road to an easier target. So is the moral of the storey make yourself as tough a target as possible and hope the easier targets down the road are always one step behind you?
A bottle of liquid beside my bed is my last line of defence…
The firsts are cctv , alarm , motion sensors that trigger a speaker inside the house …and a tyre lever under the bed…
Wood is too tame for intruders that make it inside my castle…
After being burgled for our cars 4 years ago (whilst we slept) I now have
Really obvious CCTV mounted at head height (11 cameras in total outside and 3 inside)
High security pick drill and snap proof locks on all exterior doors
Patlock door security on our 2 sets of french doors
State of the art security alarm with a proper night mode for whilst you are asleep
A house with no flat roofs that allow access to upstairs windows
Window locks locked on all floors all the time
Really sad we have had to do this, but we now try to make someone else’s house look more attractive to scumbags than ours, we will not stop determined professional thieves but we can certainly stop 99% of them with what we have done.
Cheers again chaps for your kind words and support
A little update:
Police finally released car to insurers after nearly 3 weeks and the assessor has looked over the car and it looks like they are not going to write it off
Damage is 2 wheels, 2 tyres, dents to bonnet and driver door and replace security system, keys, immobiliser, etc. Geo will be carried out
Concerned that not replacing all wheels to match everything up and respraying only bonnet and one door. Wheelrims are on back order
Good news is that the engine and underside appear to be in good condition.
House is now akin to Fort Knox (without the gold )
