Thieves follow stolen sat nav to driver's home

[Hat]

you have been warned..

Quote:

Police are urging motorists not to leave their journey home programmed into their satellite navigation systems.
The warning came after thieves stole a sat nav from a car at Alton Towers theme park and used the device to find the owner's house in Shropshire.
They then stole a £20,000 Saab convertible from the driveway.
'Home' search

Detective Sergeant Chris Walsh, from West Mercia Constabulary, said: 'If your car is then broken into, particularly if you have an in-built sat nav as part of the dashboard, all the offenders have to do is search for 'home' or similar and it will take them right to the door of your empty residence.
'In this case, the sat nav took them straight to the door of the victim's house and they then stole a £20,000 convertible from the driveway. The vehicle was later recovered.'
Police said it was not enough simply to hide sat navs in the glove compartment or under a seat - drivers should take them out of the car altogether when parking.
'If you must have a setting saved to get you home, only ever put your town in to get you back to familiar territory. Don't use the postcode,' Mr Walsh added.

[KillerByte]

There was a feature about this on BBC's The Real Hustle. They fooled a guy into believing they were valet parking his car and then they used the sat nav to find his home address. They also had his house keys attached to the car keys.

[Bhozar]

My dads satnav has its home address set to the dead centre of town. Hopefully if they did follow it they would be picked up on all the CCTV.

[Paul]

Set home as the local police station.

[ALD0]

Quote: Originally Posted by Paul Mullett (original)

Set home as the local police station.

-Very good, bet they would mess themselves when pulling in to the drive!
Simple way around this is not to leave the Sat nav in ya car, especially in Alton towers car park?!

I think they would need a lesson on how to work out the Factory Nav!
Is there a Home feature on that, as I have never used it...

[Hat]

Quote: Originally Posted by Paul Mullett (original)

Set home as the local police station.

i could if we still had one

[ALD0]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hat (original)

i could if we still had one

The british governmet for you, are you still lucky enough to have a local hospital too?!

[Shaun]

Well if they steal my map I havent scribled my home address on it so I should be ok my A to Z would be usefull if they wanted to rob McDonald's Resteraunts..

Sounds like an Urban Myth at first but totally plausable when you think about it.

[Paul]

My house doesn't even appear on my sat nav, not that I use it that much, so no hope there!

[ONED]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hat (original)

i could if we still had one

Quote: Originally Posted by ALD0 (original)

The british governmet for you, are you still lucky enough to have a local hospital too?!

I thought that only happened in N Ireland

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

The advice to never leave your sat nav in the car and to never leave your home address in the sat nav seems well meaning, but ill thought out Why?

1. If everyone removes their sat navs and walks around with them this may improve car crime figures at the expense of an increase in muggings.

and

2. If a car theif used my sat nav to get to my home address, he/she would probably find someone still at home anyway....

I'll remove my home address from mine (I can see some sense in that), but I don't really want to be a target for a mugging...

[Arnbut]

In typical redneck fashion, my home is alarmed and surveiled...
And we're aloud to shoot our muggers on this side of the pond. You should try it; it's very gratifying.

[Root Ginger]

Put your sat nav in your boot if it's incovenient to carry it (a lot safer than the glove box even if it locks) and wipe the marks of the window. The only reason someone will target a car with no sat nav on display is if they see the tell tale marks on the window.

I have a key ring, supplied by the local police, that rubs marks of the window.

[MINImeat]

Quote: Originally Posted by Arnbut (original)

In typical redneck fashion, my home is alarmed and surveiled...
And we're aloud to shoot our muggers on this side of the pond. You should try it; it's very gratifying.

Yeah, it's pretty much open-season down here in the South, too. Wild West shootouts in the streets on the way to work and such...

I said a grande latte, damit!.....blam! blam! blam!

[Paul]

Quote: Originally Posted by Root Ginger (original)

and wipe the marks of the window. The only reason someone will target a car with no sat nav on display is if they see the tell tale marks on the window.

Or a very clean section when the rest is a little grubby (tell tale sign it's being cleaned of sat nav marks).