In 45% of cases, thieves have the car keys

We at CAPTOR have recovered many hundreds of vehicles over the years, and have extensive experience in theft methods.

We have classified 4 categories of car theft:
1. Hot-Wiring - Thief steals the car without the car key

2. Robbery - Thief steals car with car keys by robbing the owner of his possessions, usually by first robbing the house and then escaping in the owners car

3. Tow-Away - Thief tows away the car, along with any security system that is protecting it.

4. Hijack - Thief forcibly acquires keys from the owner whilst he is in or near the vehicle. This is the preferred method for high-end and luxury cars.

Since 2008, we have found that in 55% of the cases, the thief steals the car by hot-wiring it. Most of the cars stolen in this fashion have standard immobilizers installed, which should have prevented theft without the car keys. Theives, however, can overcome immobilizers with ease, usually under 10 minutes.

In the other 45% of cases, thieves stole the car by either robbery or hijack, where the thieves had the car keys. This effectively overcomes any security system within the car, as the car thinks the thief is the authorized driver.

LEVEL 1 - PERIMETER DEFENSE

Steering-locks and pedal locks are overcome by cutting around them

The perimeter defense of a vehicle are systems that try to stop thieves from entering the vehicle. Locks and alarms are examples of this and are effective in discouraging low-level thieves. However, locks are easily broken into and the alarms switched off in under 1 minute, usually by disconnecting the car-battery.

The weakest link in a vehicle's perimeter defense is the glass. A thief can break through the side-window, open the door and gain access to the vehicle in only a few seconds. A new innovation, security tinting, can help stop this. Security tinting strengthens the glass, making it much more difficult to break.

A high quality security tint can extend the time it takes to break the glass from a few seconds to over 40 seconds. At which time the thief may have given up from attracting too much attention.

LEVEL 2 - TARGET HARDENING

Once a thief has gained access to inside the vehicle, he may be met with further challenges. Steering-locks and pedal-locks are examples of "hardening" the security of the vehicle, locking either the steering wheel or pedals in attempt to stop thieves from driving the vehicle.

A high quality lock is difficult to break, and may take a long time to cut through. However, thieves quickly overcome these locks by not cutting the locks themselves, but cutting a segment of the steering wheel or pedal and then removing the locks.

LEVEL 3 - ELECTRONIC IMMOBILISER

The next line of defense is to install an electronic immobilizer. These gadgets are either cut power to the engine or stop the fuel if the authorized key is not present. An RFID chip within the key will send a code to a receiver in the ignition chamber, which then verifies the code and allows the engine to start.

There are several ways that thieves can overcome this. Usually, they just bypass the ignition totally, starting the engine from a different power source. Alternatively, they use a key cloner or immobilizer cloner, a device used by mechanics which can re-create the original key's RFID code.

Fully imported luxury cars, such as the Mercedes and BMWs, have more sophisticated immobilizer systems which integrate several core systems within the car. Even if the thief bypasses one system, the other systems will prevent the car from operating, making it much more difficult to hot-wire.

This however, results in thieves hijacking or robbing the owners for their keys. In 45% of cases, thieves will have the keys, rendering the immobilizer ineffective.

LEVEL 4 - TRACKING SYSTEMS

A tracking system allows you to track your vehicle, even after it has been stolen, in attempt to recover it from the thieves. The most common type are GPS/GSM based tracking systems, where the system utilizes GPS to determine its location and communicates its location vis GSM.

It is important to understand that tracking systems are NOT equal. There are several things that you should look for when selecting a tracking system.

- Technology used : Does the tracking system have RF (radio frequency) tracking and communication, or is it limited to just GPS/GSM technologies? Does it communicate using costly SMS or cheaper GPRS?

- Is there recovery services provided or do you have to recovery your stolen car yourself? Do they have a experienced recovery teams or do they rely on police and road-side assistant services? And have they had a proven track record in recovering stolen vehicles?

- What is the reporting interval rate? Does the system automatically upload its location every 3 minutes or 10 minutes? Or do you have to manually request for the information every time?

- Is web access available, where you can log online and track your vehicle from anywhere in the world?

- How is their mapping software? Do you receive locations as street addresses or just geo-addresses such as longitude and latitude?

Find out how the CAPTOR-RF/GPS/GSM system meets all these requirements and why it is the ultimate vehicle tracking and recovery system.