Thieves Or Drunks/Vandals?

[daugs]

Re:

battery isolators are good, I take the rotor arm out of my old vehicles, with a series landy if put steering on full lock can get a D lock round the chassis and steering.

there's an old niggle on my healey that makes it difficult to start but a quick remedy that I've never fixed for a reason

 

[highlandsflyer]

The weird thing is we had an old Rangie sat on the street in London for years up until recently and it never got targeted.

Of course it was a P38..

 

[REKIBorter]

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You need one of these

 

[mattr]

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Just can't see why they would go after an older RR, it is just a Disco 1 after all.

Parts. Massive industry. Up until the late 90's you could pretty much count on maybe 90% of the parts count from any Land Rover product fitting any other Land Rover product, with a bit of fettling.

Even the P38. (But they are a bit harder to nick)

They have even found stolen parts in main dealer inventories. Not so common with other brands, as parts aren't quite as interchangeable.
Since the BMW/Ford days that's pretty much stopped though, still a lot of commonality, but the parts are easy to identify as stolen. And a lot of them won't work if you try and connect them to the wrong car.

 

[unkleGsif]

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When the old man's T reg Volvo 240 estate got nicked last year, from outside the leafy Surrey semi, the feds said it was targeted purely for the weight of scrap, and not parts. Big the growing trend is for big old Volvo's, Rangies, Landies, Land Cruisers and Mercs go straight to the big squishing machine

 

[Leighcal]

Scrap price is low now compared to last year and showing no signs of goin g up. I know because I go tatting myself. If a vehicle is stolen its for parts most of the time and land/range rovers are very easy to break for parts and very saleable. Not expensive really compared to some others. I'm almost positive that to steal a landy of any sort the ignition barrel has to be broken off, either with stilsens or a scaffolding tube. Tube is usually around 3' long to get enough leverage to break barrel but not too long that it gets in the way or too hard to carry. A wheel brace from a truck can also be used. If I'm wrong about this then the other way is to have 2 people on steering wheel to snap the steering lock then tap the little black box off back of ignition barrel, insert screwdriver into this and turn like a key and hey presto. No joining of wires required. This is the same on most cars until around m reg 1995 if memory serves. That when immobilizers started to come as standard on cars more commonly. Another thing that stops the steering lock been broken is airbags. When you snap steering lock airbags have a tendency to go off in your face. This is where stilsens and scaffolding tube come in to play. That said if car has factory fitted immobilizer the only way for it to be stolen is by having the keys. Even crooklocks can be taken off with ease so are of no use imo. Thieves that steal cars to order or to use in other crimes or to break up even have devices to block the tracker signal so it can't be found. They even have the technology to turn the tracker off altogether these days. If someone wants your car that bad for whatever reason, they will get it no matter how hard you think you've made it for them they will get it.
Anything 4x4, German, volvos, anything like that is high on the list. Where my dad lives they have even had ferraris, Bentleys and the like that have been stolen to order mainly for parts.
Nothing is safe and nothing is out of a criminals reach they always get what they want. But they also get what's coming to them now and again. Goin g to prison for criminals is just a learning curve. They learn off other criminals ways to do things and teach their ways also. Some even go to jail just to make money. A guy my friend works with served 18 months in jail and made 35,000 pound in that time from mobile phones, spice, subutex, cannabis and class a drugs selling them to other inmates for cash or money transferred into outside bank accounts. Crazy I know but very true.

Leigh