Thieves target Sat navs

eirlink

thieves are now smarter than we know and are finding the info contained in your sat nav even more valuable than the unit itself. Uk police have discovered the thieves are burgling the owners homes cause their home address is stored on the device, along with other addresses as well.

people dont need to store addresses which they know ( for obvious reasons ) yet is seems they enter these just after buying the units, while playing with it to get familiar with the menus etc.

so my advice is..have a look at your device and make an decision as to what goes and what stays.

Jip

This story seems like a bit of a non-story to me. Why would a thief target an address on a satnav over any other address ? Sure all they have to do is look in a phone book and take any address.

robinph

The targeting of cars that have the suction cup marks on the windscreen I can understand as there is a high chance of being a small expensive gadget hidden in the glove box. I cannot see why you would specifically go to the address that the GPS used to live at though as that tell you nothing about what might be available in that place, other than lax security possibly.

Krusty_Clown

If you own a GPS device, you might own a laptop too?! and a Digital camera?
I don't get the connection either...

There has been a run of stories about thieves robbing GPS devices that can communicate their whereabouts, leading to the ultimate arrest of the thieves.. Maybe the stories are getting a bit mixed up.

eirlink

yeah ..i dunno.just read it at weekend while waiting in airport. I suppose its to do with the fact that the gps can guide them to your home address...anyway the thing is to be aware i suppose.

robinph

I was over in Birmingham around new year and noticed a lot of adds put up in the likes of bus stops by the local council telling people about not leaving their GPS's in cars, or any signs that they might have one in the car.

mik_da_man

Hmm..

I always leave my GPS holder attached to the windscreen, Do many people remove theirs?

ejmaztec

Jip wrote:

This story seems like a bit of a non-story to me. Why would a thief target an address on a satnav over any other address ? Sure all they have to do is look in a phone book and take any address.

It would mean that the Satnav stripped victim wouldn't be at home, so leaving his property vulnerable, unless of course his car is parked outside his house.

miju

mik_da_man wrote:

Hmm..

I always leave my GPS holder attached to the windscreen, Do many people remove theirs?

I always leave the holder on the windscreen as well as it would be too annoying to reattach it and line up my line of sight with it properly again

always take my GPS with me though

aphex™

ejmaztec wrote:

It would mean that the Satnav stripped victim wouldn't be at home, so leaving his property vulnerable, unless of course his car is parked outside his house.

Yes, genius. By the time they figure out the way home themselves without the gps unit it'll already have been emptied, new keys fitted and rented out to some unsuspecting students.

Gran Hermano

eirlink wrote:

...just read it at weekend while waiting in airport...

Now it might make sense if the thieves were targeting cars in the airport
car-park with GPS units/holders on display. If they spotted you pulling into
the long-stay car-park, they could nick the GPS, tap the old 'home' icon
and arrive outside your house with a good probability that the place will
be empty for a while.

Krusty_Clown

Gran Hermano wrote:

Now it might make sense if the thieves were targeting cars in the airport
car-park with GPS units/holders on display. If they spotted you pulling into
the long-stay car-park, they could nick the GPS, tap the old 'home' icon
and arrive outside your house with a good probability that the place will
be empty for a while.

Good thinking, that man! You'll make a fine criminal. Of course travelling away on holidays, you might bring your GPS receiver with you 9or at the very least, not leave it in your car!)