LACK OF TRACKERS PUTS CLASSICS AT RISK
Former Metropolitan Police officer and crime expert calls on more owners to fit security devices to their cars
One of Britain’s top car crime experts believes that classic car owners are risking having their cars stolen because they’re not fitting them with tracker-style security devices.
Ken German, a retired Metropolitan Police officer who spent 25 years on the force’s stolen vehicle squad, and is spokesman for the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, said that few classic owners were using the devices to deter thieves, despite high recovery rates for cars fitted with them.
He said: ‘Experts in the police forces that I’ve spoken to can’t understand why people aren’t using security trackers on older vehicles. They’re cheap and cheerful to use, you have the option of having it wired in or standalone so that it doesn’t affect your classic, and there are three or four companies offering return rates of upwards of 90 per cent for vehicles reported stolen with these devices fitted.
‘ With the number of classics being stolen at the moment, it makes sense that these older cars should be fitted with tracker devices, but the reality is that a lot of classic owners just aren’t fitting them. The companies and police are having some real success with recovering vehicles fitted with them, but these successes are overwhelmingly for modern cars rather than classics because those are the cars being fitted with them.’
He also highlighted that thieves themselves often use their own tracking devices by fitting them to target vehicles spotted in public, but that classic owners could use their own devices to help the police trace their stolen vehicles.
The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC), which already works with the Selecta DNA marking scheme to encourage classic owners to fit identifying markers to their vehicles, said that owners can do more to protect their classics from thieves.
FBHVC communications director, Geoff Lancaster, said: ‘I get the impression that there a lot of classic owners who don’t fit any devices or take additional measures to improve their cars’ security because they take the view that “it won’t happen to me” – but what happens when it actually does?
‘A lot of the classics that are popularly targeted by thieves, such as fast Fords, are taken and often broken up soon afterwards for spares.
‘ While we do know that police do visit breakers and scan parts for markings that will identify them as stolen, we would encourage classic owners to be proactive and use security devices, especially given that when things like markers start at £30 or so, they’re not that expensive to begin with.’ ❚ fbhvc.co.uk
‘Owners think “it won’t happen to me”, but what happens when it does?’ GEOFF LANCASTER, FBHVC