Police: Keyless Fords are top target for car thieves
POLICE have named Ford cars as the most likely to be stolen by crooks after becoming exasperated at the ‘apparent ease’ of taking keyless vehicles.
The number of Fords taken has risen five-fold or nearly 400 per cent in four years in the West Midlands while the figures for Audis and BMWs are up threefold, according to police.
The West Midlands force has taken the unusual step of ‘naming and shaming’ manufacturers after a surge in vehicle thefts believed to be driven by the vulnerability of keyless cars.
Owners can walk up to their car and the doors will unlock as long as they have the key fob with them. Police security experts say this technology has made stealing vehicles easier.
Thieves have been using cheap devices available on the internet which pick up signals from fobs. They can then open cars in seconds without having to pick a lock or break a window.
West Midlands police and crime commissioner David Jamieson said he was angry at the ‘apparent ease at which criminals are stealing cars’ and so
Available on the internet
decided to name and shame manufacturers. In a report published yesterday the force revealed that 2,438 Ford cars were stolen in the region in 2018 – a 44 per cent jump from 1,695 in 2017 and a five-fold increase from 489 in 2015.
Ford is the most popular car make with West Midlands residents – accounting for 17 per cent of vehicles in the region. However, a third of vehicles stolen last year were Fords.
Audi was second on the list, with 663 taken by crooks compared to 199 in 2015. BMW had 622 vehicles stolen – up from 193 in 2015. Overall, the number of cars stolen annually in the West Midlands almost tripled in four years from 2,521 to 7,452.
Latest figures from the Home Office show that almost 112,000 cars were stolen in 2017-18 across the UK – up from 75,308 in 2013-14.
A Ford spokesman said yesterday that the company was planning to introduce a motion sensor in key fobs which would help foil the devices used by thieves. The fob goes into ‘sleep’ mode after 40 seconds of inactivity, blocking any signal booster.