Bet your security isn't as good as you think!

Here's a thought. How secure are you? I'll bet you think it's all good, however after a recent visit from Plod I was somewhat surprised at the weaknesses and bad habits I've got into.Just had a security check on my house, business premises and vans by the local plod. Very very helpful. Lots of recommendations, some extreme, some blooming sensible.As a result I have now marked all of my tools with smart water, postcoded all of them with a CREmark kit and registered it all with plod. Now this doesn't stop them getting nicked but it can put them off but most importantly if plod do catch the ba****d who nicked 'em in the first place they now have evidence and can bang em up! According to the police this is the hardest part. They recover tonnes of equipment over a year but very little is securely marked and so they can not prove that the suspect did in fact steal them and not "get them cheap off a bloke down the pub". They also struggle to return any recovered equipment.So the moral is mark all your kit clearly and in an obvious place and then be a sneaky bugger and mark it using Smartwater. The police check every piece of evidence they recover for smart water.By the way.......the Police are very aware that Ford Transits are very easy to break into. There are keys available from a variety of elements which will unlock all Ford Transit vans. This will invalidate your insurance unless you fight hard as there will be no forced entry and insurance comapnies seem reluctant to accept this key story.Anyway back to the point of this post.... I will be getting a tracker, the PC who came to see me suggested that a cheap (ish) one from Amazon with a long battery life is useful, and also a seperate alarm for the back of the van. In addition my lock up will have reinforced locks on the roller shutter, a more comprehensive alarm and a great big, ever hungry, slightly rabid, man eating wolf!!! (Sadly the last bit is not true but I can dream!)I highly recommended you try the Crime prevention guys because you'll be surprised at what bad habits you have got in to re security. Do you set the alarm ever time you leave? Do you lock the van every time you walk away? How often do you leave phones, ipads, laptops, expenisive gizmos and gadgets on display in the van?I got all this advice for free by just contacting my local crime prevention officer at the local police. Give them a ring, it'll be worth it.

Replies

This reply was deleted.
- Graham Wright November 29, 2016 at 7:28pm
  
  Is it a new van? I would be thinking someone has a spare key.
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    Andy > Graham Wright November 29, 2016 at 8:35pm
    
    Possible but I think a signal interceptor is more than likely. But who knows?
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      Andy November 29, 2016 at 9:55pm
      
      Also be aware the good ol'transit van has a massive security weakness.....master keys are available on line that will open any tranny van with the similar style key.
      
      I disagree with you John re security design. It is unusual today for newish vans to be nicked without the keys as there are too many safety/security features. The weakness is man made.....those who are less honourable selling cloned/stolen/master keys. Or technology that is smarter than that installed...jammers, blockers, copiers, scanners etc etc.
      
      A brick through the window is easy, so if you have glass windows in the back of your van install grills.
      
      Lock your van every time you leave it, use deadbolts, install seperate alarms, buy a feckin' great big man eating dog!
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  Andy November 29, 2016 at 8:33pm
  
  This is very possible. The gadget required costs about £30 and is available on line. Hard to know if its being used on your vehicle. Additionally jammers also exist, these block the signal. If your indicators don't flash it ain't locked.
  
  This is why I have dead bolts to all the doors on the van bit of the vans. These can only be opened by a key and must be used when the vehicle is not with sight or if parked in a public access area.
  
  Thieves will aways out wit the designers of vehicles when ever they can. All you have to do is make it difficult to get into YOUR van just push the little b*****ds elsewhere.
David Benson November 29, 2016 at 11:33pm

modern technology has a part to play for crime as a lot of it can be don from afar or close by we are getting very reliant on IT and there at very clever people who know how to use it for good and bad (I am a dinosaur my self) I remember about 10 years ago I could not open the van the problem turned out to be the council tarmac wagon which had a remote control shoot on it I think In a few years time the world will shut down (temporally) because of a hacker

I personally do not leave tools in the van overnight I get up 15 minutes earlier to load up

also dos the smart water stay on if you pressure wash the machines
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  Andy > David Benson November 30, 2016 at 6:13pm
  
  Apparently yes.