Frightening Theft of STI in Cambridge

[chris555]

I thought I should share this:

On Sunday 19th June I picked up a new STI from a dealer in Christchurch, low mileage one owner immaculate car in silver.

I live in a small village near Cambridge. The car was parked on my drive outside of the house probably 100 yards from the main road.

On wednesday 22 June at approx 2.00pm in the afternoon, some "person" smashed down the front door of my house with what can only have been some sort of ram as it completely smashed the front door and door frame.

They found my car keys which were not on view and hidden in a kitchen cupboard. Stole the car and escaped unchallenged.

They then drove only approx 30 miles away and parked the car in a quiet place no doubt to see if the car had a tracker fitted. The car does have a tracker and the police located the car later the same evening.

The police attended and have taken finger prints of the house and also the car was taken to their compound to be checked for finger prints etc.

I have not been allowed to touch the vehicle but it does not appear to be damaged in any way.

The shocking thing with this is the nature of the theft, that someone can batter down the door of a house in the middle of the day and get away with it. We are now scared being in the property and will have to install new doors and for peace of mind will now get a house alarm linked to the police station.

Our thoughts are that the pleasure of owning an STI is not worth this amount of heartache, all the locks and alarm will have to be changed now as the thieves still have a set of keys.

How do people out there protect their STIs, I had a wrx before this and never had this situation. Admittedly I did not have any secondary security other than the alarm, but would that have made any difference , I think not unless the keys for that were separate to the car keys... where do you stop.

Any advice welcome, but really thought I should share this as a wake up call to everyone.

The car will not be coming back home to us, we don't want the threat anymore, it will go direct to the garage to have the alarm and key locks changed and then will be sold from the garage. So if anyone wants a MY05 STI with only 39K miles and two previous owners in silver, completely standard with full subaru main dealer service history... you could get it at a bargain price!

Edited June 24, 2011 by chris555

[spect]

Really sorry to hear this. I do not think it was because you had an STi per se and you were probably just unlucky. I hope they catch the bast*rd* who done this and get the filth behind bars.

[andyjudge]

Hope they catch the scum who did this to you & give them a punishment that fits the crime.

The countries getting worse by the day & can't see anything improving.

Glad nobody was in to confront them, at least you're all OK

Andy

[micra_wrc]

sorry to hear that, hope they manage to find the culprits.

shame that the joy of owning a STi has led to this,

hope you and your family are ok and still feel safe in the house

imy

[scouk]

Hi Chris,

That's pretty scary after just a few days.. Good to hear the tracker did it's job and car was recovered!

The STi/WRX thing, And impreza is an impreza to theives.. They are either stripped for parts or used as getaway card for other crimes.. It possibly attracted attention because it was a "new kid on the block" as it were. New car, so possibly kays are at hand in the house.. This is the problem with the modern alarm systems, their not so easy to bypass and the best way is just to get the keys

As for protection against this sort of thing.. Hiding keys a good plan, in this case they still foudn them.. But alternative coudl have been you were in the house when they broken in and threatened youa nd your family for the keys.. So really best situation is not to be anywhere near them! (or get a BIG dog)

In terms of security, the only thing I've come across which may help is cliffords backjax system. In this case they could still have drivin away with teh car but after a mile or so the car would shutdown and send you a text so say the car has been nicked with GPS co-ordinates to say where it is located. The idea is the theives think they get away with the car but then disables itself a safe distance away. THe inconvenience with this system is that you need to rememeber to type in a code combination onto a subtle control pad ont eh dashboard (usually near fog light switch) every time you drive off.. Also whenever a door is opened the system re-arms. It's inconvenient to the owner but a decent security system.

Hope the police are able to catch the buggers who are responsible.. Car thefts are often a small part of much larger crimes brewing.

Edited June 25, 2011 by ScoUK

[chris555]

Thanks to all for support. It helps.

[riiidaa]

Horrible story, get a land shark !