Archive for August, 2008
The Rise of Sat-Nav and the Sat-Nav Thief
But is there a downside to the uprising of the sat-nav? Research commissioned by the insurer Esure found that 63% of motorists would be lost without a sat-nav system.* That's 21 million drivers. Enough to fill Wembley Stadium 230 times – if they could find it, that is.
And a nation of map-illiterate drivers isn't the only potential downside of introducing sat-navs to our dashboards. And the issue is nationwide. Reading Borough Council reports that sat-nav theft "has now replaced car stereos as the number one item stolen from vehicles."Yorkshire authorities agree. "In terms of volume, vehicle crime is one of the key crimes" reports Ron Johnson, of North Yorkshire Police, "It used to be mobile phones but now it's sat-navs."
Since these gadgets are so easy to sell on, sat-nav theft is not a problem that's going away in a hurry. And given that car insurance policies don't always cover the full value of audio or sat-nav equipment, you can find yourself seriously out of pocket.
So what can be done?
The standard advice is to make sure you don't leave your in-car electronics in plain view. The glove compartment is usually the first place people think to store their belonging and of course the first place a thief will check. Crime reduction experts even warn us that thieves now use Blue¬tooth wireless technology to track units that are hidden from sight.
What most people don't think of is to remove the visible clues that suggest you might have a sat-nav in the car. Hiding the sat-nav itself doesn't do much good if you leave the mount attached to your window or dash. And the devil is in the detail. Removing the mount can sometimes leave a mark in the place it was attached and that's the kind of thing a seasoned thief will notice.
Using a security marker with your postcode and house number is also a great way to combat thieves. As is making a note of the make, model and serial number of the equipment and keeping this information somewhere safe (i.e. not in the car).
But above all the best idea is to take your sat-nav with you. Most units are designed to be portable and in some cases aren't much bigger than a mobile phone. That way even if the worst happens and your car is broken into, at least you can take solace in the fact that you don't have to pay for a new sat-nav as well as a new window.
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