Attempted Theft, Door Bolt Ruined?

I

IroningBoard

Member
Evening,

I have been parking my beloved E89 in a residential road that has suffered with a 'more than rare' occurence of car break-ins recently. It's one of the nicer cars on the road put it that way.

Unfortunately, my car was recently "the chosen one". The picture below should explain how the thieves tried to get in.


51908314958_06fe054da8_k.jpg


They have attempted to screw (a screw) into the key-lock with the hope of then forcing the bolt to turn (Surely this was not going to work???!) Unfortunately for them, the screw head snapped off. Leaving me with a screw inside the barrel. Great.

Looks like they also tried to pop the handle off but failed.


I can't work out whether this was an attempted theft or just an attempted break-in - There is seemingly no damage whatsoever to the rest of the car or door panel itself.


Any ideas on what to do now?

I reckon a replacement door handle, will probably have to spray paint one as they aren't growing on trees. Also attempt to retract screw from door lock bolt and hope it still works.
 
Tjis is probably the result of someone watching "Gone in 60 Seconds" where they try and use a slide hammer to pull the lock core out.

Looking at that pic, its very possible they've buggered up the internals of the core - if you go to the main stealers, they'll sting you a fortune. If you can get the core out yourself, then a proper lockmith will be able to get a new core and get it to work with your existing key for a few quid (mine did this for my ford escort in the late 90s for 35 quid - Ford wanted around £600).

If you only have one lock (same as my e89) it might be easier and quicker to ebay a replacement with spare keys as the alarm/transponder bit from your existing key will still work)

Hope that helps
 
Break in not theft - getting the door open is a mechanical problem, easily overcome with effort.
Getting it started is a whole other problem, many high value (not ours of course) cars stolen these days are simply put on a covered trailer that has an RF cover to block tracking etc until it can be 'unlocked' by experts.
 
It’s most likely break in attempt.

None comfort access/ keyless start BMWs are somewhat impossible to drive without the key.
The vast majority of car thieves do not reside within the upper echelons of intelligence quotient scoring however.

See nice car
Nice car has nice things
Get nice things
Use screwdriver

It may be worth getting some form of nest camera and aiming it at your car if it is parked with a line of sight from a window.

I am wondering that if they have now had an unsuccessful break in, will they leave it alone or try it again…

I was having a think about your options, and short of moving the vehicle, your best bet may be to leave a note on the dash saying no valuables are left inside the vehicle.

If you go to the police, your insurance premiums go up.
If you fix on insurance, the premiums go up.
If you record them, it will likely not be able to ID them.
Violence, although cathartic, would result in repercussions from both law enforcement and the victims. (The latter depending on the severity of the violence, i.e. bonnet mounted machine guns)
Perhaps then their friends would assume vengeance.
Even if they were caught and put in a police van, they would not be sentenced, and would likely not be able to pay for any damage.
It’s a sad state of affairs indeed that we have to appeal to the criminal’s need to not waste time, but it’s for this reason parked vans and lorries will leave their doors open at night.

Perhaps some others here can share effective deterrence strategies, but I seem to be coming up short.

Best of luck in getting this fixed.
 
Nasty little barstewards... years ago I was staying at a girlfriends house after a New Years party when a couple of wee jakey barstewards threw an empty vodka bottle at the window of the car I had then. Luckily it bounced off the screen, but it did mark the glass, I rang the police, it wasn't hard to find them, one of them had passed out further up the street and was sleeping it off on the pavement. I was told by police just make a claim on your insurance... useless. Lucky it wasn't an E85, you would probably be looking at a new roof!
 
I totally agree. I'm also unsure whether it is now a target - Considering that cars parked in the same location have been done before in the past two years / while mine were parked nearby. I have to think they have debated going for my E89 on more than one occasion.

I think the best course of action is to increase deterrence. With a small sign in the drivers side window saying: gps trackers / no valuables inside - and nest cameras on the property and signage to go with it.

Ultimately, this won't stop them, but anything to make them think twice will normally suffice.

Not being funny but if the car can't be started without the key and there are no valuables left in it - is there reason to leave it unlocked?


Deepseaskateboard said:
It’s most likely break in attempt.

None comfort access/ keyless start BMWs are somewhat impossible to drive without the key.
The vast majority of car thieves do not reside within the upper echelons of intelligence quotient scoring however.

See nice car
Nice car has nice things
Get nice things
Use screwdriver

It may be worth getting some form of nest camera and aiming it at your car if it is parked with a line of sight from a window.

I am wondering that if they have now had an unsuccessful break in, will they leave it alone or try it again…

I was having a think about your options, and short of moving the vehicle, your best bet may be to leave a note on the dash saying no valuables are left inside the vehicle.

If you go to the police, your insurance premiums go up.
If you fix on insurance, the premiums go up.
If you record them, it will likely not be able to ID them.
Violence, although cathartic, would result in repercussions from both law enforcement and the victims. (The latter depending on the severity of the violence, i.e. bonnet mounted machine guns)
Perhaps then their friends would assume vengeance.
Even if they were caught and put in a police van, they would not be sentenced, and would likely not be able to pay for any damage.
It’s a sad state of affairs indeed that we have to appeal to the criminal’s need to not waste time, but it’s for this reason parked vans and lorries will leave their doors open at night.

Perhaps some others here can share effective deterrence strategies, but I seem to be coming up short.

Best of luck in getting this fixed.
Click to expand...
 
Little shits, the police won't do anything - ask someone else who has had their car broken into.

Just get a dash cam fitted with a motion sensor to try and deter them.

I use an Aiwit camera on the house, similar to Ring but solar charged - although does need charging once a month in winter, £50 off flabby - works ok
 
IroningBoard said:
I totally agree. I'm also unsure whether it is now a target - Considering that cars parked in the same location have been done before in the past two years / while mine were parked nearby. I have to think they have debated going for my E89 on more than one occasion.

I think the best course of action is to increase deterrence. With a small sign in the drivers side window saying: gps trackers / no valuables inside - and nest cameras on the property and signage to go with it.

Ultimately, this won't stop them, but anything to make them think twice will normally suffice.

Not being funny but if the car can't be started without the key and there are no valuables left in it - is there reason to leave it unlocked?


Deepseaskateboard said:
It’s most likely break in attempt.

None comfort access/ keyless start BMWs are somewhat impossible to drive without the key.
The vast majority of car thieves do not reside within the upper echelons of intelligence quotient scoring however.

See nice car
Nice car has nice things
Get nice things
Use screwdriver

It may be worth getting some form of nest camera and aiming it at your car if it is parked with a line of sight from a window.

I am wondering that if they have now had an unsuccessful break in, will they leave it alone or try it again…

I was having a think about your options, and short of moving the vehicle, your best bet may be to leave a note on the dash saying no valuables are left inside the vehicle.

If you go to the police, your insurance premiums go up.
If you fix on insurance, the premiums go up.
If you record them, it will likely not be able to ID them.
Violence, although cathartic, would result in repercussions from both law enforcement and the victims. (The latter depending on the severity of the violence, i.e. bonnet mounted machine guns)
Perhaps then their friends would assume vengeance.
Even if they were caught and put in a police van, they would not be sentenced, and would likely not be able to pay for any damage.
It’s a sad state of affairs indeed that we have to appeal to the criminal’s need to not waste time, but it’s for this reason parked vans and lorries will leave their doors open at night.

Perhaps some others here can share effective deterrence strategies, but I seem to be coming up short.

Best of luck in getting this fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I wasn't advocating to leave the car unlocked!
There are some proper miscreants about, some people just try door handles casually, so your car would be getting ransacked on a more frequent basis.

Not to mention your car would possibly invite some more creative forms of vandalism, or being used as a toilet.

Society is decaying, and the good people can only look on and do nothing.
Perhaps we can all lobby the government for “Purge Day”.
 
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