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What do thieves do with cars they steal ?
- Thread starter hopkins
- Start date
father_and_son
Well-known member
(I work in the insurance industry)
Depends what the car is...
High end - BMW, Merc, RangeRover, etc and it will be in a container (the metal blocking most tracking devices) and be on its way out of the country within hours - Africa is the most common destination.
Middle Value - VIN numbers removed or replaced and new identity cloned from another similar car. Then it will be sold in the UK to some mug. It'll be advertised privately, sold from the street outside a house from someone only giving a mobile number. Nothing will be legit. If you buy a car like this tell them you want to go inside the house to count out the money/exchange the docs and watch them balk because they don't live anywhere near where you are!
Cheap sh*t - it will be TWOC'd, thrashed around for fun for a day or two, maybe used in other crimes, then burn out or even just abandoned.
Depends what the car is...
High end - BMW, Merc, RangeRover, etc and it will be in a container (the metal blocking most tracking devices) and be on its way out of the country within hours - Africa is the most common destination.
Middle Value - VIN numbers removed or replaced and new identity cloned from another similar car. Then it will be sold in the UK to some mug. It'll be advertised privately, sold from the street outside a house from someone only giving a mobile number. Nothing will be legit. If you buy a car like this tell them you want to go inside the house to count out the money/exchange the docs and watch them balk because they don't live anywhere near where you are!
Cheap sh*t - it will be TWOC'd, thrashed around for fun for a day or two, maybe used in other crimes, then burn out or even just abandoned.
Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews
Remainer
Set fire to em on Holingbury Golf Course
Joe Gatting's Dad
New member
Used mine on a job and left it in a field with £10K worth of damage!
Return of the Rev
Well-known member
My uncles cortina stolen in brighton ended up in preston,went up on the train to pick it up came back via york who just happened to be playing the albion!
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,221
As above. High end motors may get sold on (stripped, lobbed into a shipping container and sent off to west Africa for example). Sometimes the perpetrators change the plates & keep them, but it's risky business as a fair few have trackers built in.
Mid range stuff frequently gets used to commit other crimes: burglaries, ram raids and so on. Or cloned. A P reg Vauxhall Corsa will probably have been nicked by some 16 year old for a laugh, and will be thrashed, smashed and dumped within a week.
Mid range stuff frequently gets used to commit other crimes: burglaries, ram raids and so on. Or cloned. A P reg Vauxhall Corsa will probably have been nicked by some 16 year old for a laugh, and will be thrashed, smashed and dumped within a week.
BensGrandad
New member
I sold my old Skoda when it needed over £1200 spent on it. I assumed that the chap who bought was scrapping it but he told me that within 2 hours it would be in a container at Tilbury waiting to go to India.
Tricky Dicky
New member
Where's the profit for them in that ? They bought the car legit, they'd have the cost of shipping and still need work done on the car. Can't imagine they're going to up the price to cover that lot unless you sold it very cheaply.
GoldWithFalmer
Seaweed! Seaweed!
Mate of mine must have had his Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 1991 stolen to order (in 1999)-2 thatcham cat 1 alarms 2 thatcham cat immobilisers and trackers fitted all paid up-NEVER RECOVERED!!!
Lower end some will take and use just as transport and wont even bother burning out..
Lower end some will take and use just as transport and wont even bother burning out..
That's just what they told BG. What actually happened, is they paid by cheque, didn't re-register the car, and used it on job.
Return of the Rev
Well-known member
Or the whole thing is a dead herring and bg used it on the famous haywards heath SPOONS JOB?
Cian
Well-known member
Cars are still luxury items in most of the world and priced as such. Certain classes of vehicle pretty much solely go to third world countries when their useful life is over here - large saloons and estates become taxis, MOT failure commercials, etc. My old VW van was sold on the basis that it was being exported; got a legit export docket for it and all - its now probably being used by a delivery man in Lagos.
MOT standards put physically driving but either unsafe or dirty cars off the roads making them next to worthless here; fuel consumption can make a new van make sense for a 100,000 a year driver but have the van be perfectly fine for a 5,000 a year driver etc. On a lesser scale I noticed that a huge bulk of the buses in Warrington were bought second-hand from Dublin Bus - they're a bit worn (12 years+), not up to the 19 hour days and hilly terrain here anymore but they're OK for doing a few more years in a fairly flat northern dump.
happypig
Staring at the rude boys
I saw one of those "following the peelers" programs on the tellybox and they raided a breakers yard (in the east end of london IIRC) where they were breaking cars like BMWs, Audis and Mercs. They were flogging the parts on places like Ebay. When you think that a set of rims with tyres for a Benzo can go for £500, it's a rather lucrative business; a mate of mine had his brand new Audi TT stolen a few years back. The ne'er-do-wells must have watched him put his keys on a cupboard in the porch as they hoofed his front door in, grabbed the keys and were away in seconds. when he got downstairs he was just in time to see it disappearing up the road never to be seen again.
Trackers - I know people with high end cars, and others with valuable commercial trucks, who found the system worked well. Recovery of vehicles very quickly, undamaged, and arrests still in the vehicles or nearby.
Aren't the nice cars stolen, never to be seen again, generally those without a tracker? Some people with money, are too tight or too relaxed to bother with paying for tracking?
Aren't the nice cars stolen, never to be seen again, generally those without a tracker? Some people with money, are too tight or too relaxed to bother with paying for tracking?
What's a dead herring?
Doesn't anyone check these west African bound shipping containers?
Wrong-Direction
Well-known member
- Mar 10, 2013
- 13,416
Joyride, get caught, slap on wrist and so on..
Return of the Rev
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,221
Presume not. Some of these cargo ships have thousand of the things on. Maybe it's a logistical thing.
SIMMO SAYS
Well-known member
Luckily nobody will ever nick my m reg Toyota Previa. Had it for twenty years-very thirsty but just keeps going.150 thousand miles. Had done 50 thousand when I bought it. Previously a private hire around Heathrow.