Car stolen after NCT

CJW

Did anyone have their car stolen soon after the NCT.
I had a mint condition BMW 5 Sport with only 60k KM's on the clock stolen a week after I had the NCT.
Just had a full service and four new tyres costing €250 each

biko

Moved out from an old thread that was about the chance of getting car nicked at the centre during testing.

Wibbs

How was it stolen? Keys taken from house? More concerning if not, but why the connection with the NCT?

yop

Note new user having a gripe with NCT and blaming them for robbing it.

Kenny Logins

Who fitted the tyres?

djimi

I guess that its possible someone was watching for cars with a fresh test, but somehow I really doubt that the kind of people who do this kind of thing care too much whether or not the car has valid NCT.

HappieChappie

I'd agree with other posters about never being to careful where you leave your car.

On another forum I heard of guys repairing/servicing cars out in Trim and coming and stealing the car a week or two after. I think this could be it http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepa...ps-raided.html

Do you still have your original keys keys ? if so could another have been re programmed by a garage or person who had access to your car while being serviced. I think the BBC watchdog programme a while back said there was a vulnerability with BMW 3 and 5 series made from 2006- 2009.

Pudsey64

Who is/was doing this in Trim?

yop

Uumm, OP 1st post about NCT'd cars been robbed.
Another poster on their 4th goes on about lads in Trim stealing cars and now another newbie wants to know who.

I smell a rat

Pudsey64

I live in Trim.
Just curious.

NuckingFacker

It's always good to acquire a car with a fresh NCT, it is sort of reassuring. I doubt if crooks think much differently. Is there ANY vague possibility that the whole NCT and robbery things were unrelated coincidences? Mad I know, but..

ba_barabus

Is this another "NCT are robbing b@stards" thread :pac:

Wheelnut

I think this is a serious query. There is a major fuss going on at the moment because it is alleged that BMWs are being stolen using blank keys which can be programmed by plugging into the dash and using the diagnostics. The only problem is access to the car and I think the OP suspects that it was accessed at the NCT centre. Otherwise what happens is that you get a minor break-in to the car at your home or office and nothing seems to have been taken, but the thieves have programmed a key and the car disappears a few days later. Here's a major thread about it on Pistonheads: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=72&t=1121571&nmt=

djimi

To be honest I would have thought that the chances of being able to clone a key for a car during the NCT would be pretty minimal, given the visibility in the test centers from absolutely everyone (as well as Im presuming cameras).

paddydriver

CJW wrote: »

Did anyone have their car stolen soon after the NCT.
I had a mint condition BMW 5 Sport with only 60k KM's on the clock stolen a week after I had the NCT.
Just had a full service and four new tyres costing €250 each

I heard about a guy once who signed up to a messaging board on the Internet, asked one question, had lots of decent guys try help him, but then disappeared again never to be seen...:rolleyes:

yop

paddydriver wrote: »

I heard about a guy once who signed up to a messaging board on the Internet, asked one question, had lots of decent guys try help him, but then disappeared again never to be seen...:rolleyes:

Hence why I think this is just a chance to slant an NCT centre or a garage

It would be some going to clone a key, BUT they might have a chance.

Wibbs

djimi wrote: »

To be honest I would have thought that the chances of being able to clone a key for a car during the NCT would be pretty minimal, given the visibility in the test centers from absolutely everyone (as well as Im presuming cameras).

This. The BMW vulnerability took at least a minute to do. It would be really obvious to onlookers at the test centre that something was up. The other staff would spot it in a heartbeat.

The BMW problem was based around a couple of things; the factory alarm had/has an internal blindspot on some models, so the scum could break a window quietly(remarkably easy to do BTW), reach in and access the OBD port, where they would plug in their cloning equipment download the code to a blank key, disarm the alarm and immoboliser and away they went. Took about a minute.

BMW noted in what passed for their defence that the vulnerability in the OBD area wasn't just a BMW problem and other cars were equally open to attack by this "hack". This may become a bigger problem down the line. OK most newer cars are stolen after the scum break into your house and take the keys, though in London in 2011(IIRC) nearly half of all cars were taken without the original key, so...

Modern cars security is soooo much better than in the bad old days. The only problem is that if a vulnerability is found in a model it's easily repeatable by the scum, so all cars of that model are in potential trouble. One reason why if I had a newer car I'd still have a third party alarm properly fitted to keep the scum on their toes. Take the BMW issue, owners with third party alarms were left alone. Some clever installs even had the alarm kill the OBD port when armed so game over, you need a towtruck scumbag and the alarm will be going ape all the while, drawing unwanted attention.

HappieChappie

yop wrote: »

Uumm, OP 1st post about NCT'd cars been robbed.
Another poster on their 4th goes on about lads in Trim stealing cars and now another newbie wants to know who.

I smell a rat

That could be your feet your smelling:eek:

I'm trying to find the thread on pistonheads but it was a gargare in Trim motor Park dealing in customising jap imports were caught with a load of stolen cars and parts. They had been servicing or repairing their customer cars and then nicking them weeks later. As the thread was saying you have to be sure who your leaving your car into.

As for the NCT it is a bit of a money racket but as far as cloning keys while you are watching them test your car I'd say its impossible. After all the messing that went on in Fonthill passing dud cars the vehicles and testers are chosen at random to stop lads taking a backhander. I would assume it would be the same if there was a bogey NCT tester the changes of him getting to test a certain BMW and having blank keys and obd equipment to do the job while people are looking at him are very very slim.

yop

HappieChappie wrote: »

That could be your feet your smelling:eek:

Nah, seen a lot of various ways around the "boards system" so makes me smell rats

mb1725

I knew there was a similar thread here before : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70096208

Wibbs

It might happen where someone in the NCT centres scoped out cars and maybe even their security systems if present and pass on that info and address to other scumbags, but it's a big "might" and I'd be really bloody surprised if it has happened and I'm of a paranoid bent. I'd be slightly more wary of garages or fly by night alarm fitters, but even there you'd want to be incredibly paranoid about the whole thing. I have seen on US car forums where the latter two have been implicated, even caught red handed scoping out and then nicking cars, but their car theft culture is a little different and with more "pros" involved especially in California from what I've read. Mad stuff altogether. Bad though it can be we don't seem to have it nearly as bad as them.

Though one thing does stand out in the differences, burglary looking for car keys is a lot rarer in the US. Car theft could get a scumbag a couple of years in pokey, but burglary/home invasion could get you a decade or more. Plus in states like Texas could get you ventilated by high velocity lead so...