Minimise Your Risk of Vehicle Related Theft
Earlier this year, the Office of National Statistics released a decade’s worth of data concerning vehicle related theft. The information is contained in 11 large spreadsheets and was published without a press release on the ONS website. We’ve been having a scan through the data and thinking about the security implications for vehicle owners.
The data concerns all vehicle-related thefts, but has been handily broken down into ‘thefts of…’ and ‘thefts from…’ Many of our customers are concerned about the security of e.g. valuable tools in their work vans. So we’ve focussed on the statistics referring to thefts from vehicles.
Time and Location
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most vehicle related thefts (82%) occur at night. Thefts are far more common from residential streets than commercial streets (possibly because of a lack of security features such as CCTV and lighting in residential areas). The safest place to park your vehicle is in a garage connected to your residence. If you decide to leave your vehicle near your place of work, the jury’s out on whether it is safer on the street or in a car park, with incidents at either averaging just below 3%. Either way both options are much safer than parking in a residential street (39%) or an outside area of a residential premises (38%).
Method of Entry
In the year preceding March 2018, 49% of thefts from vehicles involved entry via an unlocked door. Incidents involving entry by forcing the lock were significantly lower at just 14%. These figures show that the most important thing you can do to keep valuables safe in your vehicle is to fit a secure lock and remember to use it.
Thatcham-Approved Van Locks
We supply and install secure slamlocks and deadlocks approved by independent testers Thatcham. We can come out to you and install the locks or you can come to our workshop and we will install the locks and offer you a discount.
Our prices:
- Thatcham-approved deadlocks - £177
- Thatcham-approved slamlocks - £135
Interested in improving your vehicle security by installing slamlocks or deadlocks? Call us on 01603 812613 or email admin@ptlockandsafe.co.uk
Follow us on Facebook for the latest company news.