Car Key Burglaries

The following article has been sent to me by Stephen Armson-Smith, a Crime Prevention Tactical Advisor and Architectural Liaison Officer for Essex Police (Braintree and Uttlesford Districts)

This is one of a series of articles he’ll be sending me over the forthcoming year and I am delighted to be able to publish it on this site (with tiny edits) so that it might be seen by a wider audience.

If you work for the police service or are a member of a neighbourhood watch and would like me to publish your articles on this site do please get in touch with me using Contact

Car Key Burglaries

In some cases burglars are breaking into houses while you sleep with the intention of finding your car keys and stealing your car and any other small items they find on the way.

What can I do?

• First, before you turn in for the night, check that all doors, ground floor windows and easily accessible windows are closed and locked.
• If you have PVCu doors or other doors that have multi-point locking don’t forget that the door is not fully locked until you have lifted the inside handles and turned the key or thumb-turn [and removed the key from the lock]. When replacing a Europrofile lock cylinder ensure that you get a TS007 three star anti-snap, anti-bump lock cylinder or one to the Sold Secure standard SS 312.*
• If you have an intruder alarm and can do so activate the downstairs zone when you go to bed.
• To stop the burglar getting to the vulnerable windows and doors to the rear ensure that side gates are closed and locked.
• Please also ensure that you put your car keys somewhere safe and out of sight, when you return home and make sure they can’t be fished for through a door’s letterplate. Put your car keys in a drawer (preferably one that is noisy to open) or some other secure place, but don’t take them up to the bedroom with you. 
• If you have cars of different values, please park the higher value car in your garage.  If you can’t do this, please park the lower value car in front of the higher value car, as the thieves are more likely to target high value cars and will be deterred if they can’t easily drive such a car away from the scene.
• With high value cars consider fitting a tracking device, but a word of caution - you get what you pay for!  Look for a system that uses RF frequency, 3 or 4G phone networks SIM as well as satellite connection GPS. There are also systems where you can “Geo-fence” the vehicle location so that if it moves beyond this zone the tracking system will activate.

If you live in the Essex Police area you can get further advice from your Crime Prevention Officer by calling the police non emergency number 101.

* For further information about lock cylinders please follow this link: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/improving-the-security-of-your-existing-doors/737/cylinder-snapping-and-bumping/