AA boss fuming over loss of Lexus

[LenT]

It seems that Edmund King, President of the AA, is pretty annoyed that what is described as ‘wife Deirdre’s £50K Lexus’ was nicked off their Hertfordshire home’s drive one night.  Despite the keys being secured in a Faraday pouch (AA brand one presumes) he believes the signal was captured when Deidre arrived home earlier in the day.

King states that he has now taken to keeping his keys, in their Faraday pouches, inside a red metal box hidden inside a microwave oven located at the back of the house.

So they’re  now safe from car thieves.  But burglars now know exactly where to find them.

[Linas.P]

Being car of known figure with connections I am sure it will be found and returned with minimal damage and the thieves will be hanged and quartered. 

Just not except same response from police when your (ordinary person) car is stolen, they will advise you to call insurance. Talking from experience here, car stolen last year, case closed within 6 hours, garage burgled and set on fire last month - took 3 weeks for police to confirm Crime Reference Number. I suspect they haven't even bothered to officially record it as a crime and only after 2 online request, e-mail and 3 calls they finally decided that maybe it is a crime worth recording... and then closed case 12 hours later due to "lack of evidence".

Have I said police in UK is kind of joke nowadays... well I guess I am not the first person saying it! Shout out to London Fire Brigade as well - did you know that if you want to have report of the fire, of your own property which has burned you need to pay them £550 to share such report?! I mean I assume they create report and analyse the cause either way, especially in the cases of arson, but to have a look at it you now have to pay... And me silly thought this is paid by extortionate amounts of taxes we pay.

Now just to be clear - I think individual police officers and fire fighters are heroes (and therefore I respect them), but the institutions they works for are kind of fundamentally rotten, corrupt and there fore ineffective nowadays.

[Malc]

you read the google finance news then too ??

Malc

[LenT]

12 minutes ago, Malc said:

you read the google finance news then too ??

Malc

Bit too racy for me, Malcolm.  I picked this up while browsing DT Online at about 4am.  

It gives me time to decide if it’s worth getting up.  😊

[LenT]

32 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Being car of known figure with connections I am sure it will be found and returned with minimal damage and the thieves will be hanged and quartered. 

One can but hope, Linus.  At the very least, if caught, they should have their AA Memberships terminated - if appropriate.  

I certainly sympathise with your own frustrating experiences.  It seems you’ve not been well-served and are justifiably aggrieved. Unfortunately, lack of evidence may be just that.  But if it’s any consolation, most Police find it equally frustrating - often having a good idea who the culprits are, but not having evidence to the high standard required.

Incidentally, I just came across your magnificent restoration project as detailed in another thread. Was this affected by the theft and fire that you mention?

[Linas.P]

10 minutes ago, LenT said:

But if it’s any consolation, most Police find it equally frustrating - often having a good idea who the culprits are, but not having evidence to the high standard required.

Incidentally, I just came across your magnificent restoration project as detailed in another thread. Was this affected by the theft and fire that you mention?

That is very true indeed, as I said I respect individual police officer and I don't think it is their personal fault, it is the "system" in my opinion. As you well pointed out CPS are big part of it and then the laws themselves. For example I can find my stolen wheels on eBay now, go to purchase them, call police when I am sure they are my wheels, prove that they are my wheels, but the person selling them won't face any consequences. Their most likely defence is going to be - "I bought it myself, or my friend gave it to me, or I happened to find them in the bush" and the sentencing will be "£50 fine for disposition of stolen goods". So you right - for police officer who has to spend probably a week documenting the case and for prosecutor that is like spit in the face - catch criminal, collect evidence and they walk free with the fine which is less than train ticket to attend the hearing. I had two cases where it went to CPS and evidence was not high-enough standard to prosecute. Like literally perpetrator admitted hitting my car once (it was as well on dashcam), but said "yes I hit it, but I didn't damage it" and that was enough, CPS decision - "it cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt that damage was cause as result of defendant hitting the car"?!

My project was minimally affected as luck may have it, as I was well and truly into it for 3-4 months already and therefore I have taken 80% of the tools which covers 99% of need back home, or left them in the car. So whatever was stolen or burned were some rarely used tools, but from time to time I realise that I have to buy something that I had in the garage. Yesterday I had to buy riveting tool and rivets, something I obviously had in garage. I am sure I will have to buys sandpaper, some detailing supplies and tools. Most of what burned was virtually useless, but example of such thing could be old wiring harness piece, which in itself worth nothing, but when you fixing car wiring it is very useful, because you can just go, cut piece of it patch whatever witting you working on.

One thing which going to impact me soon, or sort of starting to impact me is the wheels. I had 3 sets of wheels which although not perfect would have been great candidates for refurbishment and new tyres. Now it seems I will have to buy set of trashed wheels for £300-£400, then refurbish them and then fit new tyres, whereas if not for garage fire I could have saved that initial £300-400 on what looked like worthless set of old wheels. Basically I had 3 sets there - bas**** stole one set and somehow decided that they need to set the rest on fire. So basically they stole 10% and just burned the remaining 90%. I don't know what was the logic (doubt they know such a thing as logic), but maybe they thought that is good way to hide the evidence of breaking in?!

[Malc]

5 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I can find my stolen wheels on ebay now, go to purchase them, call police when I am sure they are my wheels, prove that they are my wheels, but the person selling them won't face any consequences.

I'd think to be round their place and sort them out .... compasionately of course, offer them spiritual guidance as I sent them to the hospital to have their broken legs healed having tried to save them from falling ( and failed ) down that adjacent lift shaft 

sorry to hear of this, there's some rogues and nutters about, as ever, and they need to be curtailed in their efforts to f--ck with people's lives 

Malc

[Thackeray]

3 hours ago, LenT said:

he believes the signal was captured when Deidre arrived home earlier in the day

I don't understand this. I'm sure the president of the AA knows a thing or two about cars but I thought modern cars used rolling codes from the key. So there's no point in capturing the code from the key as it will be different next time.

In a previous thread, I seem to remember Len mentioned a technique in which thieves block the signal as you lock your car and then you don't notice that the car is left unlocked for collection later. Maybe this is what happened to the AA president's wife's car.

Since that thread, I've adopted Len's advice and locked the car by touching the handle so there are no signals to intercept and you know the car is locked. Then I do the key combination on the fob to turn the key off. This simultaneously double-locks the car and turns off the key's signal.

This seems pretty secure to me unless the AA president is right in thinking you can capture key codes and then come back later to use those codes and steal the car.

[LenT]

39 minutes ago, Thackeray said:

 I'm sure the president of the AA knows a thing or two about cars ….

 You’d think so, wouldn’t you.  Now I’m not so sure!  I think he should refer to some of the excellent home security advice that you can read on the AA website.

Interestingly, the Mirror, for the sake of any potential burglars who might be confused as to what Faraday pouches in a red tin box and a microwave oven might look like, they ran this article with a helpful illustration.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/aa-boss-urges-drivers-keep-27667404#

[Linas.P]

19 minutes ago, LenT said:

 You’d think so, wouldn’t you.  Now I’m not so sure!  I think he should refer to some of the excellent home security advice that you can read on the AA website.

Interestingly, the Mirror, for the sake of any potential burglars who might be confused as to what Faraday pouches in a red tin box and a microwave oven might look like, they ran this article with a helpful illustration.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/aa-boss-urges-drivers-keep-27667404#

I am surprised they haven't as well included tutorial of lock-picking and address of Mr. King 😄 

1 hour ago, Malc said:

I'd think to be round their place and sort them out .... compasionately of course, offer them spiritual guidance as I sent them to the hospital to have their broken legs healed having tried to save them from falling ( and failed ) down that adjacent lift shaft 

sorry to hear of this, there's some rogues and nutters about, as ever, and they need to be curtailed in their efforts to f--ck with people's lives 

Malc

I honestly wouldn't mind, even considering the risk of getting longer sentence than they do... the issue is just finding them now... The types I suspect for doing it probably sold the wheels for £50 to the first tyre shop to get a next dose of crack. I not convinced that they would be sophisticated enough to even list them on facebook market place or eBay. 

[LenT]

44 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I am surprised they haven't as well included tutorial of lock-picking and address of Mr. King 😄 

😀😀😀

[Mincey]

I thought this was a thread breaking the news that we would have to call the RAC or Green Flag instead of the AA in the unlikely event of one of our steeds breaking down. 

[Linas.P]

19 minutes ago, Mincey said:

I thought this was a thread breaking the news that we would have to call the RAC or Green Flag instead of the AA in the unlikely event of one of our steeds breaking down. 

That was my first thought as well - I thought "loss of Lexus" was Lexus deciding not to use AA as their partner for roadside assistance. That said it says a little bit about the make of the cars if the head of recovery service chooses one for himself and family. 

[Mincey]

 

2 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

That was my first thought as well - I thought "loss of Lexus" was Lexus deciding not to use AA as their partner for roadside assistance. That said it says a little bit about the make of the cars if the head of recovery service chooses one for himself and family. 

If I may be permitted a little thread drift, there's a topic on Pistonheads at the moment "Any other brand besides Audi that went upmarket?" Lexus are coming out surprisingly well given some of the comments:

 

[Spock66]

19 hours ago, LenT said:

Interestingly, the Mirror, for the sake of any potential burglars who might be confused as to what Faraday pouches in a red tin box and a microwave oven might look like, they ran this article with a helpful illustration.

Keeping your keys in the microwave may be ok from a security perspective, but probably not a good idea overall.  Should they be inadvertently microwaved you may well have some fireworks and an exploding Battery, not to mention what getting a replacement key and coded would cost.

[Linas.P]

6 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

Keeping your keys in the microwave may be ok from a security perspective, but probably not a good idea overall.  Should they be inadvertently microwaved you may well have some fireworks and an exploding battery, not to mention what getting a replacement key and coded would cost.

Just make sure to cut the power cord from the microwave 😄 

[Mr Vlad]

Below is from an email i got from something i subscribe to. Its car related but to do with speed traps etc. This backs up something Linas posted above. 

Manchester Police have been up to their favourite game of bullying Motorists.

On Sunday they were reported in the mainstream media for acting like the gang they are…

One victim was retired ex-union official Glen Dyson.

He was pulled over by TWELVE police in six cars …for a mis-spaced number plate!

He initially thought the so-called police were dealing with a major crime incident, but soon discovered that he and his wife were the criminal masterminds they were actually hunting…

Glen said:

“When you look at the pictures taken you’d be expecting a major crime incident to be ongoing.

No that’s not the case. It’s a dozen plus officers pulling motorists for minor traffic issues and they have six police cars tied up doing this!

We have all kinds of incidents, outside of office hours, when you simply cannot get a police officer to save your life.

Within the last year our local pub had an altercation and the police were called – they didn’t come.

Now in broad daylight, when burglars might be on the prowl, they are all gathered together in the one spot stopping motorists.

Is that really a sensible use of police personnel? I am not so sure it is.”

Glen’s wife Karen — not being a full time criminal — was understandably shaken, saying:

“It was afterwards that I was shaking about what had happened. I had no idea I’d done anything wrong and we’ve had that registration on vehicles for 12 years.”

We’ve seen this persecution, accompanied by violence — or the threat of violence — from the so-called police before.

A DriveProtect Member was approached by a police thug in a car park last year and, as – amongst other things — he is a youtuber, he started filming the interaction.

His reg plate (which he’d paid a significant amount of money for the privilege of using) was slightly mis-spaced.

He complied with the thug by answering his questions about who he was etc, but drew the line when he demanded he get out of his car, respectfully declining the invitation.

…whereupon the thug launched into a violent tirade against our man, physically dragged him out of the car window, then carted him away to a cell!

We see this time and again. If these people don’t get what they want, they use violence, usually as a gang as they are inherently cowards, to achieve their demands.

Then they call the victim the criminal, when as in reality its the other way around.

Can you imagine these bullies acting this way when they are not in a gang environment? If they did, I’d like to think they would be jumped on by members of the public seeking to protect the victim, who would then presumably call the real Police.

I’d like to stress, it’s the so-called “police” who go around persecuting innocent people and trying to impose their supposed “authority” on them that I’m suggesting need to be stamped out.

Those who actually do good things for society (you know, catching actual criminals who’ve perpetrated violence, theft, aggression or coercion against other people) I salute.

One BTST Member, Tony, who is a retired Kent Police Detective emailed in after a recent blog post to say the real Police “detested traffic cops, or snakes as we called them”.

I would imagine they dislike them even more than most members of the Public, as they — and all other sociopathic state persecutors — are surely the reason so many people hate the Police?

Assistant Chief Constable Wasim Chaudhry was thankfully on hand to reassure us that we are wrong: “Greater Manchester Police is taking an increasingly proactive approach to fighting, preventing and reducing crime to make our region as safe as possible for those who live, work and travel within it.“

Wow, thanks for your service Wasim! We can all sleep safely tonight knowing that Mr Dyson has been banged to rights.

 

[Malc]

55 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

for a mis-spaced number plate!

if it's passed the MOT then it will be ok and the police will have to accept that official status ( surely ? )  ....... otherwise the police are chasing a red herring up the greasy pole and WASTING POLICE TIME  .............. which is possibly a Criminal Offence in itself ?

 

and if they catch the red herring they can eat it no doubt ....  provided they have the respective Licence from DEFRA ? to catch fish 

Malc

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, Malc said:

if it's passed the MOT then it will be ok and the police will have to accept that official status ( surely ? )  ...

Actually not the case, MOT certificate does not mean car is road legal or safe to drive (says so on certificate itself). That said I think we can all agree that priorities are misplaced when it requires 6 cars and 12 officers to stop car for misplaced characters on number plate and yet none are available to attend serious crimes. 

[Mr Vlad]

Yup. After reading that email an old saying came back to me. Out of politeness I'm not going to say what it is. However the four word saying was abbreviated with the first letter of each word. Illegitimate child slang was one of the words.