After the recent spate of car crimes reported in Harrow, we spoke with a local business who have provided an informative look at what measures residents can take to secure their vehicles from thieves.
Alex Yip runs ineedatracker.com, a local business that specialises in vehicle trackers and security products.
Alex told us what changes he’s seen in Harrow over the recent months, and what the increase has meant to local residents. He hopes to be able to help more people secure their vehicles and prevent further car crimes in Harrow. Read the full interview below.
What does ineedatracker.com provide for customers?
ineedatracker.com are specialists who have over 50 years combined experience in the supply and installation of vehicle security products such as insurance approved trackers, immobilisers and dash cams. These products all help in the fight against car crime and proven to help reduce insurance premiums, assist with insurance claims, substantially increase the chances of recovering a stolen vehicle back to their owners and even prevent theft in the first place. With nationwide coverage but local service, our specially trained Engineers will come out to the customer at their home or place of work to professionally install their chosen security systems. Cars underpin how we live our lives and vans are crucial to the successful running of a business. The team as a whole understand that having them stolen is a traumatic experience that hard working people should not have to suffer. Seeing first hand the increasing rates of car crime in the area, this Harrow based business created the ineedatracker.com website, to offer a service to the local community that will help them combat vehicle related crimes and hopefully save some heartache.
Have you noticed an increase in demand over the last 12 months?
Absolutely. Even though car use was significantly reduced during the pandemic, we have seen more reports of thieves breaking into parked vehicles to steal personal belongings. With technology that allows thieves to capture the signal emitted from keys being more readily available to thieves, we have also seen cars and vans equipped with the push button start feature being stolen at an increasing rate. Demand for security products that will help protect against vehicle theft or capture videos of crime taking place have naturally gone up
Can you explain how the systems you specialise in work?
Trackers – Are hidden within a car or van and allow owners to track where their vehicle is in real time. In the event of theft, owners can call upon a specialist recovery team who are able to work with the police to recover the stolen vehicle. More advanced tracker systems can also proactively tell you when a theft is in progress or even immobilise the vehicle to stop theft in the first place. Due to their effectiveness, insurers are increasingly offering discounts on premiums which would cover the cost of these systems.
Immobilisers – Once discreetly installed these units stops unauthorised use of a car or van by preventing the engine from starting, preventing thieves from driving your asset away.
Dash cams – Able to record footage whilst driving or parked, video footage recorded by dash cams are invaluable to help prevent fraudulent insurance claims against the policy holder and also assist in hit and run cases. The latest state of the art dash cams even sends you impact alerts whilst your car is parked up and gives you the ability to remotely dial in to the camera from your mobile phone for live viewing.
What advice would you give to people concerned about car crime in Harrow?
Car crime cannot unfortunately be eradicated however residents in the local community can substantially reduce their chances of becoming a victim.
- Park in well lit areas and install floodlights in your driveway. Thieves love nothing more than to work under the cover of darkness
- Never leave anything in plain sight in your vehicles. Bags, coats and even sunglasses. A thief may not know if they are worth £20 or £200 but they will have a value and will not think twice about breaking your window to take them.
- Try to keep your keys at the back of the house. This will minimise the risk of your keys being hooked through the letterbox or thieves capturing the radio signal to unlock and start your car. Faraday pouches and boxes will also stop the signal from being emitted
- Mechanical devices such as steering wheel locks are readily available, easy to use and act as good deterrents
- Electronic devices such as trackers, immobilisers and dash cams are excellent devices that have been proven to be effective devices that help to combat car crime. Tracker systems in particular have a recovery success rate of over 95%
Can you give any examples of success stories of the trackers?
Just a couple of months we had a client that called us explaining that their insurance company mandated that a tracker to be installed into their prestige SUV. Without one, they would not be covered for theft. After advising on the different systems that were available we promptly installed their chosen tracker place at their place of work. And it was a good thing that we did because literally a few days later, the car was stolen from their driveway in the middle of the night. With the tracker working covertly in the background, the car was traced and recovered back to its lucky owner without so much as a scratch within a matter of hours.
