Rental car crime in Tenerife - a warning.
Discussion
In early 2014, I went to Tenerife and hired a car with the usual hire car stickers on it. One day, I drove into the El Teide national park and parked the car for about 15-20 minutes while I went to take a few photos, in what appeared to be a totally deserted area.
On my return, I pressed the usual fob and drove away and later found that a rucksack, in the boot, had been raided and a large amount of cash and a camera had been stolen.
Though I was reasonably sure I had locked the car, you can never be sure but I was also fairly sure...not certain... that when I came back, I had to unlock the car with the fob.
Anyway, I put it down to my own stupidity, as you do.
I have just come back from Tenerife again and this time had a Corsa with big CICAR stickers all over it. One morning, I drove to Santa Cruz and into the car park by the Palmetum. It was practically empty with maybe a dozen cars. Whilst there, an old white Corsa A, with two males in it, drove in and parked right next to us. being adjacent to the Palmetum entrance, we thought little of it and one appeared to be on his phone but it never occurred to me to be suspicious
I locked the car and we wandered away, no more than 500 yards, for no more than 10-15 minutes. We hadn't even opened the boot and we each had our cameras in our hands as we walked away. On returning, I unlocked the car (Corsas make quite a loud noise locking and unlocking so there is no doubt it had been locked when I walked away and it unlocked when we came back. Ironically, we were distracted by a man dragging some police officers over, to a car with a smashed window, in the main car park.
Same thing, drove away and stopped about 10 minutes later, went to the boot and yes, you guessed it, no bag. Fortunately, I learnt part of a lesson last time and had all my money and the two cameras with me but they stole the rucksack containing two small camera cases and a couple of towels and swimming costumes. My main loss, however, was my prescription glasses, recently bought for about £300 (buy one get one free so i still have one pair) as I was wearing my prescription sunglasses at the time.
Now it could be argued that (a) I'm a t
t and (b) I still can't be certain, the first time, that the car was locked but it is plain to me that, certainly on this occasion, they have used a sophisticated electronic device to break into the car and steal stuff and then relock it so you drive away without suspecting anything.
We didn't report it, after looking on the internet and finding that this didn't get you anywhere unless you spoke Spanish and wanted to spend half your holiday in a police station and effectively wrote off the loss.
I have visited the four main Canaries on repeated occasions and have never had an issue with anywhere but Tenerife and a 100% record suggests they are targeting hire cars so please, don't be like me and think it is unlikely to happen twice because it did - take everything with you when you leave the car and if you have an apartment, leave your valuables there.
On my return, I pressed the usual fob and drove away and later found that a rucksack, in the boot, had been raided and a large amount of cash and a camera had been stolen.
Though I was reasonably sure I had locked the car, you can never be sure but I was also fairly sure...not certain... that when I came back, I had to unlock the car with the fob.
Anyway, I put it down to my own stupidity, as you do.
I have just come back from Tenerife again and this time had a Corsa with big CICAR stickers all over it. One morning, I drove to Santa Cruz and into the car park by the Palmetum. It was practically empty with maybe a dozen cars. Whilst there, an old white Corsa A, with two males in it, drove in and parked right next to us. being adjacent to the Palmetum entrance, we thought little of it and one appeared to be on his phone but it never occurred to me to be suspicious
I locked the car and we wandered away, no more than 500 yards, for no more than 10-15 minutes. We hadn't even opened the boot and we each had our cameras in our hands as we walked away. On returning, I unlocked the car (Corsas make quite a loud noise locking and unlocking so there is no doubt it had been locked when I walked away and it unlocked when we came back. Ironically, we were distracted by a man dragging some police officers over, to a car with a smashed window, in the main car park.
Same thing, drove away and stopped about 10 minutes later, went to the boot and yes, you guessed it, no bag. Fortunately, I learnt part of a lesson last time and had all my money and the two cameras with me but they stole the rucksack containing two small camera cases and a couple of towels and swimming costumes. My main loss, however, was my prescription glasses, recently bought for about £300 (buy one get one free so i still have one pair) as I was wearing my prescription sunglasses at the time.
Now it could be argued that (a) I'm a t
t and (b) I still can't be certain, the first time, that the car was locked but it is plain to me that, certainly on this occasion, they have used a sophisticated electronic device to break into the car and steal stuff and then relock it so you drive away without suspecting anything.We didn't report it, after looking on the internet and finding that this didn't get you anywhere unless you spoke Spanish and wanted to spend half your holiday in a police station and effectively wrote off the loss.
I have visited the four main Canaries on repeated occasions and have never had an issue with anywhere but Tenerife and a 100% record suggests they are targeting hire cars so please, don't be like me and think it is unlikely to happen twice because it did - take everything with you when you leave the car and if you have an apartment, leave your valuables there.
FlipFlopGriff said:
You must be really unlucky. Been hiring a car 3-5 times a year for the last 20 years and never had 1 issue, other than a flat tyre.
Usually park in busy areas but that doesn't really mean extra protection. Never leave anything of value in the car nor on show. Maybe we don't act or look like tourists anymore??
FFG
It doubtless depends on where you go. The main point of this warning is that, while you may think your car is safe, someone may have been in your boot and found nothing and you would never know because they lock it again.Usually park in busy areas but that doesn't really mean extra protection. Never leave anything of value in the car nor on show. Maybe we don't act or look like tourists anymore??
FFG
Of course you should not leave anything valuable in the car but, sometimes, you don't want to take your rucksack to the toilets, for the sake of 10-15 minutes and there will be many times when it won't happen....but sadly these scumbags know that speed is the key.
I have been on around 40 holidays, mainly Spain and the Canaries and have hired cars on each and every occasion, with no issues at all.
It has only been Tenerife that has stung me, twice.
they used to have an nline reporting system but have long since abandoned it and I can imagine why.
HotJambalaya said:
some thoughts
was it the same rental company each time
where is the spare key, on the ring, by the spare tyre in the boot, or in the office. Could be an inside job.
No, different companies. Firefly and CICAR. Fiat Panda and Opel Corsa.was it the same rental company each time
where is the spare key, on the ring, by the spare tyre in the boot, or in the office. Could be an inside job.
No spare key and we drive the whole island, randomly and had just driven about 60km to Santa Cruz, via motorway, so no real chance we had been followed. The CICAR cars have big stickers on the back and doors, I seem to recall the Firefly cars had few stickers at all.
The reason they appear to relock the car is so you never check because you unlock the car yourself - gives them way more time to get a clean getaway.
Another odd thing I noticed, in Santa Cruz, was a guy walking round in a safety vest holding a massive bunch of car keys on a large cable tie. I assume he was official and suspect they use the keys to open cars to move illegally parked or cars causing an obstruction. If so, the security appears to be less. I can't believe he was a thief as he was walking round in a very busy area populated by Police and they were on open display. No such person near where we parked and no key slot for the boot as far as I can recall.
gtidriver said:
Ive just returned from Portugal, my hired pos Fiat Punto had a small barcode next to the rear number plate, the guy at returns scanned it as i was emptying it. Noticed quite a lot of cars on my travels with a large sticker in the back window advertising the hire company.
They all do. People see nice cars with that sticker on and they are more likely to hire one the same. Free advertising.Thieves know that tourists will seldom report thefts, can't speak Spanish, the Police aren't interested and certainly won't come back to prove a case.
The only answer is prevention.
I wish I knew how to rig a bag with exploding purple dye or smart water or spitting cobras or black widow spiders.
King Herald said:
Maybe employees of the car hire company carry a large sack of labeled spare keys, and simply cruise until they see one of their own?
I'm pretty certain that the second theft was perpetrated by the two males with what looked like iPhones in the car that pulled up next to us. That is on the basis that they pulled up and parked right next to us in a huge and largely empty car park then both appeared to be on their "devices", one in the car and one out, when I locked the car and in the very short time we were away, no cars came in to that car park and they had left when we returned.As you can imagine, the car park for the Palmetum (a collection of palm trees - like a zoo without any animals) was not exactly busy.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff