Sat Nav Stolen

[John Laverick]

Had my car broken into last night and had a load of stuff nicked including the SatNav … ah well live and learn.

One quick question though … do the likes of Tom Tom not have the capability to track the location of each of their units when switched on?

Just a thought?

[timskipper]

Lets hope not!

Although the thieves now know where you live.

[joewilliams]

No - GPS is a one way system. It enables the receiver to work out where it is.

There are systems which use GPS tracking, but they have to have a method of transmitting the data back to whoever's tracking it. This is normally done using the cellular networks.

[John Laverick]

timskipper said:

Lets hope not!

Although the thieves now know where you live.

They already knew where I lived as the car was parked outside my house.

Would be useful to have a function that could be switched on with the owner’s consent to locate the unit!

[EU_Foreigner]

Did you have the "lock" on the TomTom switched on?

Edit - assuming it was a TomTom that is ...

Edited by EU_Foreigner on Tuesday 18th December 15:13

[John Laverick]

It was a Tom Tom ... but I wasn't aware it had a 'lock' function?

It was a Tom Tom One.

[Ean218]

John Laverick said:

Would be useful to have a function that could be switched on with the owner’s consent to locate the unit!

It wouldn't be a simple function, it would have to be a full blown transmitter!

[bigdods]

Well, on my mates tom tom it has a function that brings you together with your mates. Never seen it in action as my old tom tom doesnt do it but he tells me that his talks via mobile network and communicates with another tom tom (no idea how you would set this up) and his unit then works out the best route so that he meets up with the other tom tom. Now if it had that built in and they hadnt turned the function off would be the work of a few seconds to locate them, grab baseball bat and go recover your kit

[bluepolarbear]

A little tip for you all. Don't store your home location in your sat nav. Make sure its a location half a mile down the road.

[Raify]

bluepolarbear said:

A little tip for you all. Don't store your home location in your sat nav. Make sure its a location half a mile down the road.

Why would that be of any benefit? The person that stole the sat nav now knows where the owner of the sat nav lives.....

So what?

He also knows where his next door neighbour lives, and that house he just walked past, and the person that lives in the house opposite his local pub. So what?

The Sat Nav doesn't contain the key to his house,

[Glassman]

Raify said:

bluepolarbear said:

A little tip for you all. Don't store your home location in your sat nav. Make sure its a location half a mile down the road.

Why would that be of any benefit? The person that stole the sat nav now knows where the owner of the sat nav lives.....

So what?

He also knows where his next door neighbour lives, and that house he just walked past, and the person that lives in the house opposite his local pub. So what?

The Sat Nav doesn't contain the key to his house,

I think he was aiming it at everyone in general (except the OP)

[sleep envy]

Raify said:

bluepolarbear said:

A little tip for you all. Don't store your home location in your sat nav. Make sure its a location half a mile down the road.

Why would that be of any benefit? The person that stole the sat nav now knows where the owner of the sat nav lives.....

So what?

He also knows where his next door neighbour lives, and that house he just walked past, and the person that lives in the house opposite his local pub. So what?

The Sat Nav doesn't contain the key to his house,

true but if they pinch your sat nav when you are out and about there's a good chance no one will be at home, which could lead to a burglary too...

[Glassman]

sleep envy said:

Raify said:

bluepolarbear said:

A little tip for you all. Don't store your home location in your sat nav. Make sure its a location half a mile down the road.

Why would that be of any benefit? The person that stole the sat nav now knows where the owner of the sat nav lives.....

So what?

He also knows where his next door neighbour lives, and that house he just walked past, and the person that lives in the house opposite his local pub. So what?

The Sat Nav doesn't contain the key to his house,

true but if they pinch your sat nav when you are out and about there's a good chance no one will be at home, which could lead to a burglary too...

Some people store the house opposite as 'Home'.

[Mr Robbo]

^^^far more sporting to let your neighbours get burgled.

[sleep envy]

Glassman said:

Some people store the house opposite as 'Home'.

I just use your address

[Glassman]

Not being funny, but just because there is a 'Home' location icon, it doesn't mean that's the only place to store where you live.

You might as well put an address in Harlesden as 'home' and stick your real address under an alias in Favourites.

[g_attrill]

I thought TomTom had a utility to download software upgrades and map updates etc? They could implement a serial number blacklist to disable stolen devices, or just report the IP address of the machine doing the upgrade.

I have an MP3 car radio (empeg/Rio Car), they had a stolen device list that apparently did something to devices that were upgraded.

[Glassman]

I know...













Don't leave your Sat Nav in your motor.

[John Laverick]

Glassman said:

I know...













Don't leave your Sat Nav in your motor.

Thanks for that

Live and learn ...

I might try getting in touch with Tom Tom with my Serial Number details to see if they can do anything in the event the unit is linked up to a computer for an update [unlikely I know].

They also stole my gym bag full of sweaty clothes and my site bag full of dirty overalls and PPE from the boot

And to top it all off - the little white torch that BMW's have in the glove box!!!

Edited by John Laverick on Tuesday 18th December 23:35

[Harsh]

not sure if this is true or not, but i've been told that some theives now have a device that enables them to find cars with electrical devices in them..sat nav's, phones lap tops etc, even if they are switched off.

apparently they still emit something (i have no idea what) which is detectable.

so even if you lock the above mentioned items in the boot, or out of site, the theives know they are there and may well break into your car to find out, leaving other cars without such devices alone.

like i said, i dont know if it's true, but it's scary if it is!