STOLEN MK4 GOLF R32 - HOW!??!?!?

STOLEN MK4 GOLF R32 - HOW!??!?!?

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graduate106

Original Poster:

8 posts

158 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
My mk4 deep pearlescant blue 3dr golf R32 was advertised on ebay and pistonheads last week and one morning i woke up and the car was gone!!!

It was stolen between 1am-2am on Wednesday 16th March (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning) from Carlisle in Cumbria. The car has been spotted numerous times heading south and was in Coventry at 5am!

It was parked on my drive, no sign of break in - it had just disappeared!!

Registration plate is FB53 ELH. Here is the link to the advert:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

First question is - how the hell do you steal a car without a key these days? I didnt even think it was possible!

If anyone has seen the vehicle please let me know ASAP.

I can't believe it - i am absolutely gobsmacked!!


Emubiker

951 posts

181 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Well it is possible, I can bypass a few aftermarket immobilisers and alarms without damaging anything, Can't get in the car though, but the AA et. al can get in most cars pretty easily. But its the time they have done it in. Obviously Pro's as you wouldn't want to be on someone's drive for any longer than a few minutes.

Sorry to hear about it, I know the hassle from now will not be good for you.

SteveScooby

797 posts

178 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Not sure, i'm not a car thief. It's a bit late now but why is your address displayed on the advert?

Rich_W

12,548 posts

213 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Well

1) from your registration an undesirable can get your address.
2) Mk4 Golfs have "that" problem where you can deactivate teh alarm with a bit of brute force
3) Once alarm off, steering lock gets broken, car gets pushed somewhere away from your house. Then lifted onto a low loader and away.

Most probably to a waiting shipping container.

If they REALLY want any car you cannot stop them frown

EDITED TO ADD

AS Above, your address is in the advert!!!! Why did you think this was a good idea???? eek

Edited by Rich_W on Monday 21st March 21:56

Martyn D

424 posts

175 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Sorry to hear of the theft, when caught fingers should be removed imo....but back to the point..i just looked at the ebay ad and at the bottom it has your name and address, ebay is full of thieves and scammers and its very poor of them to allow full details to be shown, also you have the registration showing...name, address and car reg, i'd guess they had a key.

MondeoMan1981

2,358 posts

184 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Might be worth calling VAG UK with car details e.g. chassis number and see if any keys have recently been coded for it...

graduate106

Original Poster:

8 posts

158 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
My address was shown on bottom of advert because i am a business seller - i can not stop it showing.

To be honest i didnt think that would matter. Yes someone could come to my house but you can drive around aimlessly and come across lots of other nice cars at other peoples houses too - doesnt mean you can steal them any easier.

The car was not put onto a trailer, it has been spotted numerous times by cameras driving down the M6!

How on earth can they have a key? Apparently you have to "map" any newly cut key to the car itself?

deveng

3,917 posts

181 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
MkIV platform cars are incredibly easy to break into, Crimewatch did a feature on it years ago and inadvertidly showed how to break in, my Mums mkIV was broken into twice in about 2 years of ownership (parked up in a nice area, haven't heard of any other car crime on our road before or since).

As for how they started it and drove away, I don't know, but I can't imagine its too difficult if you know what you're doing.

Rich_W

12,548 posts

213 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Which dealer/garage has the car been into recently then?

As a joke a while ago someone I work with coded another remote fob to another employees car. Went outside turned his car around 180degrees. Moved all the seats about. Changed the radio etc He was none the wiser until he went to the car 8 hours later. It's not hard at all to do.

graduate106

Original Poster:

8 posts

158 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
To code another remote fob to the car would surely have needed the car itself to code it to - according to my local VW anyway?

I get it serviced / MOT'd at my dad's work so i dont think that has anything to do with it.

Rs2oo

2,195 posts

199 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Years ago, a friend advertised his BMW on ebay - (not ebays fault) Someone test drove it and later the same night it was stolen. The thief, the guy who test-drove it, asked to see all the paperwork and spare key. He stole the spare key and cleverly replaced it with another key. My friend didn't notice the swap, why would he ! It only came to light when the car was found by the Police and the second key was noticed to be a different.

graduate106

Original Poster:

8 posts

158 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Where would i ring to see if any keys have been coded for it recently?

Crazy story about the BMW - no-one actually came to view my car though so that isnt a possibility


XDA

2,141 posts

186 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
Sounds to me like a gang of "professional" car thief's have been searching eBay for high value fast cars. They've seen your address and headed up from the midlands to collect it.

The fact that they've managed to bypass the immobiliser/alarm and drive off without alerting anyone suggests they know what they are doing. Being so close to the M6 made it very attractive unfortunately.

I hope you get it back mate, it's a nice car.

Thom987

3,185 posts

167 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
I would guess that after gaining entry to the car they used another key and ecu, its not as far fetched as it sounds. Unless they already had a spare key.

Jo Po

175 posts

162 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
I know of THREE R32's stolen in Glasgow since the start of February.

One was stolen by the keys being fished through letter box.

The other two no-one has a clue how either were stolen.


Slightly worrying.

S3K04

138 posts

169 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
Sad, hope its found!

Hub

6,449 posts

199 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
Jo Po said:
I know of THREE R32's stolen in Glasgow since the start of February.

"R32s seem to be flavour of the month for car thieves"

http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/news/story/279/


wolf1

3,081 posts

251 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
If you haven't owned it from new there's nothing to say that a previous owner hadn't had an extra key cut and coded due to loss etc. Someone may have had that key and seen the registration on fleabay and armed with your address removed the car.

Hudson

1,857 posts

188 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
im not being funny, this may sound like a completly stupid point, but you definatly have both keys yes? as in, no one has snuck in and ninja'd the spare key?

wackojacko

8,581 posts

191 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
Sorry to hear this.

It is down to the name address and reg in the advert.

Plus it's a fast VAG thieves love R32's and RS4's etc.

When you know what your doing it's not hard at all ...... Rather worrying.