Attempted theft of motorhome

Someone tried to steel our fairford last night. The alarm company said we were one of three in the WS postcode area. Van conversions are being targeted. The preferred method is through the drivers side 1/4 light window. All three were attempted after midnight some 30 miles apart. I couldn’t establish if there have been other attempts however the alarm company did seem to hint at a spate of thefts.

Someone has sussed that the 1/4 light is vulnerable to attack, which then enables them once through to do what they couldn't do easily before ...??
Contents or vehicle they're after, perhaps they want to add to their chemical toilet cassette collection?

As reported previously on this forum. The local scum near me, last November, smashed the quarter light on my motorhome and damaged the paint and bodywork near the broken window. They then, in a clumsy attempt to start the engine, damaged/destroyed the ignition barrel and further damaged the plastic cowl around the ignition area. Luckily for me this action I believe, triggered the immobiliser into shutting down the ignition system, thus stopping the vehicle being stolen. The cost to my insurance company for the repairs came to £3,280. Has a consequence of the break-in my insurance premium has increased dramatically, from £277 last year to £454 this year and will continue to be higher than normal for some more years.
Agree with RV above, that the the quarter light is highly 'vulnerable to attack'... always have been...and in addition, can be very costly to the owner of the vehicle.

Apparently it’s the obd port they are looking to access without triggering the alarm. From the obd they can unlock the vehicle and disarm some alarm systems.

How are they beating the deadlocks though.

I don’t know the details that’s what I’ve been told, I thought once plugged in they could do pretty much anything even program a key.

What I meant was, breaking the window still won’t give them access to the interior, if the doors are deadlocked.

Perhaps if they see you have a Disklok they know that even if they get through the 1/4 light they have more obstacles to overcome.
If you had a wheel clamp they would go to overcome that obstacle first, then going through a 1/4 light would come next.
Anything they see that they know could easily be overcome would keep them still working on stealing your motorhome and not moving on elsewhere. So security lights and/or CCTV puts them under time pressure.

I now park my van front end to the house, it would involve a rather awkward reverse if anyone wanted to steal our van, It's bad enough for me reversing out.

Theft is the greatest risk insurers are taking because it will cost them dearly, it's not surprising that premiums will rise after an attempt to steal a motorhome. 
Rich..

v8oholic wrote:How are they beating the deadlocks though.

Doesn't pressing the lock button on the center console unlock all the doors?  Even if deadlocked? 

I've not actually tried, maybe I should...

RogerThat wrote:

v8oholic wrote:How are they beating the deadlocks though.

Doesn't pressing the lock button on the center console unlock all the doors?  Even if deadlocked? 

I've not actually tried, maybe I should...

It's not supposed to, that's the whole point of the deadlocks. That's why they warn you never to deadlock the doors when inside using the remote, for example overnight. Because if you can't get to the remote in the event of a fire, you can't get out.

I remember watching a documentary on vehicle theft a few years ago and they spoke to an ex-thief who used to steal high end performance cars. Though it wasn't shown how 'in detail', he showed how simple it was (for him) to gain entry and have the engine running in seconds.

He named a vehicle type which was extremely secure, I can't remember the make/model now, but it was a budget model, the least likely you'd expect!

From my understanding and I don’t want to spell it out on a public forum the deadlocks are easily overcome by the theif.

I’m still sceptical. Not all X250 and X290 have deadlocks, so what might appear to work on some vans may not work on all of them. Additionally I think there are some people who have deadlocks but don’t know how to use them, so they aren’t set. But in any case, I also have a steel pedalbox and a tracker and an additional alarm which alerts me, so I’m not that concerned.

You deadlock the doors by pressing the button on the fob twice in succession.
Interested to hear if the dash button unlocks the doors when deadlocked.

Mike

I tried the double click on my fob years ago, all it did was set off my alarm.

You have to get the double click speed right on the remote. Too quickly and it will just lock, too slowly and it will also just lock. When you get it right the mechanism operates twice with a different clunk on the second time. About half a second between them I’d guess. If it doesn’t work then you maybe don’t have them.

Dbvwt wrote:

v8oholic wrote:

RogerThat wrote:

Doesn't pressing the lock button on the center console unlock all the doors?  Even if deadlocked? 

I've not actually tried, maybe I should...

It's not supposed to, that's the whole point of the deadlocks. That's why they warn you never to deadlock the doors when inside using the remote, for example overnight. Because if you can't get to the remote in the event of a fire, you can't get out.

Reading the above concerned me as I’ve always deadlocked the van at night while away with the fob. 
I’m actually away at present and have just locked the van from inside using the fob. I tried all the doors using the handles inside and they simply unlock the door.

Edit… posted before your post V8, maybe I haven’t got deadlocks or I’m not activating them?

If the doors open using the interior handles, then the deadlocks definitely aren’t set. But using the remote to lock the doors is a good thing to do when sleeping in the van overnight. Because if you use the lock button on the dashboard, you can’t easily tell if the doors are locked or not. For that reason, I also use the remote (single click) inside, because that way you get a flashing LED on the dashboard so you know it’s locked at a glance.

According to the Peugeot hand book the indicators should flash three times when the doors are deadlocked. It’s not something I use.

I would have thought that it was standard fit not an option.

Originally our van had an alarm operated by the key fob and you had to press the lock button a second time to disable the internal sensor when leaving the dog in the van, not sure how that interacted with the dead locking. We now have an alarm operated by its own fob.

Mike