Should we consider practicing counter surveillance techniques to prevent our cars from being stolen.

When professional car thieves Michael Crosdale and Robert Fairweather from Bradford were arrested by West Yorkshire police detectives last year for theft, they discovered the pair had been involved in a highly organised criminal conspiracy to steal over ￡150,000 worth of cash, jewellery and cars from the Leeds, Bradford and London areas using surveillance and tracking technology.

Their particular scheme targeted the owners of Chinese restaurants and takeaways by fitting active tracking devices to their victims' cars enabling the pair to find out where their potential victims lived and when they were most likely to be away from their homes. They would then break in and ransack the house taking mainly cash and jewellery.

During the investigation specialist police investigators working at the coal face of vehicle crime discovered a hidden and certainly unauthorised tracking device in one of the victim’s vehicles. This was later discovered to have been deployed and recharged from a computer found at one of the he offenders’ addresses and later discovered to have direct communication to the tracking device.

This is similar to several other similar cases of unlawful surveillance being reported around the country where evidence has been found that criminals are increasingly using anti theft technology techniques to steal cars and motorcycles and it has prompted some police and motoring clubs to add a counter surveillance routine to the crime prevention advice offered to vehicle owners in order to protect themselves.

Officers have also noticed a change in thieves’ methodology around the more common relay system of theft replicas of which are now traded here in the UK for as little as ￡200. The consequence of this is that even minor league criminals can enjoy the rich spoils once solely in the domain of the organised gangs.

Cars stolen using this method are stripped of their valuable parts such as body panels, dashboards, doors and bonnets, wheels and tyres interior trim, seats, steering wheels complete with air bags, electric mirrors with cameras and LED headlights etc, leaving their carcasses, namely the stripped body shell and engine block abandoned to be later found by police.

Once the VIN and identity numbers have been checked against the stolen file the vehicles irrespective of their condition are shown as recovered and cancelled on the police computer so cancelling in effect its stolen status.

This has compromised ongoing investigations by police trying to identify stolen items being found in the ever increasing amount of ‘chop shops’ they are still finding daily.

Bizarrely these investigations have uncovered evidence that some owners of these premises have actually bid at auction on the very salvage that the stolen parts were taken from initially having been ‘written off’ by the insurance companies.

If successful such a rebuilt vehicle would be clear to export to a country not affected by any of the UK’s insurance categorisation which prevents certain damaged cars from being re registered.

Suspicious surveillance equipment found at or close to the scene of vehicle crimes includes outdoor game cameras similar to those normally tied to a tree in order to capture footage of wildlife.

One of these hidden camouflaged units was discovered recently strapped to a tree with Velcro having been focused on the premises of a vehicle theft and an attempted burglary.

The investigating officer suggested that ‘Whilst these cameras usually blend in to the foliage, not many have been found as they are normally removed by the thieves at the time of the offence to be used again elsewhere’.

Another unobtrusive item used to watch a victim’s premise was parked in the street outside a garage showroom. This was an ‘active’ dash cam that was found in the windscreen of a stolen van on false registration plates. The camera was focused on the entrance to victims building which was later broken into.

It’s clear that much of this ready available spy kit that allows the unlawful watching of vehicles, homes and business premises also includes the technology to help thieves avoid detection.

Indeed jamming, blocking, bugging and debugging kits complete with instructions on how to intrude into a cars OBD or ECU together with devices designed to prevent, deactivate and track stolen cars appear to have all now undergone reverse engineering to counter whatever function they were originally designed to do, creating a new range of ‘Anti’ – anti theft gadgets just for the car thieves.

In consequence the sale of DIY counter or anti surveillance debugging devices has rocketed as victims and worried vehicle owners seek countermeasures to find if their own vehicles have been impregnated with an alien tracker, GPS or RF device, spy cameras, phone bugs, voice recorders or listening devices etc.

Several previous now paranoid victims of both car theft and burglary have taken on the services of an ever growing number of security companies that offer to sweep vehicles and premises for any illegal devices that may have been installed. These counter surveillance businesses have increased tenfold in the past 2 years.

As one ‘bug finding’ company owner suggested clients should be wary that the finding of a tracker, voice recorder or hidden camera can cause its own problems, usually when it’s discovered that a spouse, partner or employer was responsible for authorising the illegal instalment.

With this year’s vehicle theft total expected to be larger than that of last year’s 101,000, the Home Office stated UK vehicle thefts have increased by 50% in the last five years and that 140,000 car thefts went unsolved last year. ?77,318 of these crimes were closed without a suspect being identified and only 3.9 per cent ever led to someone being charged.

The ABI suggested vehicle crime costs our insurance companies ￡1.2 million pounds every day and several insurance companies had already shown concern at the rise of this current car theft epidemic reporting a 70% per cent increase in the stripping of cars alone over the last 12 months.

This was supported by 20 of the UK’s police forces who revealed that this type of theft had on average increased by 300% to 72’000 in the last year.

By March 2022, there were 88,915 vehicle thefts recorded by 34 police forces, which suggests an average of 244 thefts per day. South Yorkshire had 4,003 thefts, a 28% rise, the City of London 45, a rise of 25%, Surrey 1,313, a rise of 12%. Merseyside 2,471, a rise of 4% and Greater Manchester 7,737 up 1%. The West Midlands had 10,812, a rise of 19%. In fact just one of their operations in 2021 saw the arrest of more than 2,000 suspects and the recovery of 1,000 stolen cars.

It’s clear that today’s organised vehicle crime network has evolved into a worldwide multi billion pound criminal enterprise that supports the more comprehensive portfolios held by most of the national and international organised gangs.

Motorists today should take some comfort however that the Data Protection Act 1998 is crystal clear regarding vehicle tracking devices and the information they gather. Fitting a tracking device or any spy equipment to someone else’s car without their knowledge or consent is definitely illegal.

So what can we do to ensure our cars are not bugged?

Many GPS car tracking systems are lightweight, easy to move and attach with electromagnets, making them easy to conceal both inside or outside a car.

Look inside and under the front or rear bumper, in any air vents in the body work and in the wheel arches, behind the radiator or on the fuel tank. Most tracking devices look like a small box and they can quite easily be attached with a magnet or tape for quick attachment and removal.

If entry to the vehicle is suspected then check areas under dash board, in the glove box and around the centre consul. Also check under the front and rear seats and any storage areas used by passengers. It may of course be simply that the illegal spy device has been simply plugged into the cars diagnostic port.

If you do discover any alien device on your car however leave it in situ and don’t destroy it. If you try to remove or disable it there's a good chance that you could activate it, pre-warning the person who installed it. Get in touch with the police and let them deal with it.