In the past few days, such crimes have been committed at various locations in the district. As reported, unknown persons have stolen tools of various kinds.
The perpetrators often follow a pattern that investigators from the district police authority have already observed in previous series of crimes: The strangers primarily target company cars parked at employees' private addresses - only in the rarest of cases do the strangers target vehicles parked at company premises. What's more, such crimes occur more frequently on certain days: they are more frequent on Mondays and Fridays at night.
How can company cars be protected against this? The Criminal Investigation Department for Prevention and Victim Protection of the Borken District Police Authority has compiled tips and recommendations on how to behave:
- Use a lockable garage or, if possible, at least park the vehicle in busy and well-lit locations or in a secure company parking lot.
- Always use existing security options such as door locks, anti-theft alarm systems, additional locks, other mechanical security devices, etc.
- Have the vehicle fitted with additional anti-theft devices. Additional mechanical security devices make the perpetrators' "work" more difficult. For example, a tested alarm system with interior monitoring is a sensible security measure.
- Make sure that the vehicle acknowledges the locking of the doors with the radio remote control with a visual signal. Radio gaps can interfere with the radio signal of your remote control so that the vehicle is not locked.
- Do not "hide" spare keys on or in the vehicle. Leaving a spare key behind may exempt the insurer from liability in the event of theft.
- Watch out for suspicious persons and vehicles. Make a note of the license plate number and then inform the police. Also watch out for people taking photos of your vehicle. This may already be a preparatory act for a later theft. Valuable tools are often stolen "to order".
- If possible, do not store very valuable tools in the vehicle at night.
- Always make a note of the individual device numbers of the tools so that they can be recorded in the police wanted list after a theft and can be reassigned later. If a tool does not have an individual number, mark the tool itself with an individual symbol.
If your vehicle is broken into, contact the nearest police station immediately and do not make any changes to or in the vehicle.