So I unlocked my car yesterday and got in, straight away I noticed the sun visors were both down… looked to my left and saw one of my gloves on the passenger side floor, I checked around and an old pair of sunglasses (worth nothing), a tin of mints (it was a rather nice Graham Hill box…) a USB stick and a cigarette lighter charger were gone. Also the ashtray from the centre console was nowhere to be seen. I found the glove in the middle of the road and the ashtray at the other end of the street. So overall not exactly a disaster!

I checked round the car to see if there was any damage, all fine but I noticed the passenger door was not closed properly indicating that’s how they got in. The lock showed no signs of tampering. This happened to me last year and I thought I must have left it unlocked (again they stole a tin of mints!) but this time round I’m 100% sure I locked it (and did think I had the previous time). The previous time my flatmate’s car was broken into a couple of nights before and the window smashed (he had a leather folder on the seat which might have looked like a laptop).

So I never leave anything valuable in there and did think about locking the enter storage space but figured I’d rather they just opened it and stole some mints than damaging it if it was locked. Does anyone know of a particular weakness with the door locks, if they can be picked easily? Presumably it unlocked and the alarm disabled.

To be honest I’m not sure what to do, in a way it’s good that they got in without having to damage anything but I think there are opportunists in the area who won’t really go to lengths to get in the cars around me, just go for the easy targets, I’m just hoping they don’t try to cut through the roof or anything to get access. My next worry is if they know it’s easy to get into, would they consider coming back to take the car…

Any advice on what I can do to make it more secure?

 

is your pas door locking?

do you lock with key or fob?

seems odd

 

Does the evidence from this break-in indicate that they're capable of taking the car? From the description appears to be one-off opportunists.

It really depends on where you park it and your pattern.

As you say I'd fear damage to the car most. Almost tongue in cheek, my approach would be a top notch immobiliser, leaving doors unlocked and/or all compartments left open to show nothing of value is left in.

Other than that, if you can't garage it, maybe rent one as your car will certainly enjoy being kept out of the elements anyway. What you pay in rent you could save in maintenance and hassle.

Maybe leave the mints outside the car? See how far the principle of reciprocity actually goes!

 

I locked with the fob, standard Honda fob. I've checked it a few times, pressing the lock button more than once but it doesn't unlock it, just clicks again and remains locked

 

No, I think you are right, I've seen kids on bikes checking in car windows so I suspect it's just opportunists. Probably being paranoid but the worry is they know a mate who is capable of stealing a car who might be interested...
Good advice on the garage, it would be worth a few quid a month. On the leaving things open, that's what a guy from work suggested, his dad bought a new MX5 and someone cut through the roof to get in, cost him a fortune to get the hood replaced so he now just leaves everything open.

 

You don't want to press the lock on the fob twice as that disables the cabin sensor for the alarm (for when you have the roof down, or you have left granny in the car).

 

Right, I didn't know that! I guess I may have pressed twice, done it once, then as I walked away, done it again to be sure.

 

Apart from checking the button press on the fob have you checked the doors are actually locking?

 

Hi, sorry, didn't see your reply. Yes they were locking when I tried but I've solved the problem, I followed Stevo071077 's advice and spent an weekend clearing out my landlord's garage so not put it inside every night. My garage door has a sophisticated security system of making a horrible, very loud scraping noise when it opens, so if anyone gets past the crappy lock I'll be woken up!