Laptop nicked - Tesco Loudwater

[johno]

In the spirit of making fellow PH members aware of these things ...

On Monday night on the way home I decided to stop for some shopping. Got out of car, grabbed laptop off passenger seat and locked into boot .... came back out 20 mins later to find the rear screen smashed and laptop lifted out of the boot. Golf = hatchback.

Must have been watching etc ...

I know, I know, but to make you all aware. Best get them in the boot before you get there !

... another learning point is to park as near to the entrance as possible, rather than by the exit road !

Bloody pain in the proverbial, but there you go !

[puggit]

Probably watched you do it, but there's something else to be aware of.

When you place a laptop on standby the Bluetooth and Wireless systems are still active. With wireless it's not a huge issue as the range it can be picked up is tens of metres.

However, the range of Bluetooth is minimal, and can easily be tracked to a vehicle

Either switch off the Bluetooth, or shutdown completely!

[Tuska]

Sorry to say, but this also happened to my mate about 3 weeks ago. (Laptop from Tescos Loudwater, window on his Voyager was smashed)

The thieves seem to be targeting men in suits nipping in for a sandwhich and a pee.

Bring back hanging.......

[alfa145uk]

Very common spot, bad luck.
Also don't leave your phone in a coat/boot, etc turned on (if you leave BT enabled)!!

[marcp68]

Same thing happened to me in Marlow last year (half brick through rear window) was rung last week by BiB and told they'd got the guy and he'd put his hand up to 75 other such thefts in and around Marlow............I wonder if he's now moved to Loudwater????

Also g/fs company (who are near Loudwater) have just issued all laptop users a "bootsafe" which is a steel cabled mesh bag (like a swag bag) which when looped through a fixed point to a boot means that even if a scrote does smash a window they'll go away emply handed.

[targarama]

Hard luck, hope you didn't lose any data as well.

I've had several older cars broken into, nothing much nicked. Girlfriend's TT had the rear screen smashed and the parcel shelf ripped out in the hope of finding a laptop or similar expensive goods. Result was £2,500 of damage and nothing nicked.

I now drive a saloon (Audi A6) as I've noticed that most of the break-ins are on hatchbacks where you can gain access to the boot without a key. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? I never leave anything like this in the TVR, even though it has a load cover.

>> Edited by targarama on Wednesday 1st February 18:45

[marcp68]

Lost all of the data as well............luckily for me I had a hard disk crash two weeks before which IT managed to retrieve and I still had the disks so only lost about a fortnights data...........but stupidly had my PDA and Wallet in my laptop bag - Doh.

Your observations regarding only happens to hatches was correct for the Marlow spate of thefts as was the half brick found on the rear passenger seat!!

[johnp68]

Whereabouts were you parked in the Tesco car park? Just wondered if it was near where the delivery lorries come in, as that's where I often park, on the grounds that fewer people tend to park round there.

[Hoarp001]

Hi, I was the self service attendant that night, I spoke to you about it (not sure how i managed to find my way here just thougt it was an odd coincidence)

Did you ever get it back or any news? How did you boss take it when you said it had been stolen?

Thanks,

Pete.