As we revealed last week, car crime is on the up ,with a 20% spike in vehicles stolen in 2016/17. The rise means that, more than ever, motorists need all the help they can get in protecting their vehicles from thieves.
Enter your postcode into the Co-op Insurance’s new interactive map, which reveals the level of car crime in your area.
Check your street
Simply enter your postcode/location in England or Wales and the map displays the number of car crimes that have occurred on your street and in the surrounding area (based on Home Office data). If car crime has occurred in the past six months, the map will display one of three circles: a red circle indicates six or more incidents; an orange circle between three and five instances; and a yellow circle between zero and two crimes.
You can zoom out to check the overall car crime rate in a particular area. It means you can quickly check before heading out where the safest – and unsafest – areas are to park when you arrive at your destination.
For instance, according to Daily Mail research, the area surrounding Bridge Street in Manchester is a hotbed of car crime. Over in Cardiff, Walker Road and the surrounding area is a particular magnet for thieves. The Sun newspaper found that Broad Street and the surrounding area in Birmingham saw high car crime figures as well.
Of course, if your own street is marked as an area with a car crime issue, the map makes for cold comfort. However, according to several experts, including Co-op Insurance, there are several techniques that can be deployed to reduce the chance of car thieves targeting your vehicle:
Protect your vehicle at home
• Don’t reverse into your driveway or garage; instead, drive in nose-first. This makes it more difficult for thieves to make a quick and tidy getaway.
• Park in front of your home if possible, ideally in front of your living room window. This can deter thieves from making an opportunistic theft because they risk you spotting them.
• Ensure your car is locked and its alarm activated. This might sound like stating the obvious, but car thieves are using jammers to block cars’ systems from being activated by their key fobs – so double check your doors are actually locked before walking away.
• Consider additional security equipment for your car, such as a steering wheel lock. While these can be removed by thieves given enough time, they act as a deterrent because they represent a time-consuming challenge.
• Fit a CCTV camera overlooking your driveway or the immediate area outside your home if you park on the street. Such technology is reasonably priced and simple to install.
• Install a tracker device. That way, if your car disappears from your driveway, there’s a very good chance you can track and recover it.
• Never leave your car running on your driveway, even to defrost it on a cold morning! Firstly, it is illegal to do so. Secondly, you can wave your car insurance goodbye if the vehicle is stolen.
Protect your vehicle while out and about
• Always park your car under a streetlight if possible. When using a carpark, park near or next to other cars. Don’t leave your vehicle tucked away in the corner of an under-populated carpark. That gives thieves more time to make off with it, as they are less likely to be seen.
• Park outside restaurants, bars and pubs wherever possible if using street parking. The threat of a customer inside spotting someone interfering with a car’s locks is enough of a deterrent for many thieves to move on to a vehicle that is parked down a dark side street.
• Finally, ensure all valuables are out of sight or removed when leaving your car. From mobiles and sat navs to bags and jackets, shove everything into the boot or take it with you.
There were 250,000 car break-ins last year – don’t end up with your car being featured in next year’s statistics.
What else can you do?
The most obvious thing to do is take action and protect yourself, as mentioned earlier there are a few ways you can do this that works in concert with your car alarm, sadly just relying on a car alarm is not enough to deter the modern car criminal. Stealing and mobilising a car is hard work these days which is why most car thieves break into your house to simply get your keys instead. You can monitor both your driveway and the entrance to your home with a high quality HD video camera. We have the perfect offer from Y-cam, with a HUGE 30% off (£54 RRP) the retail price this week.
The Y-cam Outdoor HD Pro can monitor your driveway and the entrance to your home. Its controlled by a free app and can be viewed at any time, day or night, from anywhere in the world. FREE rolling 7 day cloud storage for 3 years. Sends automatic motion notifications if anyone comes your driveway or entrance to home, watch the clip of who has triggered the notification. Simple to set up, just mount the camera to the wall, turn on and connect to your Wi-Fi router and start protecting your vehicle as well as your home.
Just click on find out more to see the offer and how to get it – Y-CAM offer ends Weds 9th August 2017.
Apply code PP30OFF in promo code box in checkout
Find out more
What techniques do you use to ensure your vehicle remains safe when parked up? Or do you feel that if thieves are determined enough to take your car, they’ll steal it whatever you try and do? Let us know your thoughts below.
I have just checked this mapping system out for my area and it is incorrect. I get a report of all crime in my area every month and those reported as car theft on the COOP site are “car crime vandalism”. This being scratching deliberately and damaged tyres. The information is collected from Police UK and is obviously NOT examined correctly as to car theft.
another test from Robbie
How do you protect your car from people who crane load your car onto their lorry?
And I have lived here for 5 years with no car thefts reported. I am in receipt of weekly crime information through the police NHW. Only tyres damaged and paintwork scratched no stolen or broken into cars in 5 years.This site simply tells lies.
Is there no car crime in Scotland? Or do Co-op not insure in Scotland?
“Don’t reverse into your driveway or garage; instead, drive in nose-first”…. That’s terrible advice!!! Car thieves know how to reverse a car you know!! In addition I’d rather have my car stolen by a thief who can’t drive rather than me running a kid over whilst reversing out of my drive in the morning. While reversing into the drive you get better visibility than reversing out.
How about “put your car away in your garage (if you have one)”? There are loads of cars in my area parked in front of garages overnight, just because the garages are too full of junk to get the cars inside. What is more valuable, loads of junk, or your car?
I agree with several people here,we have a block of garages which are used by myself and just one other neighbour,I would rather take a few more minutes parking in my garage than leave my car out on the street,a mixture of laziness and too much tat makes street parking the easier option.The only way to get around the loading of your car onto a lorry would be putting some sort of tracking system on it. It wouldn’t stop it being nicked but it would,hopefully,get it back in a reasonable time.
In the article you advertise a cctv camera, what is the use when the police are not interested in videos ? A couple of years ago I had a motorbike stolen from the back of my house, the house behind me had cctv which covered the road at the side of our houses, he showed me the video and it was as clear as any tv program but the police took one look at it and declared it not clear enough to be of any use, and that was the end of that.
It is illegal to reverse out of your drive onto the road, and could be dangerous. So unless your drive has a turning space, you should not drive in forwards.
Hi Jonathan. Never mind illegal it is out & out stupidity to reverse out of a driveway onto any public highway – even cul-de-sacs are not safe with some of the ‘Brain Dead’ individuals that seemingly have earned their driving licences and not got the out of a ‘Lucky Bag’. There have been several shunts that I personally have witnessed in restricted areas of closed end roads/cul-de-sacs.
Perhaps the advice give by the ‘Brain Dead’ spokesperson for the Coop Insurance is to encourage more thefts and therefore increase the revenue of the claims department by finding a misdemeanor on the policy and holding back on meeting a claim for a stolen vehicle.
Parking right outside of ones home and in-front of a window is also just as screwy – I sold a premium brand car to a friend some years ago and after collecting it he drove home and parked it up outside of his front door in clear view of a lounge window – within 10 minutes of stopping for a family viewing it had gone – never to be seen ever again.
The site says incidents not cars stolen and it’s not accurate at all
Jonathan and John-quite right! Absolutely barmy to reverse out of the driveway. I live in the penultimate house at the entrance of a cul-de-sac. Drivers turn the corner at break neck speed. I wouldn’t stand a chance if I reversed out.
yes that may well be a good idea to drive nose first into your driveway, but it specificly says in the “HIGHWAY CODE THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER “REVERSE into a main road either from your driveway or from a main road. Why NOT either get some strong gates or install a collapsable bollard in the end of your driveway???.
Much as I would like to reverse into my drive as I live on a narrow, rat run road it is an impossibility 90% of the time because before you can attempt a reverse some clown will be right up your arse blasting their horns and swearing.
It happened to me earlier today and the culprit was a well dressed 60+ female gesturing and bawling because I was delaying her.
Regarding parking in a driveway: besides the point others have made about the risks of reversing into a main road, it also depends on whether you are more afraid of theft of your vehicle or of its contents. Van drivers, for example, may prefer to park with their rear tight against the building, to prevent access to the vehicle contents via it’s rear doors.
Regarding the interactive map: fundamentally flawed & therefore of limited use. Firstly, it only includes crimes which are reported & logged. Some neighbourhoods are less likely to bother reporting crimes than others. Some know that the police will often do little or nothing of value, & so reporting the crime may felt to be a waste of time, or maybe they also don’t want to be seen as a “grass”.
Secondly, the type of crime is not stated. Is it vandalism, contents, or vehicle theft? This matters because, for example, if you are parking a low value vehicle in a high crime area because it has high value vehicles, or vehicles with high value contents, you may have little to fear.
Thirdly, the crime rate may just be determined by vehicle numbers, which are not stated. You may be at lower risk parking a vehicle in an area with 10 reported incidents than an area with just 2 reported incidents, if the “high crime” area regularly has thousands of cars in it, but the area with just 2 incidents only ever has a few cars parked there.
ENOUGH about reversing onto a road….
It is NOT illegal to reverse onto a road… whatever you think
You SHOULDN’T reverse from a minor road onto a major road… its what the highway code has said for 80yrs
IF you reverse from a driveway or minor road onto ANY road and CAUSE AN ACCIDENT (yes I’m shouting) you can be found guilty of “without due care and attention” (likely) “dangerous driving” (possibly) or “reckless driving” (unlikely)
It is NOT an offence on it’s own but might lead to an offence with 3 or 6 points or even lose your licence and retake it (reckless)
But it is much safer to reverse onto a drive and drive off forwards…. provided, of course, your car is secure (and hide your keys, preferably in your bedroom, when going to bed)…. remember most NEW cars are very difficult to steal without the key
ttt
the highway code says you should reverse from a more important road into a lesser important road ie from the road to you driveway and not from your drive into the road drive
I have just checked this mapping system out for my area and it is incorrect. I get a report of all crime in my area every month and those reported as car theft on the COOP site are “car crime vandalism”. This being scratching deliberately and damaged tyres. The information is collected from Police UK and is obviously NOT examined correctly as to car theft.
another test from Robbie
How do you protect your car from people who crane load your car onto their lorry?
And I have lived here for 5 years with no car thefts reported. I am in receipt of weekly crime information through the police NHW. Only tyres damaged and paintwork scratched no stolen or broken into cars in 5 years.This site simply tells lies.
Is there no car crime in Scotland? Or do Co-op not insure in Scotland?
“Don’t reverse into your driveway or garage; instead, drive in nose-first”…. That’s terrible advice!!! Car thieves know how to reverse a car you know!! In addition I’d rather have my car stolen by a thief who can’t drive rather than me running a kid over whilst reversing out of my drive in the morning. While reversing into the drive you get better visibility than reversing out.
How about “put your car away in your garage (if you have one)”? There are loads of cars in my area parked in front of garages overnight, just because the garages are too full of junk to get the cars inside. What is more valuable, loads of junk, or your car?
I agree with several people here,we have a block of garages which are used by myself and just one other neighbour,I would rather take a few more minutes parking in my garage than leave my car out on the street,a mixture of laziness and too much tat makes street parking the easier option.The only way to get around the loading of your car onto a lorry would be putting some sort of tracking system on it. It wouldn’t stop it being nicked but it would,hopefully,get it back in a reasonable time.
In the article you advertise a cctv camera, what is the use when the police are not interested in videos ? A couple of years ago I had a motorbike stolen from the back of my house, the house behind me had cctv which covered the road at the side of our houses, he showed me the video and it was as clear as any tv program but the police took one look at it and declared it not clear enough to be of any use, and that was the end of that.
It is illegal to reverse out of your drive onto the road, and could be dangerous. So unless your drive has a turning space, you should not drive in forwards.
Hi Jonathan. Never mind illegal it is out & out stupidity to reverse out of a driveway onto any public highway – even cul-de-sacs are not safe with some of the ‘Brain Dead’ individuals that seemingly have earned their driving licences and not got the out of a ‘Lucky Bag’. There have been several shunts that I personally have witnessed in restricted areas of closed end roads/cul-de-sacs.
Perhaps the advice give by the ‘Brain Dead’ spokesperson for the Coop Insurance is to encourage more thefts and therefore increase the revenue of the claims department by finding a misdemeanor on the policy and holding back on meeting a claim for a stolen vehicle.
Parking right outside of ones home and in-front of a window is also just as screwy – I sold a premium brand car to a friend some years ago and after collecting it he drove home and parked it up outside of his front door in clear view of a lounge window – within 10 minutes of stopping for a family viewing it had gone – never to be seen ever again.
The site says incidents not cars stolen and it’s not accurate at all
Jonathan and John-quite right! Absolutely barmy to reverse out of the driveway. I live in the penultimate house at the entrance of a cul-de-sac. Drivers turn the corner at break neck speed. I wouldn’t stand a chance if I reversed out.
yes that may well be a good idea to drive nose first into your driveway, but it specificly says in the “HIGHWAY CODE THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER “REVERSE into a main road either from your driveway or from a main road. Why NOT either get some strong gates or install a collapsable bollard in the end of your driveway???.
Much as I would like to reverse into my drive as I live on a narrow, rat run road it is an impossibility 90% of the time because before you can attempt a reverse some clown will be right up your arse blasting their horns and swearing.
It happened to me earlier today and the culprit was a well dressed 60+ female gesturing and bawling because I was delaying her.
Regarding parking in a driveway: besides the point others have made about the risks of reversing into a main road, it also depends on whether you are more afraid of theft of your vehicle or of its contents. Van drivers, for example, may prefer to park with their rear tight against the building, to prevent access to the vehicle contents via it’s rear doors.
Regarding the interactive map: fundamentally flawed & therefore of limited use. Firstly, it only includes crimes which are reported & logged. Some neighbourhoods are less likely to bother reporting crimes than others. Some know that the police will often do little or nothing of value, & so reporting the crime may felt to be a waste of time, or maybe they also don’t want to be seen as a “grass”.
Secondly, the type of crime is not stated. Is it vandalism, contents, or vehicle theft? This matters because, for example, if you are parking a low value vehicle in a high crime area because it has high value vehicles, or vehicles with high value contents, you may have little to fear.
Thirdly, the crime rate may just be determined by vehicle numbers, which are not stated. You may be at lower risk parking a vehicle in an area with 10 reported incidents than an area with just 2 reported incidents, if the “high crime” area regularly has thousands of cars in it, but the area with just 2 incidents only ever has a few cars parked there.
ENOUGH about reversing onto a road….
It is NOT illegal to reverse onto a road… whatever you think
You SHOULDN’T reverse from a minor road onto a major road… its what the highway code has said for 80yrs
IF you reverse from a driveway or minor road onto ANY road and CAUSE AN ACCIDENT (yes I’m shouting) you can be found guilty of “without due care and attention” (likely) “dangerous driving” (possibly) or “reckless driving” (unlikely)
It is NOT an offence on it’s own but might lead to an offence with 3 or 6 points or even lose your licence and retake it (reckless)
But it is much safer to reverse onto a drive and drive off forwards…. provided, of course, your car is secure (and hide your keys, preferably in your bedroom, when going to bed)…. remember most NEW cars are very difficult to steal without the key
ttt
the highway code says you should reverse from a more important road into a lesser important road ie from the road to you driveway and not from your drive into the road drive