How about this...

Set "home" to actually be your local fire station. Wait, what?

Better yet don't leave anything with the address on it

I had the bad luck of having someone break into my brothers car, find the address on a letter, catch a bus to our house, break into the house, steal two sets of keys, take my car back to my brothers car, steal it as well, prang my car into a pole, and light my brothers car on fire.

so the moral of the story is don't leave your address in the car at all.

Here is a new idea

Why don't you set "home" to your least favorite neighbour (which could be the police I suppose)

Re: It does not matter

That was the biggest difference I noticed when moving over to Massachusetts from Blighty - that you have to keep the registration doc in the car which gives over all sorts of details (like owner's address and insurance details). You do still have a separate V5-like document that indicates ownership.

If you don't have the registration doc you don't get 7 days to produce it at the 'local police station' you've programmed in as 'home' (sorry - just had to get that bit in).

because there is no way to appeal...

trevor wrote: "Your best to keep your insurance certificate with you, as if the police get a false positive for no insurance on an ANPR check then you risk your car being towed at your cost. You could be anywhere when it happens and you don't get your money back as the law REQUIRES you to carry your insurance documents."

No it doesnt... and yes you do (documents and money, in that order)

As for the guy that suggested the WIFI kill switch... wouldnt that mean that the car stopped when YOU drive up to the house... or are you planning some thing magical...

How about RFID chips in the arm that dissable the immobiliser... then you have to be in the car.. or minus one arm to start it.

Seriously though, yeah its inconvenient, but at the end of the day, the odds of your car being nicked so your house can be robbed are very slim, add to that the fact that you will be insured and there really isnt that much of a problem.

me again

Plus.. if your insured and the PNC gives a false positive you can just ask them to phone the insurance company to check... then if you (by the worst luck ever) get another false positive from them... its their fault and you can sue them for any money you loose getting your car back.

Dont set home as a police station go for the Guy Richie ending.

Rather than set "Home" as the local police station (because thieves may be dumb at times but they are not that dumb) why not set it to some random address in some local area where all the pikies and scumbags live or better still the address of some local villan or scumbag family.

That way when some smackhead steals it and looks up the home address he either gets a shock when he thinks he has just broken into a car belonging to some scumbag he knows and guesses he is going to get his legs broken or at the very least he is going to get a cool reception off some no neck troglodite when he knocks on the door with a pre prepared story about block paved driveways.

You never know the scumbag might get lucky and find no one home and break into the house and end up as a part of the foundations on a local building development when the house owner finally catches up with him.

Make Darwinism work for you!

How about....

Why not program in "home" as your local police station?

Why not...

..make "Home" a location which you know will involve a journey through toll roads or bridges?

Then they would have to pay for the pleasure for stealing you car!!!

And - yes - this can be done if your sat nav supports itineries!

So, apparently...

It's not absolutely transparent from the quoted but assuredly authoritative recommendation, but it seems vehicle thieves/would-be house-breakers can only locate potential targets by having an actual address to go by, assisted by turn-by-turn instruction? Drive-by opportunities and stake-outs, checking for unkempt lawns and stacked mail or package deliveries, unanswered phone rings, interior lights on during the daytime, lack of posted central alarm station warning signs and stickers: all now passé as clues? Well, that fits the reported drop in academic achievement of late. Yet, there's more to it.

How does an investigation-based break-in work, exactly, when there are more than one gang operating in a district?

Do they first call a central dispatcher to check for conflicting plans, so two gangs don't strike within a few houses of each other?

Does the dispatcher have at the ready instructions for each brand and model of GPS, so they can readily transmit the proper steps to check for the owner's home address? (Or perhaps I missed The Register already published a story about technology courses available at regional burglary academies.)

And what well-trained burglar could fail to exercise due extreme caution, recalling the legendary tale of a GPS that failed to warn the driver that the roadway had been relocated but the map not updated, so she nevertheless continued into the pond or meadow, etc.? (Wouldn't that be major professional embarrassment when the police arrive to assist?)

And what of recursion: presumptive burglar removes GPS device from vehicle already stolen by a different burglar?

Hay Guys!

I've had a great idea - why not program in the address of your local police station as "Home" on your sat-nav?

No need for GPS

Just locate the names of your potential marks in a street (I suspect a bit of surreptitious peeking in the letter box for inward mail might be involved), look them up in the phone book and then get all your mates to ring up over the next few weeks asking for random names (sorry, mate, wrong number *click*) until a few houses all fail to answer at the same time and then race out and do them all over.

Mate of mine fell victim to this, as did three other houses in his street within a one-hour period and they "stole to order" - took his VCR but left his TV as they'd nicked a better one down the road. No one got any of their stuff back - as you'd expect when the stuff is pre-ordered and the fence/receiver is already jacked up.

No GPS, they already had the addresses, found the names and cased the places then bided their time.

Of course, we must now issue an alert to warn people to be waiting at the gate for the postie to deliver the mail into the security of their own hands, have him/her always address you by an alias, never list your phone number and stay at home always so you can answer your phone.

People! Do not leave your mail in your letter box for even two minutes lest some toe-rag identify you. Do not leave your house. Get caller ID and notify the police of the origin of every wrong number you receive...

Or just always carry your car keys on you and remember to lock, alarm and insure your house, contents and cars.

In my pocket I have the spare keys for my wife's motorcycle and the car as well as my own motorbike keys and the house and security bolt keys. My wife has the other keys on her at all times as well.

Of course, they could always break a window and get into the house but they'd also have to break into and hotwire the car and the insurance company says "Oh, you didn't leave your keys lying around on the bench and the house had a monitored alarm" so they'll only have a half-hearted attempt at trying to back out of paying up for the stolen/damaged contents/car...

Darwinism @ work...

Sat-Nav = lower IQ

Maps = higher IQ

Darwin was right.

PS: Has anyone mentioned prgramming "home" as your local Po......

Don't put your local rozzer shop into the sat nav

In this age you will end up banged up yourself.

The cops would give you a hard time for wasting their donut time.

The theives would have you in court for some infringement of one of their european rights.

You put in the local gangsters home address into your sat nav and let the scallies nick his Range Rover... Would not be long until they are hospitalised and justice is served.

I have an idea

Hey what about programing home as your local police station??!! i cant believe no one has come up with that idea yet

@anonomous re ANPR

Your wrong I'm afraid, what you describe is best practice, but not all insurance company offices are open for phone calls 24/7 and if your not on the MIB database then the MIB Police Helpline won't help your case either. The helpline was set up to stop people presenting a revoked certificate and saying it is valid, indeed around 41% of calls to the Helpline result in a vehicle being seized for this reason. It was NOT set up to enable anyone to access your details to help you out.

Also I can find no examples in the records available to me of anyone ever getting their money back after a tow. Indeed here are the ACPO guidelines:

Payments

The statutory recovery fee for all vehicles is currently £105. This must be paid before the vehicle is released. Storage is charged at £12 per day after the first 24 hours. The 24 hours is taken from the time the vehicle is seized.

The only instances when payment will not be required from the owner/driver by the recovery operator are where the owner can prove that:-

(i) they were not driving the vehicle at the time of the incident

and

(ii) they did not know that the vehicle was being driven at the time

and

(iii) they had not consented to it being driven

and

(iv) could not, by taking reasonable steps, have prevented it from being driven then the procedure as outlined above is then followed.

So unless the car is nicked you don't get anything back.

An officer only needs reasonable grounds to believe the section Section 165 seizure is correct and then in law it is justified. There are NO provisions in Section 165 for repayment of fees for any reason. And sue your insurance company? For what? Where in your contract with them do they become compelled to put your details on the MIB Database, that is done for their benefit, not yours.