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A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

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Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#71

Post by chrisper »

driverdan wrote: post #66
jiveturkey wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not entirely. Please give me the instructions on how to opt out. Whenever someone asks (which is rare), the forums are filled with replies like "why would you not want BMW to monitor you? are you a fraudster?" IOW the forums do not know how to opt out either. Everytime I take my 2016 in to service, I ask both sales and service to disable teleservices. They say they cannot. I then call BMW teleservices (every time…

Can you pull the SIM card?

No, because this is an embedded system and fiddling around with that is maybe going to void your warranty?

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#72

Post by tempestn »

gok wrote: post #65

How is cutting the line to a car's panic button unlike cutting a car's brake line? (that is, attempted murder)

Even cutting brake lines wouldn't automatically be attempted murder; it would depend on circumstances. Equating that to cutting off the panic button is quite a stretch though. I've never owned a car with a panic button, nor known anyone whose life one has saved (unlike brakes).

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#73

Post by zdragnar »

avar wrote: post #27

Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…

The key point isn't the BMW, it's the unspecified distress. Lives could literally be on the line, and a fast response might make a difference.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#74

Post by tempestn »

modells wrote: post #19
barbegal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly, this was a very unsophisticated attack, they cut through the entire loom as opposed to through individual wires so it was quickly noticeable what had occurred.

Did you even read the article? They knew enough to disable SOS and interior car alarm sensors in a seemingly subtle way most people would dismiss. Maybe they should’ve taken their time and waited around for police? What’s unsophisticated is stealing a radio or nav by slashing the back of the wiring loom, and then the owner having to replace the entire loom at the cost of many thousands of dollars. It sucks but that’s…

Why should they show respect to these car thieves? They made a valid point; it's easy to imagine an attack like this being done better.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#75

Post by [deleted] »

rconti wrote: post #28
jimmy1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't understand this. After you went through all the work of disabling the SOS, you can just take the car then, unless breaking the window was the way they initially got inside, and maybe they were thinking that the person would blindly repair the broken window to increase the value of the car on the black market? I don't know.

Because the police arrived 5 minutes after they disabled the SOS button. The next night, there would be no SOS notification when they broke the window again. Or maybe they'd only have to tear away a plastic bag, if the owner hadn't gotten the window replaced. Or maybe they were hoping to find a valet key in the car, making their job even easier, either that night, or the next night.

[deleted]

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#76

Post by londons_explore »

It's clear what has happened here...

Cutting that wire loom disables the cars 'call home' functionality (probably by cutting it's antenna), as well as conveniently disabling the alarm.

The thieves who cut it this time were too slow though. Presumably, the 3G connection takes ~30 secs to boot up, find a cell tower, and connect to BMW servers. The thieves hoped to break the window and cut the loom immediately, before the connection to the server was made.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#77

Post by nsnick »

rconti wrote: post #62
avar wrote: post #27

Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…

As an American, I'm glad I'm not the only one :) That said, I thought that car theft was all but gone in the US, at least for modern cars, whereas in Europe it still seems common. (Eg, if you follow international forums for newer car models, nobody in the US talks about theft anymore, but our European counterparts talk about these highly complex theft schemes). But then someone was posting about theft in Sacramento,…

I think it is easier to sell vehicles stolen in Europe. All a thief needs to do is drive the vehicle to Eastern Europe and there will be a buyer. Selling a stolen vehicle in the US is a lot more difficult.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#78

Post by blensor »

akira2501 wrote: post #69
blensor wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually not hard to explain to your insurance or the police at all. This happened to me 5 weeks ago. The car was parked directly in front of my entrance door and the key was basically on the other side of that door. The scene of my car not being where it was supposed to be was so surreal that I did not even realize it was missing the first time when I walked out the trash. I basically walked around an invisib…

> I was a bit worried that the box does not shield the signal enough. They make "Faraday Bags" exactly for this purpose.

I needed a quick fix that everyone in our house would be adopting quite quickly, and it should also fit into the style my wife used to decorate the entrance area. So the bowl where our keys were usually collected was replaced by a metal box with a lid.

However, in the long run I won't bet on workarounds to prevent the signal to be repeated, I will rather use one of those steering wheel locks that's brightly visible from the outside. That does not prevent someone from breaking into the car, but it will prevent them from easily driving away with it.

A security camera has also been placed there, so I hope overall it is enough of a deterrence

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#79

Post by eecc »

hellofunk wrote: post #53
avar wrote: post #27

Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…

> Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Amsterdam currently has a big police shortage, that's why. It's not normal, it's just a problem in Amsterdam. https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/07/amsterdam-is-not-lawle...

What? I though they were bored stiff. Every time anything happens - even the most insignificant accident - you’ll see a flock of police offices taping out the scene, parading numerous vehicles and generally making much ado about nothing :)

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#80

Post by avar »

rconti wrote: post #62
avar wrote: post #27

Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…

As an American, I'm glad I'm not the only one :) That said, I thought that car theft was all but gone in the US, at least for modern cars, whereas in Europe it still seems common. (Eg, if you follow international forums for newer car models, nobody in the US talks about theft anymore, but our European counterparts talk about these highly complex theft schemes). But then someone was posting about theft in Sacramento,…

There's a huge difference between the US and EU in this regard. If I steal a car in California and try to sell it in Nevada, I can expect to be arrested.

If I have a car stolen in The Netherlands and it's being sold in Romania, and I find out who's selling it and where, I'll be told that I have to travel to Romania and file report with the local police there before they'll do anything.

The only inter-state enforcement we have in the EU is Interpol, which doesn't care about anything like that, they only handle the likes of violent crime.

So it's kind of like expecting to recover your stolen car from Mexico or Belize, except crossing the border is a lot easier.

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