Hi everyone,

just thought I'd let you all know about a very frustrating "incident" of theft/vandalism on my 07 Overfinch TDV8. We'd only had the car for a few weeks and were excited about our new purchase.

We parked it in a quiet residential street (little footfall) near Marylebone Station in central london one evening, and when I came back in the morning, some kind soul had been along and ripped the overfinch roofline spoiler clean off.. brakelight wiring and all. They'd also gouged the oval badge off the tailgate, dinking and scratching the paintwork in the process.

We've been quote nearly £700 for an unpainted replacement... ahhh!

PC Plod were useless - reported it as vandalism, not theft, despite the spoiler being nowhere to be seen.

Anyone else heard of this happening? Do you guys think it was "stolen to order"?

I'm loth to replace it as I get the feeling it'll just get ripped off again... any clever ideas for stopping this happening?

Cheers,

Will

Sorry to hear, I think the replacement price gives you an idea why yours was ripped off

and having now been in contact with Overfinch directly, they've said it's not unheard of - particularly in central london.

any one got any smart ideas of how to prevent? in-car CCTV? steel tether wire? smartwater tagging? electrification...

will_battrick wrote:

PC Plod were useless - reported it as vandalism, not theft, despite the spoiler being nowhere to be seen.


Ah, just like in my day! We attended a car fire and were writing it up as arson, and the duty inspector arrived and pleaded for us to declare it criminal damage. Gotta keep an eye on those crime stats! 2003 4.4 HSE Epsom Green / Sand. Lovely!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/guard...24714.html

Sorry to hear this. It's why I hate the UK Doesn't matter where you live some bast...rd will just take what they want.

Sad answer is there's nothing you can do other than garage the car at night. In car cctv might be a good idea, but not sure how you'd power it to stay on all night, plus you'll need about 4 camera's to watch back, front & both sides

Might be worth setting up an alert on ebay for anything matching the description in case they try to sell on there.
Sadly it could even be someone with a rangey decided to take it for themselves.

I think it does matter where you live...

But there are Tesco & Asda carparks everywhere these days !
I try to avoid parking there if I can

You can live in the most remote parts, yet look at the huge problems farmers are facing with stolen machinery. Thieves will go out of there way to find expensive stuff to nick no matter where you are

There is a grey Overfinch spoiler currently on eBay. It has probably found it's way on to a chromed up gypsy wagon now though.

will_battrick wrote:

Hi everyone,

just thought I'd let you all know about a very frustrating "incident" of theft/vandalism on my 07 Overfinch TDV8. We'd only had the car for a few weeks and were excited about our new purchase.

We parked it in a quiet residential street (little footfall) near Marylebone Station in central london one evening, and when I came back in the morning, some kind soul had been along and ripped the overfinch roofline spoiler clean off.. brakelight wiring and all. They'd also gouged the oval badge off the tailgate, dinking and scratching the paintwork in the process.

We've been quote nearly £700 for an unpainted replacement... ahhh!

PC Plod were useless - reported it as vandalism, not theft, despite the spoiler being nowhere to be seen.

Anyone else heard of this happening? Do you guys think it was "stolen to order"?

I'm loth to replace it as I get the feeling it'll just get ripped off again... any clever ideas for stopping this happening?

Cheers,

Will

Speaking to a coleague who was telling me about 5 being stolen from London the week before last! He knows because he had to go to look at 2 or 3 for the same family!!!

I have permanently bonded mine on so it didn't rattle as they do when you close the boot... Like to see them rip mine off!!!


Craig

How do they do it without setting of the alarm ?? MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

They can't record it as vandalism. Someone is cooking the books there. It's theft from motor vehicle all day long. Go back and tell them to crime it properly. 2010 MY Vogue SE TDV8 3.6 Stornoway Grey- fully loaded