Theft of dashcam

[Abby606]

Has anyone ever had someone break into their car purely to steal their dashcam?

Might be difficult to determine the reason if you had other valuables in your car but I wonder if having a dashcam would be tempting to thieves?

I don't keep any valuables in my car but my front dashcam is visible if you are paying attention.

 

[Rajagra]

Good cameras are discrete. Rubbish ones aren't worth stealing. I have one of each and never take them out, it isn't something I worry about, and no problems so far. (Famous last words?)
I don't think there's a market for stolen dash cams, but I'm aware that thieves take things just because they can. Even so, I don't think a dash cam would be the actual cause of a break-in.

 

[DT MI]

Has anyone ever had someone break into their car purely to steal their dashcam?...

I don't think dash cam theft is going to become rampant in the foreseeable future. There's some discussion in the three postings starting here:
How did you make your dashcam really discreet?

 

[jokiin]

I've had two customers in the last 5 years that have reported their cameras being stolen, hard to say for sure but I suspect in each case it was just opportunist theft along with other stuff rather than the reason for the break in to begin with

 

[dash riposki]

I"ve had a couple I wish were stolen.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

I"ve had a couple I wish were stolen.

 

[SawMaster]

Few people around here know what a dashcam looks like, and even fewer have them, so there is no market for stolen ones. Wouldn't even get you $5 here unless you added a free installation and showed them how to use it GPS units OTOH are very hot items here and even burned-out druggies know which ones are worth stealing

Most dashcams have a menu choice where you can enter your license plate number. Most stolen goods buyers won't notice that or know how to delete it, but it can help you identify your cam if it's stolen and you find it so use that feature

Phil

 

[tabetha]

With the better ones having a code number needed for usage like the F770 this is a good deterrent, one of the reasons I wanted one without a screen, it doesn't look appealing imo, I don't think there is a particular market for stolen cams in uk, I used to hide my cam every night in glovebox, but the cheapest nextbase(not that I would recommend them)is around £40, so a fenced one will only get a druggie £3 or so, just not worth their risk and better still THEY realise this.
I see cars parked on my estate with sat navs on display all night every night and remain amazed they are still there as mentioned much more likely they break in after seeing other things, near to where I live is a massive USAF/E base the GI's ALWAYS leave laptops, games consoles, cameras, phones, handbags, wallets etc on show a lot don't lock their cars, my dads neighbour candy did the same leaving her geo prizm unlocked with her handbag next to the handbrake/e brake for hours in high street whilst shopping, a local area is known as the USA candy store, but it's not a shop!!, it's a car park in the woods where nature trails are not a week goes by without several hundreds worth of goods being stolen mostly from unlocked cars and on view, I'm not GI bashing but they do seem to have a misguided sense of safeness to do these things I have a lot of GI mates and some of them do it even after years here.
I always work on the premiss make your car LESS appealing than others close by and they will move on, though nothing is 100% certain these days.

 

[Bungus]

Very much depends on where you park and the locale.

 

[DT MI]

...I always work on the premiss make your car LESS appealing than others close by and they will move on, though nothing is 100% certain these days.

Pretty much the same thing a speaker at a home & business security conference that I attended some time ago said, "You don't have to make your home look like it's difficult to break into, just make it look more difficult than your neighbor's home." Same speaker said you don't have to have a big dog for security, just a big dog house in plain view.

 

[Dashmellow]

Pretty much the same thing a speaker at a home & business security conference that I attended some time ago said, "You don't have to make your home look like it's difficult to break into, just make it look more difficult than your neighbor's home." Same speaker said you don't have to have a big dog for security, just a big dog house in plain view.

I kind of like the concept of these barking dog alarms. I guess you could put one in the trunk if a car.

 

[krelvin]

Hmmm. I don't keep my GPS and now my Dash Cam mounted in my truck when I am not actually driving it for a couple reasons. #1 it get really hot here (AZ - should be 105F today) and #2 Theft. It is parked at the house in the driveway not in a garage.

Since I only use the truck a couple times a week, keeping them mounted on the dash in plain view doesn't make a lot of sense (actually on the top of the dash).

So... my wife borrowed the truck a while back (I had gas in the truck and she didn't in her car) and she parked back at the house and forgot to lock the doors. Next morning, found my GPS which was old but used every time I drove and a rechargeable hi-power flashlight just gone. Seems someone walking the neighborhood, tried the door handle and hit the jackpot. Nothing broken, nothing else taken just those two.

 

[tabetha]

I like the bit she used your truck/gas instead of hers ha ha

 

[c4rc4m]

I personally think it's the theft of the future.

Current levels of theft seem low. However, I reckon it's just because thieves haven't cottoned onto to it yet. When you think about it dashcams can be high value and are in high demand. Surely it's a problem just waiting to explode. Either that, or they're cleverer than we know and are afraid the GPS systems might be used to track the stolen cams.

 

[kamkar]

I just heard from a fellow Danish dashcammer, he woke up to a broken side window today and his vico camera gone.
First time i heard of this here in my country.

 

[DashOto]

I think people might be underestimating the market for dash cams, they're only going to get more popular.
Some are cheap and some are expensive, most thieves might not know the difference but since it's a general electronic product that they can sell and it can't really be locked (Someone mentioned a password protected one, didn't know they had any, but I'm sure it'd be easy enough to wipe the card and start fresh), the best that could be done is making note of the serial numbers.

I'd argue it's more either the newer car having built-in security features or the fact that it's hardwired in, that deters most thieves.

 

[kamkar]

I remembered wrong this guy had one of those ungodly large lukas dual channel cameras, so easy to spot too.
And he live in the western part of our capitol, and even the people living there admit its the wild west there.

I have told him to take a walk around and look at windscreens soon as this are most likely a local job, i know if you came with a dashcam and wanted to sell it, you would get a couple of grams of hash for it which for the buyer are something like 70 DKkr / 11 USD no matter what dashcam you are selling.
Not worth it in my book, even if i rewind my mentality to back when i was a thieving parasite myself.

 

[c4rc4m]

I just heard from a fellow Danish dashcammer, he woke up to a broken side window today and his vico camera gone.
First time i heard of this here in my country.

That's really unfortunate, but I always predicted this might happen. You only have to look at the trade in car stereos a few years ago before manufacturer started tying them into the vehicle electronically.

I think the unfortunate reality is anything of high value and high desirability, will have a resale value in pubs and on the streets in less salubrious areas of our cities and it's only a matter of time before thieves realise the value and demand for dashcams. At some point, I imagine the manufacturers might have to respond with some kind of anti-theft system, although after 1 theft, there's still a ling time to go yet before incorporating this becomes economically viable.

As for anti theft systems, I'd imagine some kind of proximity key device such as for car ignitions might work provided the hardware could be locked out to prevent skilled thieves from altering it or flashing it to accept a new key.

 

[jokiin]

the brick on a stick type cameras such is Vico, Lukas etc are a whole lot more obvious in the window and would have to be more of a target as a result

 

[Dashmellow]

the brick on a stick type cameras such is Vico, Lukas etc are a whole lot more obvious in the window and would have to be more of a target as a result

And wedge style dash cams are a lot more difficult to remove! Assuming that petty criminals know to remove the base plate from the windscreen in order to have a complete workable camera, they'll have to start carrying dental floss in their burglar's tool bag!