Is Your Car Safe at Airport Parking?

Sadly, a trend in car theft at the moment that the Global Telemetrics team have noticed is vehicles being stolen from airport parking. Multiple incidents have been reported to us recently from airports in London, Birmingham and East Midlands.

One of these instances has been well documented across social media recently, as it was the car of the cousin of YouTube star Yianni Charalambous. He took to social media late one evening to state that the G-Wagon pictured above had been stolen from airport parking and had been spotted driving at speed around the area. Thankfully, for Yianni and his relative, this G-Wagon was equipped with a SmarTrack S5 tracking device, enabling him to spot an ignition notification on the GTE Track app.

All SmarTrack tracking devices are monitored by the Global Telemetrics Secure Control Centre 24/7 365 days a year and have exclusive support from our dedicated Auto Crime Investigation Repatriations Team, who will respond to every instance of theft on a monitored device.

Our team immediately deployed the Repatriations Team to the location as they started to liaise with the police. One of Yianni’s followers had seen the car speeding past their location and had already reported back that thieves had changed the plates of the vehicle in an attempt to disguise the car.

Thanks to the location given by the tracker and the close monitoring and subsequent tailing by the Repatriations Team, the police were able to track down the vehicle and begin pursuit. Police set up a tyre stinger and brought the vehicle to a halt, securing not only the car but also making arrests. 

A short while after the theft, Yianni posted a video collecting the vehicle from the police, where he was shown a jamming device used by the thieves, in an attempt to block the signal of any tracking devices in the car. Due to years of experience, alongside cutting-edge technologies, Global Telemetrics were able to bypass the jamming signals and still locate the vehicle, leading to the successful operation to stop, secure, and recover. 

Is it better to know whilst you are on holiday that your car has been stolen or when you arrive back? In the case of the G-Wagon, the theft was dealt with whilst out of the country, but for other victims, this isn’t always the case. 

Another customer recently returned from holiday to Birmingham airport to find their car missing from the car park. During the two-week holiday, the car (equipped with a SmarTrack S7 device) had been stolen. Our customer spoke to the police and obtained a crime reference number, which they then passed on to the Secure Control Centre. Early indications were that a jamming device was being used to try and block the signal of the vehicle. 

Our team deployed their techniques to bypass the jamming attempt and picked up a location at an address in Coventry. Our Repatriations Team headed to the address with the police and located the Nissan, and in less than an hour from reporting his car missing, the car had been recovered!

Holidays can often be a significant expense for families, and the last thing they need is the expense and stress of a stolen car upon return. When you consider the knock-on effects of losing a car, such as not being able to get to work or not being able to get kids to school or childcare, a stolen car becomes a major situation in a person’s life.

Thankfully, the owners of the cars in the stories above protected their vehicles with tracking devices and were able to get them back, however others without trackers would not have been as fortunate.