Leon broken into without any damage... Huh?

[PaulT00]

Hi guys.

This morning I was awoken by my partner shouting 'ALL THE CAR DOORS ARE OPEN!!!'.

The car in question is a 54-reg Leon Cupra, which was parked on our drive yesterday afternoon, and left locked - my partner is, ahem, a little OCD about locks, and always checks the doors after locking with the remote key. It seems to have been unlocked, and the alarm deactivated, without doing any external damage. Fortunately there was nothing of value in it, but a handful of empty keyrings and a half-empty bottle of air freshener were taken. More worrying is that the drivers seat had been adjusted and the handbrake released, implying that someone was trying to nick it.

I have a vague recollection that several years ago I read on seatcupra.net (probably via a link from scoobynet as I also have a scoob) about someone whose Leon Cupra R had been broken into in a similar manner, and the replies indicated that there is some sort of issue with the security on these cars which SEAT were basically in denial about. I've had a search but can't find the original post, and the only thing I can find is one about electric windows winding down which refers to the 'typical VAG security issue'.

Can anyone point me at the relevant thread? I thought the problem had been sorted but after this morning I'm just trying to prove my partner and I aren't going mad! Also, if this is a known issue, is there any way to stop it? Are dealers knowledgeable and/or helpful about it? I spoke to Holders in Congresbury this morning and they didn't seem to have a clue, so I'm trying to get some ammunition for when I go down there on Monday.

 

[mr_cool]

Is it possible at all that the car was accidentaly left unlocked?

 

[Empi5]

search for delock

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=160688&highlight=delock

 

[m0rk]

I've not seen this one before..

the only way this could happen is if someone has cloned your key, or RCL keyfob.

has it been at the stealer recently? Or have you only recently bought the car?

 

[PaulT00]

pretty certain it was left locked!

Is it possible at all that the car was accidentaly left unlocked?

It's pretty unlikely. As I said in the original posting, my partner is a bit OCD about locks. When we leave the building the back door lock is usually checked about 4 times, for example. He ALWAYS checks the door after locking the car and is adamant it was locked yesterday. Also, it would be plain bad luck (not to say an unusually unlikely coincidence) if someone decided to try to nick the thing the one day we accidentally left it unlocked!

Not 100% ruling it out, but odds are it was locked.

 

[PaulT00]

I've not seen this one before..

the only way this could happen is if someone has cloned your key, or RCL keyfob.

has it been at the stealer recently? Or have you only recently bought the car?

Was at the dealer (Holders in Congresbury) in late August for MOT/service. We've had it from new.

I was wondering if one of us had 'sat on the keyfob' because the drive is right outside the lounge window - but it's never happened before, so I'm at a loss. And like I said in an earlier reply, it would be pretty damn unlikely that someone decides to try and nick the thing the one night it's inadvertently unlocked!

 

[m0rk]

far better for the paranoia that you sat on the keyfob & that it was a fluke occurance that someone tried the doors.

 

[Colin C]

I was wondering if one of us had 'sat on the keyfob' because the drive is right outside the lounge window

If the car is unlocked by the remote it will re-lock itself if a door or tailgate is not opened within a certain period, less than a minute so highly unlikely this was the cause !!

There are ways of unlocking the car without causing damage ( if the car is involved in a front end accident the doors automatically unlock ) but it is a ball ache to go to the effort to actually do it, if someone went to this effort they would not of left your car behind.

 

[PaulT00]

I'd forgotten about the automatic relocking.

Hm.

Wonder if they got disturbed?
Wonder if they'll be back tonight?

Paranoia well and truly engaged, here.

Sigh.

Unfortunately, these days, short of wiring the bodywork into the mains there really isn't any way of stopping these *$&&%**$£ if they really want to take something.

If it does turn out to be a known issue with security on mark 1 Leons, I think the dealer might get shouted at.

 

[ManOnTheMoor]

buy yourself a steering wheel disklok. I put my steering wheel disklok on (most of the time) and lock the steering. Got the silver version so not bright yellow and in your face - passed the thatchem test for tamper time so scumbag will either leave the car alone or be very determined and have to be tooled up.....

 

[kez]

get it remapped with a lockout feature

good luck to anyone trying to drive off with mine, even if they have the keys

 

[SHADY-NINJA]

keep your keys in a safe and secure place.
if possible create a large partion of the harddrive
of your computer, attach a good webcam to record the
car.
also watch out for stangers knocking on your door.
a baseball/criket bat or maybe a dyson might be handy.

 

[m0rk]

lazy option... remove the lead to the starter motor. quick & easy to 'fix' if you know it's done.

 

[kevlpool24]

i heard something about a fuse people relocate because can pop locking by pulling it
something like that anyway

 

[SHADY-NINJA]

any car could easily be nicked these day and age.
since every thing is run off software.
maybe someone with inside information details at seat
or within the VAG group has gone through the pain of
getting a dublicate key.
your details and mine at the dealers and DLVA are
widely available to the hihest bidder.
just be vigilant.

 

[CUPRACAR]

keep your keys in a safe and secure place.
if possible create a large partion of the harddrive
of your computer, attach a good webcam to record the
car.
also watch out for stangers knocking on your door.
a baseball/criket bat or maybe a dyson might be handy.

Handy weapons them dysons

 

[kez]

i heard something about a fuse people relocate because can pop locking by pulling it
something like that anyway

people relocate the fuse when de-locking the doors. otherwise, if it goes there's no way to get to the fusebox, as you need to open the driver's door to get to it

 

[rsmith]

i seen this happen my makes Subaru (OutBack AWD) the last time i was in Chicago, we parked in a new car park just a few blocked from the projects, his car was broken into, it was definitely locked as i seen him lock it myself, went back out to it an hour later and it was thrashed and a camera was taken, the weird thing is the thief locked it again after he(or she) was finished.

He told me that guys just walk around car parks with kinda universal transponders, (or some sort of radio transponder) clicking them every few seconds to see if they get a hit.
Personally i never heard of this before and cannot understand how that would work,(might Google this actually) but his car was defo broken into with out any damage and was locked again afterwords.

I know this doesn't help you, but i thought i would share my experience with you.

 

[ChrisUK]

The windows were not open as well were they ?

 

[andycupra]

i heard something about a fuse people relocate because can pop locking by pulling it
something like that anyway

i believe that where people have delocked the car. If the central locking blew a fuse and was deadlocked, you cannot get to the fuse box as you need to open the door.

So they relocated the fuse.

not a security issue.