Hi all,

I came out of the house this morning to find the drivers door of my MK1 ajar, and obviously someone had been inside it and emptied out the glove compartment, door pockets, etc. Sun visors were down. 

In some respects I found this quite funny as there is literally nothing of any value in my car, and currently it's full of junk that I needed to clear out anyway. They must have been very disappointed. I'm almost surprised they didn't leave me a tenner out of sympathy. 

Luckily, nothing was taken and I can't see any sign of damage whatsoever. I can only assume they have some sort of master key?

That's what I'm curious about - does anyone have any ideas how they got in? 

My main concern is joy riding, so I went out and bought a steering wheel lock this morning. 

Glad you got away without loss or damage. 

I guess a skeleton key of some sort is a possibility, unless you had inadvertently left it unlocked of course?

I'm wondering if the original lock is worn after 23 years? I had a very similar experience many years ago (Cortina Mk 1 so you can guess how many) when the car was stolen and recovered without damage or loss (except, oddly, my swimming trunks and towel - I'd been to the pool earlier). 

Transpired that the lock was so worn my mate's Mk 2 key would open it easily - and vice versa with his, we found!

The Tibbe keys never were very secure, that's why they were changed in the mid 2000s for the flat keys instead.  It's very easy to open a Tibbe key barrel with basic tools.

Joy riding is unlikely though, as they won't be able to to bypass the immobiliser without some more advanced tech.  Thieves with that sort of tech won't be targeting cheap old cars.

Thanks guys, that basically confirms what I thought. I guess if they were gonna steal it, they would have done so then, so they were just looking for valuables (or keys for the front door).

In a way, I'm glad the lock was so easy to open - at least I don't have a broken window or damaged door!

I suppose it's not impossible that I didn't lock it properly, but I'm usually very careful about that, and what's the chances of them trying it on the one day I didn't lock it? The central locking does play up, so I always deadlock it. I've never understood why the deadlock always works on all 4 doors if the normal central locking doesn't, but it does! 

Low end chancers looking for easy pickings. 

3 hours ago, DrPepper said:

My main concern is joy riding, so I went out and bought a steering wheel lock this morning. 

I hope it was a proper full steering wheel lock, and not one of those 'stick' ones. To lose the stick, all you need is a cordless angle grinder, and cut a 2" bit out of the steering wheel and slip it off. Most who buy such think like a law abiding citizen who wouldn't dream of damaging their car - scumbags think on a different level...