Don’t be careless if you don’t want your vehicle stolen

Always make sure your vehicle is locked and don’t leave it unattended to avoid becoming a victim of vehicle theft, says Bukit Aman.

Federal CID director Comm Datuk Huzir Mohamed said not being careless was the most important thing in keeping one’s vehicle safe.

“Last year, 35,953 vehicle theft cases were reported involving 26,779 motorcycles, 7,413 cars, and 1,761 heavy vehicles.

“This year, a total of 16,186 cases have been reported (stolen) as of July 11 involving 11,872 motorcycles, 3,954 cars and 818 heavy vehicles,” he said.

Comm Huzir said looking at the statistics, a decrease in cases was not possible without the support of all parties.

“Public awareness on vehicle security is key to combating theft cases.

“At the police level, our personnel are constantly attending courses to learn the latest modus operandi of car thieves out there,” he said, adding that the nature of car theft cases had evolved a lot in the last decade.

Comm Huzir said previously, criminals used to gain access manually and drive off with the vehicles. Now there was so much technology that they could gain access to vehicles using gadgets.

“We are constantly monitoring online sale of gadgets and also accessory shops that know how to open and start vehicles without keys,” he said after launching the vehicle theft prevention campaign at a shopping mall in Brickfields on Tuesday (July 16).

He said there were benefits in government agencies cooperating with non-government organisations such as the Vehicle Theft Recovery Council (Vtrec).

“In 2007, we started this collaboration effort and it resulted in savings on premium insurance claims of RM200mil.

“It was a win-win situation for the insurance companies because car theft cases went down,” he said.

Vtrec senior advisor Mohd Yusof Idris said reducing the number of vehicle theft cases would result in lower insurance premiums with the liberisation of motor insurance here as premiums follow the risk-and-loss ratio.

“This effort does not just benefit insurance companies,” he said.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/07/16/cid-director-dont-be-careless-if-you-dont-want-your-vehicle-stolen/