Postcode on roof

Gadget

Gadget

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Just been round to see my sons new (to him) Benimar, t find him putting large letters on the roof with the postcode.
‘Don’t be daft’ I said, ‘Any thieves looking over from a motorway bridge will see that & be round to your place knowing you’re out’
‘Let them’ he replied, ‘it’s the postcode of my local police station!’
‘I’ve also programmed that postcode as ‘Home’ in the sat nav.’
Good lad!!
 
Does he have a Growler alarm, immobiliser or tracker fitted ?
 
Tracker fitted, plus an alarm with a very loud output both inside and out of the van. They is no way I could drive the van with that sounding in my ear!
 
pappajohn said:
Don't know how many times I've seen burglars lining up on motorway service station link bridges and flyovers noting postcodes.
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Yep, I've seen loads of them, you can't miss them, black & red stripey jumper with a bag marked 'swag' 🙂

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Gadget said:
Just been round to see my sons new (to him) Benimar, t find him putting large letters on the roof with the postcode.
‘Don’t be daft’ I said, ‘Any thieves looking over from a motorway bridge will see that & be round to your place knowing you’re out’
‘Let them’ he replied, ‘it’s the postcode of my local police station!’
‘I’ve also programmed that postcode as ‘Home’ in the sat nav.’
Good lad!!
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Was he being serious with his response to you? If so, I’m struggling with the sense of his strategy. 🤔

Ian
 
Same reason police vehicles have identifying marks on the roof. :giggle:
 
Does not have to be post code. Any couple of letters would help. Van gets nicked - police informed - and helicopter can pick out the vehicle from the sky. Which would be easier to spot on a Saturday in August on the M5 near Exeter. A thousand white roofs of motorhomes or a thousand white roofs and one having letters on the roof.

Police vehicles having various letters on their roofs are exactly for that reason at incidents. The vehicle driver would know the roof letters (they are printed on the dashboard) At any incident the helicopter can radio an individual vehicle by letter giving them instructions. Its a lot quicker then saying you the white car with blue lights on turn left. Then twenty vehicles turn left.
 
Some commercial companies have a sign that says if this vehicle is being driven outside certain hours it maybe stolen on the back door.
Good idea having some kind of identifying words or message on the roof.
This way up would be a good one.

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Yorick said:
It would be insane to use a police helicopter to look for a stolen vehicle. Far better uses for them.
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They would be notified that such identification mark was able to be seen from the air. As it stands at the moment very few MH have such identity marks. So if there was a recent stolen notification and the vehicle did have such id marks this is circulated to the helicopter for general information, well it was in the Metropolitan police. Helicopters are on general patrol for allocation to specific incidents where their air cover would be useful, ie burglers disturbed or a chase of a stolen vehicle. So all resources are used if necessary. Yes I doubt very much a helicopter would be launched just to look for a stolen van but you would be surprised what they see in every day life from up there and call in ground units.
 
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PJGWiltshire said:
Does not have to be post code. Any couple of letters would help. Van gets nicked - police informed - and helicopter can pick out the vehicle from the sky. Which would be easier to spot on a Saturday in August on the M5 near Exeter. A thousand white roofs of motorhomes or a thousand white roofs and one having letters on the roof.

Police vehicles having various letters on their roofs are exactly for that reason at incidents. The vehicle driver would know the roof letters (they are printed on the dashboard) At any incident the helicopter can radio an individual vehicle by letter giving them instructions. Its a lot quicker then saying you the white car with blue lights on turn left. Then twenty vehicles turn left.
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I can't imagine that the police would use helicopters to check for a stolen motorhome

I also wonder just how many motorhomes are stolen, judging by the many posts/threads on here about security it would be easy to assume it's a major problem, but I have never found any statistics

Looking at various insurance threads, cover for motohomes costing many thousands of pounds is a few hundred pounds, so the risks would not appear to be that great - anyone got any usable information?

I know for many of you on here that your motorhome is your pride & joy and that motorhoming is the main thing in your life, nothing wrong with that. But I wonder is social media (that includes this site) making some of us paranoid?
 
I
Yorick said:
It would be insane to use a police helicopter to look for a stolen vehicle. Far better uses for them.
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I recall a post by someone claiming to be policeman, he stated that roadside cameras cannot see the roof of a motorhome as they are aimed at the registration plate area. Furthermore police helicopters are sent out for specific crimes, vehicle theft was not one.
 
I doubt very much a helicopter would be scrambled to search for a stolen vehicle in rural Britain unless the vehicle contained a very impotant member of Parliament or a royal.
Nearest we've ever been to a police helicopter here in Scarborough is a big yellow one with COAST GUARD down the side.... And I don't think they'd bother.

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We have a police helicopter overhead at least 1 a month sometimes 3 times a week. On route to somewhere a couple of mile away.
Not all "travellers" travel .
 
We all know 4g tracker signals can be blocked making a tracker useless, and we all know a faraday shield can block EMI, WiFi, Cell Phone and Bluetooth.

In addition we pretty much ALL have a solar panel on the roof.

Add your registration to the roof

Then lay a faraday fabric on the roof, and put a water proof mobile 4G tracker on top, splice it into a power source to charge its internal battery and geo fence the tracker.

unless said bloke in stripy red and black tee shirt climbs on roof and rips it off if it leaves your drive your phone will get an alert, then after you just text its sim number and it tells you where it is.

Pass this to plod and your insurers.

Meanwhile chuck a tool or two in the car and follow the signal
 
There is a new outfit very active on Facebook that are selling a scheme where you register and get a 6? Digit code to put on rear and front of MH up high. You can securely log to their system and state if you are out and about in vehicle or it is meant to be parked at xyz location. They hope to tie in a deal with all those anpr camera operators to either track or spot a MH somewhere it shouldn't be.
 
Nasher said:
I can't imagine that the police would use helicopters to check for a stolen motorhome

I also wonder just how many motorhomes are stolen, judging by the many posts/threads on here about security it would be easy to assume it's a major problem, but I have never found any statistics

Looking at various insurance threads, cover for motohomes costing many thousands of pounds is a few hundred pounds, so the risks would not appear to be that great - anyone got any usable information?

I know for many of you on here that your motorhome is your pride & joy and that motorhoming is the main thing in your life, nothing wrong with that. But I wonder is social media (that includes this site) making some of us paranoid?
Click to expand...
Good point on the insurance premiums. When you think of the expense of accidents/write offs/personal injury claims I don't see how the chance of theft can be that high. I can't remember what we pay but think it's around the£300 mark. At least £200 of that must be to cover the other stuff so the theft odds allowing for the ins co profits must be really low.
 
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We have our reg number and VIN on the roof. One of our measures is a VIN number broadcaster so when the vehicle drives near a police car it picks up the VIN. But as we are stuck on the Isle of Man no chance to test it yet! Roll on a vaccine .....
 
We got number plates made up - black letters & numbers on white. Now stuck on roof. Take a look at VIN Chip from CRIS.
 
I've been fitting roof markings for many years and always advise the last 4 digits if the chassis number. When you sell it there isn't the hassle of removing them and after 2 years they will always leave an imprint on the roof which cannot be removed. I use 18" for the emergency services which is there minimum for the air support to read easily.
 
Jev88 said:
There is a new outfit very active on Facebook that are selling a scheme where you register and get a 6? Digit code to put on rear and front of MH up high. You can securely log to their system and state if you are out and about in vehicle or it is meant to be parked at xyz location. They hope to tie in a deal with all those anpr camera operators to either track or spot a MH somewhere it shouldn't be.
Click to expand...
Find it here https://caravanid.com/

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Crazylegs said:
I

I recall a post by someone claiming to be policeman, he stated that roadside cameras cannot see the roof of a motorhome as they are aimed at the registration plate area. Furthermore police helicopters are sent out for specific crimes, vehicle theft was not one.
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I have read that the best letters to stick on the roof are those of the vehicles VIN.
Police can read them from ANPR cameras on motorway bridges and gantries.
I recall many years ago, leaving a petrol station when I thought the pump was failing to deliver fuel. 5miles later, I was aware that a helicopter seemed to be following me. At a major roundabout, 2 police cars hemmed me in as the helicopter hovered overhead. Turns out the pump had delivered a £ of fuel ! Must have been a 'slow' day for the police !!!
 
wiljoy said:
I've been fitting roof markings for many years and always advise the last 4 digits if the chassis number. When you sell it there isn't the hassle of removing them and after 2 years they will always leave an imprint on the roof which cannot be removed. I use 18" for the emergency services which is there minimum for the air support to read easily.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at fitting some sort of ID on the roof.
Surely the registration plate would be the best ID ?
(As it normally never changes and would not need to be removed when you sold the vehicle)

Putting 1234 or whatever the last 4 numbers of the chassis number are would be meaningless to anyone looking down on the vehicle. Or is this what the police look for ??
 
Off da Grid said:
......... if this vehicle is being driven outside certain hours it maybe stolen on the back door.
Good idea having some kind of identifying words or message on the roof.
This way up would be a good one.
Click to expand...
Just hope that length of message would fit on the roof and they don't have to add "p.t.o." or "continued over" to the end of it!:eek:;):giggle:
 
wiljoy said:
I've been fitting roof markings for many years and always advise the last 4 digits if the chassis number. When you sell it there isn't the hassle of removing them and after 2 years they will always leave an imprint on the roof which cannot be removed. I use 18" for the emergency services which is there minimum for the air support to read easily.
Click to expand...

That is a good tip - especially for people with personal plates they want to move to the next vehicle.
 
We have recently registered with CaravanID which provides a unique 6 digit number for your vehicle.
Put the small stickers on all of the windows, the coloured reflective one on the back and the large black one on the roof.

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