Car targeted post service and stolen from home

[MikeBirt]

Sadly after finally get the car sorted and falling back in love with it again, early morning on new years eve we were targeted by a professional gang that managed to get in the house while we were awake upstairs, find the faraday pouch in which the key was hidden and drive off in the car from under our bedroom window.

While I am understandably gutted, the fact that we also had a 3 and 5 year old in the house is very concerning. We were also 100% awake. They did it between my neighbour coming home at 5am, the milkman at 5.15, to start the engine at 5.30am. It's inconceivable. We also have a collie in the house that did nothing other than come upstairs and try to get on our bed during - we shooed her off.

They way they did it was chilling, targeting the only lock on the house that was not snap proof, used a blowtorch to heat the lock, cut the blinds, took all things they touched, no prints. Took the keys for our other two vehicles and placed them the drive so we could not get back out of the locked house, not pursue in the other cars.

2016 facelift FG16 FBO, sepang blue with every option bar ceramics. It has adjustable front upper suspension arms and will be one of very few with this.

With covid and work the car has been 100% local and not been anywhere outside the area until it went to our VAG specilists in the nearby town for an overdue service - not been serviced for a year and a half. 10 Days later this happens. I am, as are the police / CID that is was targeted during that.

Sadly, I think this is the end of me and performance cars for some time. Disconcerting and very unsettling. Make sure all your locks are high grade anti snap, and be really careful who you work with on the car - try and conceal your address as best you can.

Why oh why the keypad on the transmission tunnel does not contain a key code I don't know - you could solve this problem stone dead with this - before I owned I was sure this was the function of the pad. Everyone who targeted an RS6 could not start without a pin. It's idiotic. Your phone has one, why not a 100k car?

Anyway. Careful out there everyone.

[JoolsBerko]

Sorry to hear your story Mike, but at least you and your family were not harmed. Some people are complete arseholes.

[Dex78]

Where in the country did this happen?

[Urbanpixels]

Sorry to hear, can't have anything these days.

I suppose a ghost would have stopped this. But if they were that professional and wanted the car this would have just forced them back inside to get the code from you via other means.

[MikeBirt]

Where in the country did this happen?

North Yorkshire

[MikeBirt]

Sorry to hear, can't have anything these days.

I suppose a ghost would have stopped this. But if they were that professional and wanted the car this would have just forced them back inside to get the code from you via other means.

If it were common knowledge that all RS6 had pin codes as standard then the would target a similar car type that did not. Breaking in and forcing a code with malice is a whole different level of criminality..

[ab54666]

Sorry to hear this, sounds very similar to what happened to me in 2019 so I know how you feel.

Sadly at a level there is very little you can do, there are some very serious gangs out there who will do whatever is necessary to take such a car. We had anti snap locks, police linked house alarm and another car blocking the RS6 in, none of which deterred them. I'm fairly convinced short of having an armed guard at the gate with about 5 dobermans nothing would have been able to stop them, a Ghost would likely have lead to a gun being held to my or my families head.

Main thing is you are safe, it takes a while to settle again, like you it put me off having a decent car for a while!

Just remember it's not personal, they came for the car, a piece of metal at the end of the day.

[MikeBirt]

Sorry to hear this, sounds very similar to what happened to me in 2019 so I know how you feel.

Sadly at a level there is very little you can do, there are some very serious gangs out there who will do whatever is necessary to take such a car. We had anti snap locks, police linked house alarm and another car blocking the RS6 in, none of which deterred them. I'm fairly convinced short of having an armed guard at the gate with about 5 dobermans nothing would have been able to stop them, a Ghost would likely have lead to a gun being held to my or my families head.

Main thing is you are safe, it takes a while to settle again, like you it put me off having a decent car for a while!

Just remember it's not personal, they came for the car, a piece of metal at the end of the day.

Thanks for the kind words.
Sorry you had the same. To get that out must have entailed a lot more drama :-/ Sounds utterly horrific.
Still processing here to be honest.

It has implications for the family too, and their idea of another - less than enthusiastic even though they liked the original. A replacement on the drive will be viewed with very different eyes. Took me a long time to find this example, it was an indulgence, sad that I lost it, and feeling a bit broken by it to be honest. May step out of the whole thing for a while.

How long was it before you bought something else? Another 6 I take it? That must have been quite a big bridge to cross.

[EmilA]

Sorry to hear this happen to you, I had mine stolen in October and thankfully/unthankfully (depending on how you judge it) the car was found a few hours later parked up with damage done to the interior looking for a tracker but otherwise ok.

Turns out the finance company installed a tracker, I wasn't aware that this was done. Still going through the motions but its been repaired and will eventually be given back to me. I would have used WBAC and gotten rid of it right away but between the day it was stolen to 2 weeks ago its lost 15k on its valuation so sadly I can't even shift it away!
If it wasn't found, I'd have made about 6k in profit thanks to how high they were being valued at the time!

The only solace for me, the thieves who took it were operating as part of a gang covering 3 regions, 5 of them have been arrested and on remand for several offences and my situation is also linked to them. A stolen car was stopped the day after my theft occurred, and they had the keys to our other Audi with them,

In the mean time I've had 5 more cameras installed at home, motion sensors and an alarm which automatically activates at pre-determined times, plus anti snap barrels fitted everywhere.
I've also looked at alternative cars, sadly nothing seems to beat the RS6..

[MikeBirt]

Sorry to hear this happen to you, I had mine stolen in October and thankfully/unthankfully (depending on how you judge it) the car was found a few hours later parked up with damage done to the interior looking for a tracker but otherwise ok.

Thanks for sharing.
I know what you mean about thankfully/unthankfully. Not sure where my heart lies to be honest.

I was looking at the price of my equivalent cars on autotrader and they are not cheap. Surprising. Then I looked at the cost of my old RS4 and these too were worth now what I traded it in for 3 years ago. Crazy times.

I think the car is gone - police say no news, though CID are still looking and if they are stupid enough to use it while the sim is still in they will get a mast ping on the mobile number. Insurance say that I have the choice - settlement or car, but if the car comes back on the table I estimate the settlement will be poorer.
My cctv system is on order, all locks on the house replaced with highest grade, extra deadlocks locks fitted. I may dig out the old Indiana Jones movies for some more tips.

[EmilA]

If you have french doors at home get a patlock, pretty much impossible to use the handles on a door from the other side then.
If I was in your position, I'd just take the settlement and sort it out quickly. Do you have GAP?

They more than likely have removed the sim out the car aswell, though the police will be able to track the towers it pinged off until it lost its signal. The group who stole mine were experienced in stealing high end german cars, front and rear dash cams were removed and I could have potentially tracked it through that..

[MikeBirt]

If you have french doors at home get a patlock, pretty much impossible to use the handles on a door from the other side then.
If I was in your position, I'd just take the settlement and sort it out quickly. Do you have GAP?

They more than likely have removed the sim out the car aswell, though the police will be able to track the towers it pinged off until it lost its signal. The group who stole mine were experienced in stealing high end german cars, front and rear dash cams were removed and I could have potentially tracked it through that..

CID said the sim pinged no masts, likely removed on the drive. The internal sim for audi telematics will not be released by audi without an Interpol warrant. It's either boxed for robberies in the years to come, (they use them in bad weather when the choppers cant fly) or pulled apart for spares. They said the entire force area had been told to stop any blue rs6 on sight to check for clones. So sorry about that anyone!

This was not on my mind when I bought the thing - but hey ho, every day is a school day.
House is now like fort knox now the horse has bolted, and our french door only had one handle anyway.
Not sure what the future holds, but I did like driving the thing once I got the front alignment sorted.
Gutted not so much that that car went, but that I'll not be in another because of how it went.

We had 3 vehicles between my wife and I so don't need any immediate solution, we'll just leave the drive looking emptier for the foreseeable. Gap not necessary as Im lucky enough to be able to buy the car outright in the first place. Depending on the settlement it will have been a very cheap car to own over the 3 years I have had it due to the current replacement prices / market value.

[stevo55]

Terrible story and sorry this happened to you and so many others. It's very easy to disappear down a rabbit hole trying to figure out how you got targeted but ultimately it could have come from anywhere. Interesting that the methods they used either meant they carry a bunch of entry tools around but more likely that there has been a period of surveillance on you prior to this to gain knowledge of weak points/entry points and any existing security.
Turning your place into Fort Knox also needs to be sustainable-if it's a pain in the ar5e to do all your layers then there will come a time when you forget or just cant be bothered and thats when it can go wrong. For my cars I use layers of tech and physical, some obvious some not. They will then do their risk assessment (yes really) on how long it will take, how many people they will need +++. If they are entering properties then they are willing to go that extra yard....some gangs are not averse unfortunately to using extreme violence-this then crosses numerous thresholds for them and if they get caught then their sentence can increase considerably. I always say that disturbing fully awake, alert and armed (with whatever) individuals in your house when you're half asleep is not going to go your way invariably. They will NOT want to get caught and thats when it goes south big time.
Dont rely on tech too much. It can go wrong and you can also get 'alert fatigue' with false alarms. Just make it as much of a pain in the ar5e to steal as you possibly can without seriously inconveniencing your daily life.
Hopefully they will get rolled up soon as serial offenders only need to make a mistake once through over confidence. This happened many moons back with a prolific burglar team that hit our new place. One had a fag side of the house when they were forcing entry. Cue one good DNA hit-cue entire team pinched, imprisoned and then deported. I was told at the time they were wanted for hundreds of offences.

[ab54666]

I assume the car was never found?

Another one stolen yesterday in Cumbria (along with an SQ7), that's 24 RS6's I now know of since mine was stolen in September 2019. Where are they all going!

[Lavazza]

Are older models being targeted too, such as B7 for example?