[Closed] Peugeot expert,broken into security advice needed.

Sorry to hear about the theft. Nothing more gutting to come out to your van to see the doors wide open and everything gone.

The standard security on most vans is pretty pathetic and most people could do with upgrading. My 3 month old Boxer was opened VERY easily with very basic tools. The alarm obviously went off, but not one bothered about that! Lost 10k of tools and work equipment, all uninsured. I fitted 3 big ass deadlocks on the rear doors and stainless plates behind all the door handles and locks. Very expensive but needs must for me.

Shite! Sorry to hear this. I also own a Peugeot expert which I use to lug bikes about. Will be watching this thread for security tips.

Yep stunned and gutted at how easy they are to get into,there was a video that went viral a few years ago,guy had his expert broken into and did a video of him locking his van then just pulling on side door hard with his hands and all doors unlocking.Also a few videos of people putting a balloon type thing in gap and pumping it up and it all unlocks same way.Gutted for anyone that gets robbed,won't be leaving a bike in it again that's for sure,but still like to have bits of kit in.

Had my expert for 7-8 years, the lockings been out of sync for about 3 years - possibly the rear door solenoid needs replacing. I empty it every night and turn the key in the back door.

Insurance, don't leave anything valuable in it unattended.

If someone is determined enough to get in, they will.

Another option is to lock the bike to an anchor point inside the van, it will mean stealing anything too quickly or quietly is out of the question

Honestly, don't bother trying to secure a vehicle - just never ever leave anything in it.

Deadlocks,hooklocks very expensive

Honestly, don’t bother trying to secure a vehicle – just never ever leave anything in it.

they really aren’t, I paid just over £200 including fitting by an auto-locksmith.

I wouldn't find half the job expensive either as per the part quote of the work he had done.

Now the full list of work he had done prior to the expensive part you have quoted. ...yes would have been expensive.

He had 3 dead locks fitted to the back doors alone and then metal plates behind all other handles to help delay them being punched through. I'd expect that to be little change from 1500 quid....

He had 3 dead locks fitted to the back doors alone and then metal plates behind all other handles to help delay them being punched through. I’d expect that to be little change from 1500 quid….

Ratchet straps on inside of doors.
If you don't have a bulkhead you'll be able to do all the doors before getting out.

Ratchet straps on inside of doors.
If you don’t have a bulkhead you’ll be able to do all the doors before getting out.

A brick and a stanley knife/ box cutter will make short work of that. In fact one of those safety hammers with the seatbelt knife would be perfect.

At this point I'm still assuming they don't GAS about the alarm.

completely unnecessary as per above, unless it is well known that you always keep very expensive gear inside (which is not very sensible).

Not everyone uses their van to transport an easily and quickly removable bike or two. Some are folks business premises.....

Not everyone uses their van to transport an easily and quickly removable bike or two. Some are folks business premises…..

Yep, would add a couple of hours to my day.

I try to park the work van in a corner to make access to the one sliding door and rear doors difficult.

Had a 2016 transit custom. The drivers door lock was 'opened' twice. It was laughable how easy it was to break in.
I fitted a heavy duty door lock.

I tend to chain stuff down inside the current van, which is a LWB Connect. The locks look better on this one.
But who knows.

Insurance, don’t leave anything valuable in it unattended.

If someone is determined enough to get in, they will.

This, or they'll just nick the van.

Used to run a little Caddy Van. Great little thing. Economical, reliable. Got broken into twice, obviously just to see what was in it (nothing). Then one morning it was gone. Found burnt out in Shitsville.

Seems to be a lot of it around at the minute. Woke up the other night to a gang in balaclavas cutting the cat off my car. Which was nice. Took them about five minutes,

@squirrelking you don't go across the doors, but to the opposite side.
Mostly done to stop sliding doors being peeled down.

I know, my point was that sans bulkhead they can just smash a window and quickly cut the strap.

Fine for a quick and dirty solution but not something I'd rely on.

Had a 2016 transit custom. The drivers door lock was ‘opened’ twice.

I tend to chain stuff down inside the current van, which is a LWB Connect.

Deadlocks or not I find it criminal that folk still buy transit customs.

Ford make some of the least secure vehicles going.-not just the custom.

their immobiliser systems are not worth the silicone they are made from.

Ratchet straps on inside of doors.
If you don’t have a bulkhead you’ll be able to do all the doors before getting out.

Only if your a flexible racing snake , no way I could get between the top of the seats and the roof on a regular basis.

Which van is an opportunist going to try to peel open

The one with the expensive bike in it...

please say you have DLs fitted as well, just madness otherwise, if you do actually store stuff in there!

Nope the van is parked up on my drive a wing mirrors width from a brick wall. Rear bumper is against the house with a car a wing mirrors width from the drivers door.
That obviously doesn't help when away from home. It's not my van and the expensive kit in the back isn't mine. So if the company doesn't want to fit deadlocks, that's up to them.
All I can do is chain down my stuff or remove it and try to park in a way to make it difficult.

Which van is an opportunist going to try to peel open

The one that looks like it has something worth stealing inside?

Nope the van is parked up on my drive a wing mirrors width from a brick wall.

Brilliant until they're in your house looking for the keys. Or in your bedroom demanding them.

If they're going to break into the house looking for the keys then emptying the van contents into the house isn't going to help much.

Got a bulkhead,so for the minute will go with ratchet straps for sliding doors and get a padlock for rear,and not leave a bike in it again.Fair bit of advice so cheers for that too 👍

If they’re going to break into the house looking for the keys then emptying the van contents into the house isn’t going to help much.

Good point, well made.

Brilliant until they’re in your house looking for the keys. Or in your bedroom demanding them

At that point, if they've got the bottle to do that they can take what they want. It's only stuff.
Also if you're seen regularly moving expensive stuff in and out of a van, it's a good way of being targeted.
I live in a pretty rough area, but the neighbors across the road are all retired and very nosey/nice and next door have a very scary Barky dog who hates the world and has brilliant hearing.

IIRC, you can get van alarms, which have the siren in the load area. Chain everything down and make it unbearable to be inside it.

The one that looks like it has something worth stealing inside?

Typically you can't see into a van - so if the opportunity exists someone will break in just to look. In the OP's case it looks like someone was doing that fairly regularly before they got lucky.

Its a bit of a catch 22 - if a break in is so easy you can do it with no apparent damage then it makes sense to invest in extra security like deadlocks, armaplates and so on. If someone then persists and breaks in anyway... then your van gets ****ed in the process whether anything gets stolen or not.

In insurance terms - to claim you need evidence of a break in - and thats the worrying thing in an instance like the OP's. The van was locked but. nothing was 'broken' to break in which could compromise any claims.

The alarm obviously went off, but not one bothered about that!

IIRC, you can get van alarms, which have the siren in the load area. Chain everything down and make it unbearable to be inside it.

you can get motion activated cameras that phone you - its not about other people bothering. The only person who will do anything promptly about the situation is you.

I never leave anything in mine but because other people still clearly do, van crime is worth doing and so I'm constantly at risk of getting mine ripped open for nothing.

I've been thinking about fitting a clear window on the back actually.
Hopefully they won't want any muddy Fivetens.

Its a bit of a catch 22 – if a break in is so easy you can do it with no apparent damage then it makes sense to invest in extra security like deadlocks, armaplates and so on. If someone then persists and breaks in anyway… then your van gets **** in the process whether anything gets stolen or not.

In insurance terms – to claim you need evidence of a break in – and thats the worrying thing in an instance like the OP’s. The van was locked but. nothing was ‘broken’ to break in which could compromise any claims.

Not really a catch 22 then, if you need evidence of a break in then the extra security will provide that. Only other alternative is to leave it empty and the load area unlocked like HGV's (and hope they don't then get into the cab).

I never leave anything in mine but because other people still clearly do, van crime is worth doing and so I’m constantly at risk of getting mine ripped open for nothing.

I’ve been thinking about fitting a clear window on the back actually.
Hopefully they won’t want any muddy Fivetens.

I've had the same though process for a while: add a window into the tailgate to make it obvious there's nothing of value stored there overnight. The (obvious) downside is on those times we do leave stuff stored in the back - holidays, etc - when I want the benefits of stuff being out of sight.

I’ve had the same though process for a while: add a window into the tailgate to make it obvious there’s nothing of value stored there overnight. The (obvious) downside is on those times we do leave stuff stored in the back – holidays, etc – when I want the benefits of stuff being out of sight.

Yeah, I've thought about that as I use mine for changing too.
Maybe a little sliding panel or a curtain... 🤔

you can get motion activated cameras that phone you – its not about other people bothering. The only person who will do anything promptly about the situation is you.

Then the next problem is would you go out and confront some tooled up crims just to protect a few power tools or your bike?

Brilliant until they’re in your house looking for the keys. Or in your bedroom demanding them.

Even the former is pretty rare - normally makes the papers, certainly where I am, and I've [I]never[/I] heard of it happening to get tools out of a van (steal a high-performance car, yes).

Plus quite often vans are parked on streets full of expensive tools whilst the owner is working somewhere using a subset of the tools. A decent deadlock etc will stop someone quickly circumventing the alarm / central locking and walking off with the tools.

Quite often see vans in our street with £1000s of Festool kit stacked in them, often with the doors left open whilst the owner is under someone wardrobe inside etc.

But then we don't have much crime here....

Got a bulkhead,so for the minute will go with ratchet straps for sliding doors and get a padlock for rear,and not leave a bike in it again.Fair bit of advice so cheers for that too

I have an abus padlock and housing you can have for postage. I took it off my van so no longer needed.

Then the next problem is would you go out and confront some tooled up crims just to protect a few power tools or your bike?

Yep. I've been in this position recently. Half asleep, no clothes on. Do I run out in the street to fight with an armed gang of masked men? Do I get dressed first? Hmm, perhaps I should take a weapon? Nope, don't own weapons. And if I did own a weapon, well that's an easy cop for the police who'll be far more interested in you and your weapon than the hard to catch scumbags stealing your stuff.

Years ago when those stupid no tools left in vehicles signs appeared a chap i spoke to said his mates van got broken into with a similar sign on front and side doors, door wrenched open and then they had sprayed
"just checking" on sign. New doors required at huge cost to his insurance and no van for a week for repairs