How to Keep Your Car Safe at Home

You might think that once you are home, your car is parked safely on the street outside your home, on your driveway, or even in your garage, that it is secure and you don’t really need to worry about it all that much. After all, no thief would steal a car right from under the nose of the owner would they?

Sadly, that’s not the case. Thieves most certainly do steal cars from outside the owner’s home, and this is why you need to know how to keep your car safe at home. Here are some of the best ways you can do it.

Install CCTV

Installing CCTV around your home is a good idea for many reasons, and it’s ideal for helping to keep your car safe. It’s a great deterrent to start with, since a thief is far less likely to attempt anything with a camera pointing at them, but if you pair it with an alarm – particularly one that beams the images to a mobile phone or tablet in case you are away from the property – and security lighting, you can scare the would-be thieves away easily.

Park Inwards

If you park with your wheels turned towards the curb, or perhaps pointing at another vehicle nearby, you can again deter a thief (assuming they have noticed). Car thieves want to quickly get into the car and drive away without having to spend time easing themselves out of difficult spaces. Pointing your wheels in a direction that means they have to do some extra manoeuvering may not sound like much of a tip, but seconds really do count and it could be enough.

Use A Steering Wheel Lock

Again, a competent car thief will probably be able to remove a steering wheel lock, but would they want to spend time trying? In the time they take to remove the lock from your car, you would have been able to call the police and alert the thief to your presence.

Keep Valuables Out of Sight

Of course, it’s not just the vehicle itself that thieves are interested in – for some, it’s the valuables that are so often left in the car that they want. Laptops, tablets, phones, handbags, purses… we’ve all been guilty of getting home from work or the shops and just not feeling like dragging everything inside only to take it back out again the next day.

Yet if a thief sees something they want, they will try to get it. If you do need to leave valuables in your car for any reason, make sure they are out of sight. Put them in the boot or hide them under the seats, for example. Ideally, though, you should take anything of value in with you when you park the car.

Don’t Leave Your Keys Near The Door

It’s a natural thing to drop your keys onto a table or shelf near the front door. After all, you want to be able to get at them easily next time you need to leave. However, this makes it easier for thieves to steal the keys and your car, or gain access to your house or garage. They can reach through the letterbox and take the keys, and then they have control of everything you own.

Put the keys somewhere they can’t be reached, or install a key box that can be installed in your home and locked to keep everything even more secure.