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67.Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely Speeding off1 in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch2. But he is in a nasty surprise3. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine 1 , he will not be able to start it again. For now, such devices 2 only available for fleets of trucks4 and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars5, and 3 be available to ordinary cars in the UK 4 two months. The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates6 5 miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS7 satellite positioning receiver. 6 the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine 7 restarted. There are even plans for immobilizers 8 shut down vehicles on the moves8, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system. In the UK, an array of9 technical fixes10 is already making 9 harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed.” says Martyn Randall of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire11 that is funded in part 10 the motor insurance industry. He says it would only take him a few minutes to 11 a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools12. But only if the car is more than 10 years old. Modern cars are a far tougher proposition13, as their engine management computer will not 12 them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out14 by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this 13 achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime15 since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owner’s keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the own