Car navigation devices easy pickings for thieves

NAGOYA--Police, alarmed at a sharp rise in the number of navigation systems stolen from vehicles in Aichi Prefecture, are calling on car owners to do more to deter thieves.

The annual number of thefts is likely to exceed that of Osaka Prefecture, which topped the list until last year.

Internet auction sites are being used by thieves to sell the stolen devices.

Carmakers and other firms in the automotive industry looking into ways to prevent thefts have yet to come up with a full-proof method.

The theft epidemic has even prompted the National Police Agency to consider a nationwide strategy to combat the crime.

One such theft took place in Kita-Nagoya, north of here, on Sept. 9. Around 1 a.m., a 36-year-old part-time worker was awakened by her neighbor living in the same apartment building. She was told the car navigation device had been stolen from her minicar. The unit was the type that had been installed inside the dashboard.

It had been stolen by a pair of thieves who drew the neighbor's attention after triggering an alarm on another car.

The 36-year-old woman had also installed a similar security alarm that triggers a siren when the windowpane on the driver's door is broken. However, the thieves broke the window of the front passenger door.

"I had known that there are many cases in which thieves steal things from inside cars by breaking windowpanes or doors. Besides, I had never been careless, though my car had been equipped with crime-prevention devices," she said.

According to the Nishi-Biwajima Police Station, about 10 similar thefts took place in the neighborhood that same night. In all cases, car navigation devices that had been installed inside the dashboards were stolen.

Car navigation devices are usually installed inside the dashboard or externally mounted onto them. At present, the internal type is most prevalent.

Thefts of internal devices increased sharply in 2005 nationwide, exceeding 20,000 cases. The figure rose last year to about 22,000, with estimated financial damages amounting to about 2 billion yen.

By prefecture, Osaka topped the list with about 6,900 cases, followed by Aichi with 6,100. This year, however, the number of cases in Aichi increased at the fastest pace ever, reaching about 4,400 as of the end of August, about 300 more than in Osaka.

The internal devices are fixed in place with screws. When the Aichi prefectural police officers conducted an experiment to remove them in May last year in cooperation with car dealers, they were able to remove them in only four minutes.

It was after this experiment that police decided that making the devices harder to remove would probably reduce theft.

In May this year, Toyota Motor Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Daihatsu Motor Co. began a new service, in which customers can choose crime-prevention screws for car navigation devices. The screws cannot be removed with conventional tools.

The Aichi prefectural association of car dealers, which has 75 members, has also started a campaign urging customers to use screws of the same type adopted by Toyota, or other cheaper crime-prevention screws.

The use of crime-prevention screws has yielded some positive results. In June this year, a thief trying to steal a car navigation device in Osaka Prefecture gave up because he was not able to unscrew the fastenings after removing the panel from the device.

According to the public relations office of Toyota, however, a set of its crime-prevention screws costs 3,150 yen. The price excludes the cost of installation.

As many customers have balked at the high price, uptake of the screws has not reached even 20 percent of the target set by Toyota.

Less than half of the members of the Aichi prefectural association of car dealers have begun using the crime-prevention screws because they cannot be removed unless the dealers have special tools.

To spread the use of the crime-prevention screws, senior officials of the Osaka and Aichi prefectural police departments visited Toyota's head office in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in June this year, and asked the company to reduce the price of its screws.

Coordinated action of this kind by the two police departments is unusual. Toyota's officials in charge of the issue promised to consider the request.

Meanwhile, the number of stolen car navigation devices sold on Internet auction sites is increasing sharply. The National Police Agency in September began devising technological and legal strategies to prevent the sales.

According to the agency, 34 stolen car navigation devices were confirmed to have been sold on Internet auction sites in 2004. In 2008, however, the number had risen to 1,239.

Twelve members of a ring of thieves, which included Brazilian nationals, were arrested by February this year on suspicion of stealing more than 1,000 car navigation devices in Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures.

One of them told the Aichi prefectural police officers during an interrogation, "We sold most of the devices (we had stolen) on Internet auctions."

Asked what steps car users should take to prevent theft, an Aichi prefectural police officer said: "First of all, we want them to lock their cars (after they've parked). Then, we want them to install security alarms, which are also effective to prevent thefts of other items inside the cars as well as the vehicles themselves. If they choose crime-prevention screws, they can make thieves abandon attempts to steal car navigation devices."(IHT/Asahi: November 4,2009)