Company survey for end of 2019: the Central and Sharon Region are the leading theft target areas * CEO Goldstein: There is a trend in the last two years of theft of keys and codes or collaboration between the authorized driver and the Car thief
Pointer Israel¸ the stolen vehicle discovery and recovery company, has summed up 2019 and reports that connecting to the car OBD socket and key duplication was the most common method of theft in the past year. The percentage of thefts of vehicles with tracking devices remained the same as the same period in the previous year. According to the report, the majority of the thefts take place at night, between 22:00 and 05:00. Regarding the most popular methods used by car thieves, duplication of a “raw” key in the theft process whilst connecting to the OBD socket and linking via it to the car computer topped the list. The thieves encode a new key and delete the existing keys. Approximately 50% of the attempts in the last year were based on this method, an increase of 11%.
Cases of violent attack of the vehicle by replacement of the car computer represented 24% of the thefts recorded in 2019. A 15% increase in thefts by an authorized driver was recorded in 2019, usually by means of the duplication of a key by an authorized driver who has been given the key and the code. This method was responsible for 15% of the thefts in the report period. Pointer says that it supplies a solution to this phenomenon via an ignition control system and a clock & lock system which enables defining of the car’s activity and travelling times.
A 40% decrease was recorded in cases of theft of keys from the car owner’s home, where there is a direct connection between the customer’s home and the vehicle. This type of theft totaled 9% of all thefts. Only 2% were the result of robbery and theft of a car with the engine running, and unchanged relative to the previous year.
58% of the vehicles stolen were cars, 16% – trucks – an increase of 14% relative to last year, whilst thefts of commercial vehicles decreased by 13% to a rate of 15% of the thefts. The company reports an increase in the rate of thefts of hybrid vehicles, which made up 5% of the thefts. HMV’s and other types of vehicles made up the remaining 3% of thefts, unchanged from last year.
Pointer Israel CEO Ilan Goldstein: “Within the framework of the introduction of artificial intelligence in the operations center, identification parameters related to the learning of the driver behavior patterns, driving times, ignition at unusual times, unusual travel areas, the vehicle and driver travel routines and others were introduced into the information systems. The introduction of AI capabilities are the result of the identification of a trend in the last two years of thefts of cars via theft of keys and codes or collaboration between the authorized driver and the car thief. Journeys that were previously classified as being legitimate, are now being classified as car thefts, and warnings are sent and the theft procedure is activated for them”.
