Most advice about car theft is about the car: keys, alarms, immobilisers, trackers. Two incidents in August were a reminder that the person most at risk in a car theft is often the owner, and the most dangerous place is their own driveway.
Heidelberg West, 1 August
At about 7.30pm on Saturday 1 August, a 68-year-old man was struck by a vehicle on Blackwood Parade in Heidelberg West while trying to stop his car from being stolen, the ABC reported. He suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital. The offender drove off in his car. No arrests had been made at the time of reporting, and Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives appealed for information and dashcam footage.
Bentleigh, 14 August
At about 9.20pm on Friday 14 August, a 44-year-old woman arriving home in Bentleigh was confronted by a group that demanded her car keys, according to police. One of them allegedly carried a large kitchen knife. She suffered a minor injury as her white Porsche was driven off.
Police later saw the car being driven dangerously across the western and southern suburbs, the ABC reported. At about 2.10am, during a pursuit on EastLink with its headlights off, it made a U-turn into oncoming traffic, and police called off the chase. Shortly afterwards it collided with a van. The 19-year-old driver was seriously injured and had to be cut free. Two passengers and the 51-year-old van driver suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
The driveway is where cars and people meet
These were very different incidents, but they share a setting. A car on a driveway is a car whose owner will, sooner or later, walk out to it, or arrive home in it. That's the moment a thief and an owner are most likely to end up face to face.
The instinct to protect your property is natural. Running out to stand in front of, or reach into, a car that someone else is driving is about the most dangerous thing a person can do. Police advice is consistent: don't confront, get to safety, call triple zero, and let them have the car. A car can be replaced.
Stopping a theft without being there
The best kind of car security is the kind that works while you're inside, asleep or away, without needing you to step outside at all. That's the logic behind layered protection:
- Make the keys hard to get. Keys out of sight and away from doors make the quick grab harder.
- Make the car hard to move. Steering locks, immobilisers and a physical barrier at the driveway mean a thief who gets the car started still can't easily drive off.
- Make the attempt visible. Lighting and cameras covering the driveway help police and may put someone off.
We don't know the layout of either property, and we're not suggesting any of these would have changed what happened. The point is simply that measures which work without the owner present are the ones that don't put the owner at risk.
An honest note about arriving home
The Bentleigh incident raises a point we think bollard sellers should be upfront about. A manual removable bollard has to be unlocked and lifted out when you arrive home. That means stopping on the driveway, getting out of the car, and spending half a minute in the open.
For most people, most of the time, that's fine. But if arriving home after dark worries you, it's worth planning for:
- Lighting that comes on as you pull in, so the driveway and its surroundings are clearly visible before you get out.
- A quick look around before unlocking the car doors. If someone is waiting nearby, stay in the car, keep the doors locked, drive away and call police.
- Placement. On some properties a bollard can sit further up the driveway, closer to the house or inside a gate, rather than at the street. That changes where you stop.
- Doors locked while you work. Keep the car locked while you lift the bollard out, and keys in your hand rather than in the ignition.
A barrier is there to stop the car leaving when you're not around. It shouldn't make you more exposed when you are.
If it happens to you
- Don't step in front of, or behind, a moving car.
- Don't reach into a car someone else is in.
- Get inside or away, lock the door and call triple zero.
- Note the direction of travel and anything you can see about the people involved, but only from a safe place.
In both August cases, the car was gone within moments. What stayed behind were the injuries. That's the right way round to think about it: protect the people first, and set things up so the property can look after itself.