Car stolen in Luton? What to do in the first hour

Nobody reads this until they need it, which is the problem with it. If a car has just gone from a Luton street or driveway, start here. The first hour is when the decisions that matter get made, and it is also the hour when you are least capable of working out what they are. So here it is in order, and it is worth knowing before rather than after.

Before anything else, be certain. A surprising share of stolen cars in a town like this one have been recovered by the owner remembering where they actually parked, or by ringing the council. If the vehicle was on a street with restrictions, in a private car park, or blocking something, check whether it has been removed or clamped before you report it. Reporting a theft that turns out to be a recovery truck is an awkward call to unwind with an insurer.

Then ring the police, and do it first rather than after the insurer. Use 101, or 999 if the theft is happening now or the vehicle has only just gone. What you want from that call is a crime reference number, because almost nothing else can proceed without it. Have the registration, the make, the model and the colour ready, along with roughly when you last saw it and where. If the car has any distinguishing feature — a dent, a roof box, a sticker, an unusual wheel — say so, because that is what makes a vehicle recognisable on camera.

Tell them if a tracker is fitted, and tell them at that point rather than later. If you have one with a monitored subscription, ring the control room too and quote the crime reference — they work directly with police forces and that combination is what actually leads to a recovery. If your tracking is an app rather than a monitored service, give the police what the app shows you and do not go after the car yourself.

Next, your insurer. Most have a twenty-four hour claims line and most want to hear from you the same day. Have the crime reference, the policy number and the keys — they will ask how many exist and where they all are, and this is the question that decides how the claim goes. A theft with all keys accounted for and no forced entry is a keyless theft and is treated as such by a competent insurer. Be straightforward about it: say the car was keyless, say both keys are in your possession, and say you believe it was a relay attack.

Then the paperwork nobody thinks of. Tell DVLA the vehicle has been stolen. If it is on finance or a lease, ring the finance company — the agreement continues to exist whether the car does or not, and they need to be part of the claim. If it was a company vehicle, tell whoever owns it. If anything in the car had your address on it, along with keys to anything, treat those as compromised and change what can be changed.

Two things worth doing while it is fresh. Write down everything you can remember about the last time you saw the car, and take photographs of where it was parked. And ask around for footage quickly rather than eventually — doorbell cameras and dash cams on neighbouring vehicles overwrite themselves in days, and a request made on the first morning gets something that a request made the following week does not.

The uncomfortable part is what comes after. Recovery rates for vehicles taken by relay attack are not encouraging, because these cars are usually moved quickly and either dismantled or exported. It is the honest reason we spend more time talking about prevention than about response: an immobiliser on the car's own data network means the sequence a thief would need exists only in your head, and the car that cranks and will not fire is the one still on your drive in the morning.

If this has already happened to you and the replacement is arriving, that is the moment to get it right. Send us the registration and we will confirm which system suits it and a written price before anything is booked.