Cat theft is, as you’ll know/have realised, unfortunately very lucrative and almost risk free as it’s so quick to carry out and the chance of the crime being investigated is vanishingly low.
I watched three guys cut the cat off a Toyota Prius at the end of my road at 10am on a Sunday morning in broad daylight, with people walking by. My girlfriend thought they were changing a wheel (they had a dummy spare wheel leant up against the car) and as above, it took about a minute. This was in East London, but friends and forum posts like this one tell similar stories from all over the country.
As I realised what what they were up to I called 999 from a safe distance and it took longer to get through to the police than for them to finish. Jack, cat and dummy spare wheel into the boot of the waiting car and they were gone. I looked up the plates online and the plates were for a vehicle that was taxed and moted, but no doubt cloned.
We have kept our current main car for longer than we expected to, as a direct result of the frequency of car thefts, since a newer vehicle would probably be a hybrid and a target.
Without wanting to get into a political discussion (and distract from the OPs request for practical advice) this is what 10 years of austerity and reduction in police numbers look like- cat theft, along with many other crimes, is something too low level for the police to have the time and resources to deal with.
Cheers
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