Stolen Motorbikes

Two nights ago, my neighbor had his Yamaha Nouvo stolen from him right in front of his house.  The thieves were very good.  Nobody knew they were taking the motorbike until it was too late.  I remember hearing a woman screaming at which point all the neighbors went outside (it was raining at the time).

It was not enough time for my neighbor to grab the thieves.

It turns out that my neighbor may have forgotten to lock his motorbike.  My alleyway is pretty safe but you still cannot be complacent.  Over a year ago, another neighbor got his brand new Honda Wave stolen.  We also had a bought of thieves stealing dogs along our alleyway though this has subsided over the year.

I asked my friends how the thieves could start an automatic bike such as the Nouvo.  Turns out that the thieves, if unnoticed, can tweak the wiring to the bypass the key ignition and start the motorbike.  Not good news for me since I thought my motorbike would be more difficult to steal (the new motorbikes you can close the keyhole thwarting the specially made keys that can start any motorbike).

This seamingly new tactic in stealing motorbikes affectly renders those loud car alarms useless.  Actually I stopped using mine since thieves have figured out how to turn a motorbike on with the alarm (yeah, the alarm has an automatic starter as well as a kill switch).

Time to be more vigilant with my motorbike now.  Crime will go up in Saigon.