Fitting a tracker is one of the first things many owners do to protect an expensive car. But specialists who recover stolen vehicles offer a blunt caution: a tracker is a useful layer of security, not a guarantee that you will ever see your car again.
Why trackers can fail
The most common problem is signal jamming. Organized thieves use portable jammers that blast radio noise across the frequencies a tracker relies on, cutting the device off from the satellites and mobile networks it needs to report a location. When the UK government moved to outlaw such equipment, police pointed to how routinely jammers now feature in vehicle crime, as Crimestoppers noted.
Experienced thieves also know where trackers are usually hidden. They can find and remove a device quickly, or leave a stolen car parked somewhere quiet for a time to see whether anyone comes looking before moving it on. Recovery firms point out that even when an owner can watch their car moving on a map, there is often no fast way to turn that into a police response.
Speed makes it worse. Investigators say stolen cars are frequently loaded into shipping containers and driven toward ports within hours, which is why intercepting them at the border has become a focus for vehicle-crime units. A tracker that has been jammed, ripped out, or sealed inside a metal container can go dark long before anyone reaches the vehicle.
The rise of keyless theft
Much of the modern surge in car theft is tied to keyless entry. In a "relay attack," two people work together: one stands near the house holding a device that picks up the signal from a key fob left near the front door, and relays it to an accomplice by the car, tricking it into unlocking and starting. The whole process can take under a minute and leaves no broken glass.
What experts actually advise
Rather than trusting any single gadget, police and insurers recommend layering defenses — and many of the most effective are decidedly low-tech.
For keyless cars, the standard advice is to block the fob's signal by keeping keys, including spares, in a signal-blocking "Faraday" pouch or box, and storing them away from doors and windows. Visible physical deterrents also help: steering-wheel locks, wheel clamps, driveway posts and parking in a garage or a well-lit spot. The logic is simple — thieves prefer quick, quiet targets, so anything that slows them down makes a car less attractive.
Governments have also tightened the law. Under the UK's Crime and Policing legislation, it is now an offence to make, supply, import or possess electronic devices such as signal jammers, relay tools and key emulators for use in vehicle theft, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The bottom line
None of this makes trackers pointless. Professionally monitored systems, especially those that are harder to jam, can improve the odds of recovery, and a tracker may still help police build a case. But the consistent message from those who chase stolen cars for a living is that the technology works best as one part of a layered approach — and that the surest protection is stopping the theft from happening in the first place.
