Owners of South Africa’s most stolen vehicles can use so-called ghost anti-theft devices or mechanical drivetrain locks to make it significantly more difficult for thieves to steal their cars.Tracker’s Vehicle Crime Index uses information from the company’s 1.1 million subscriptions.
The issue has become so severe that multiple vehicle insurers have started requiring certain high-risk models to have more than one tracker.Ghost anti-theft devices are specially modified immobilisers that prevent unauthorised drivers from moving a car unless a code is entered or a linked smartphone with an authenticated user is in proximity.
The authorised user must first input a code in the form of a sequence of button presses in their vehicle to switch the car into a fully driveable state. On some systems, these can be up to 20 presses. Ghost South Africa said most of their recovered vehicles only needed a day or so to return cars to their original condition because they cannot be moved quickly to a location far away from where they were stolen.