Winter wheels stolen from my locked garage :-(

[Pandy]

I finally received replacement set of winter wheels after mine were stolen from inside my locked garage a couple of months ago.   After some initial wrangling with insurance companies I was able to claim for their replacement on my motor policy and the new set arrived this morning.  I had thought it was going to be much worse - but my loss was the excess on my policy and no doubt some inflation in premium next year (even with protected no claims).    If anyone is looking for a brand new set of winter wheels for their 981, I've decided to sell these as I'm no longer doing enough winter miles to justify keeping them - especially now they are brand new.  Available in the For Sale section.

 

[Menoporsche]

"stolen from inside my locked garage"

Sounds worrying. Are you able to say more on this, that might help others avoid the same fate?

Good luck with sale.

[edc]

Would it not have been cheaper to claim on your house contents insurance or is the garage excluded?

[Pandy]

Menoporsche - My double garage has 2 sets of doors at the front and a side door near the rear - it was through the side door they gained access.  As it was rarely (never) used I'd just fitted bolts top and bottom to secure the door, but the thieves prised it open from the middle of the opening edge with enough force to sheer one bolt and bend the other :-(.  I've since read online that side doors are a known weak point often exploited by thieves.  So now it has a 5bar mortice lock and much heavier bolts top and bottom, plus the area outside is covered by an outside light with PIR and CCTV.  (Expressions involving stable doors & bolting horses spring to mind).  Nothing else was taken, although the fact they also broke into my garden shed makes me think this was opportunistic, rather than targeted.  They even had to carry the wheels over the bonnet of my Boxster parked with less than a foot of space in front of it - not a mark - so grateful that they (presumably more than 1 of them to carry off 4 wheels) had some respect/care for my car.

edc - my first point of call was to contact my household insurer - but there is a clause (apparently included in most household policies) that contents cover specifically excludes Cars, Caravans, Aircraft and any accessory or parts related to these.  Unless you can argue the item stolen has another use other than for a car (portable GPS for example) then it is not covered. So anyone restoring a car perhaps with a pile of expensive parts, or specialist tools, and no vehicle insurance, might just be a good idea to check your household insurance policy..  Fortunately my vehicle policy did include accessories stored in a locked carage where the vehicle is normally kept.