Tracker jamming: when thieves try to hide a stolen car
Most at risk: High-value cars and vans already fitted with a basic tracker.
What tracker jamming is
Basic trackers depend on satellite positioning and the mobile network to report where a car is. Organised thieves know this and may try to drown those signals out while they move a stolen vehicle to a hiding place.
Stolen cars are then often left in a lock-up, a car park or a shipping container for a cooling-off period. Police recovery teams and insurers therefore favour systems that keep working, or raise an alert, when signals are disrupted.
How owners usually notice: A tracker that suddenly stops reporting while the car should be parked, with no warning from the device itself.
Stop tracker jamming with dual layer protection
Layer one: keep the car where it is
Jamming only helps a thief once the car is moving, so an immobiliser that keeps the engine dead removes the reason to jam at all. Read more.
Layer two: a tracker built for jamming
Choose an insurance-approved tracker with jamming detection and a monitoring centre, so interference itself sets off an alert instead of quietly hiding the car. Read more.
Talk to an installer about both layers.
Everyday habits that help
- Ask whether a tracker is monitored all day and night, not just shown on an app.
- Keep subscription and contact details current so alerts reach you.
- Report a theft straight away; the first hour is when recovery is most likely.
Latest UK reports
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