Peugeot Vans - rear door vulnerability

[youllneedyourgun]

Be aware - Peugeot Partner van rear doors can easily be opened when locked.

Our office on the South coast has 30+ Peugeot Partner Vans for Park + Loop delivery. A few of us noticed recently that up to 10 of them have identical forced entry marks around the rear doors.

The tell-tail signs that they have been forced open are-

-small dent along the leading edge of the left hand side door near the door handle
-inline with that dent on the inside edge of the door there is a chip of paint missing caused by insertion of metal lever (screwdriver etc)
-the black plastic sheath covering the lock catch may have signs of damage from same tool
-the top right corner of the same door may also have damage and missing paint from insertion of another metal lever.
-The leading edge of the door may sit slightly higher at the top than the right hand side door (when both are closed closed) due to if being pulled on and bent

Not an expert at breaking into vans but it looks like the method being used is to insert a tool into the gap between the doors (at the lock) and at the same time insert a tool at the top of the door and to lever with a degree of force (causing dent and chipped paint). This works because the latch which closes over the locking bar (attached to the right hand side door) does not completely enclose the bar it only cups it. If you push the latch into the closed position with your key you can see when closed there is a 3mm gap through which your key will slip which means the locking bar which is only about 7mm thick can slip through the closed latch if the latch is pulled forcefully away.

It's worth nothing that nothing has been taken from the vans (as far as I know) while on delivery so these forced entries have happened at night when the van have been parked up in the yard. Opportunistic thieves are obviously checking the back of the vans to see if anything has been left inside overnight.

Please check you own van and post here if you see the signs of forced entry, would be interesting to know if this is happening nation-wide.

[Shaders]

Or maybe its just a case of closing the left door before the right one

[5plusbonusball]

My combo shows those signs but is due to closing it on bags and trollies sticking out , usually on my day off!

[alliasjay]

Well whoevers doing it must be silly sausages...not like there's going to be anything left in the vans overnight :S

[pgtips]

Or maybe its just a case of closing the left door before the right one

+1 on this it's a commoin sight in our office especially if you're used to driving a combo then swap to a partner/ bippa