A connected history of Tibbe tools, barrel attacks, electronic behaviour, alarm upgrades, software changes, latch attacks and modern layered protection.
A connected history of Tibbe tools, barrel attacks, electronic behaviour, alarm upgrades, software changes, latch attacks and modern layered protection.
Transit vans used to be quite basic until the late 1990s, with many vans not having central locking and each door having an individual lock. Vans then were made from thick metal, and cordless drills either weren't as easily available or thieves just hadn't thought about using them to break into vans. Typical break-in methods for stealing tools from the load area of vans were likely thieves attacking the lock fitted to each individual door. I would fit alarm systems, deadlocks, or slamlocks (slamlocks typically for couriers).
Ford Transit · Jan 00 – Apr 06 · Ford Safeguard FD.II.5 · TEL1 – 44/1100
The Ford Transit 2000 model came out and, as I remember it, part of the sales pitch was that it was this new van with a higher level of security, with a Thatcham Category 2 immobiliser as standard and, on many of them, remote deadlocking and an alarm system as standard too. It would also be the first example where I realised that it doesn't matter what a van manufacturer does to make a van apparently secure, because as soon as the van goes on the street in the UK, the thieves will cleverly find a way to bypass the factory security so they can steal the tools from the van, or steal the complete van. Although many of these vans had an alarm, I would often fit an upgraded aftermarket alarm to these vans along with deadlocks and slamlocks (slamlocks usually if they were couriers).
Although these vans mostly had remote-controlled central locking, Ford usually fitted a barrel in the rear barn doors of the van which would unlock the whole central locking of the van if operated, including the front doors, and even where they didn't put a lock barrel in the rear barn doors, they would fit the unlock wire into the rear door, connected all the way through the van to the body control module under the dashboard.
I don't know how thieves figured this out, but they started breaking into these vans using a hacksaw blade or knife blade to cut into the rubber wiring loom between the body of the van and the rear barn door. This would electrically transfer the ground that some of the wires rested at into a ground signal on the unlock wire, and then the whole van would unlock itself. Back at this time in the early 2000s the internet wasn't widely used, and there definitely weren't any Facebook groups for van owners to chat on and reveal how their vans were broken into, so what we would see instead was clusters of these break-ins in one area, and then maybe another cluster of that type of break-in would pop up in a different area. That's very different from today, where once a break-in method becomes publicly known, the same method trends across the whole UK, and other parts of the world too.
Ford did seem to learn from this, because when I was fitting alarms to those model vans manufactured after 2003, or ones that had been in the workshop for a while, I would see that the unlock wire under the dashboard had been cut from the body control module. But it makes me wonder: if they could learn a lesson like that around 2002, how could they not carry that mindset forward when they were designing vans for the 15 years after that?
Cat 2 · Ford Transit 06 · May 06 - on · Ford Safeguard FD.II.5 · TEL1 - 44/1100
The 2006 facelift model of this van came out also having a Thatcham Category 2 transponder immobiliser and remote factory electronic deadlocking (for most vans). I believe that Ford had addressed the wiring loom to the barn door issue of unlocking the whole van when cut into, but this didn’t stop thieves from trying to break into this van.
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The factory remote deadlocking was a good feature by Ford, and a better design than most of the other vehicle manufacturers, as the actual latch / central locking mechanism in the doors was directly controlled by the electronic deadlocking. This meant that if the owner had deadlocked the van by the remote control (by pressing the lock button twice) then it didn’t matter if a thief attacked cables inside the door or got to the interior door release handle, as none of those parts would unlock the van. Of course, this relied on van owners pressing the lock button twice, and many van owners didn’t even realise this was a feature of the van (at least until they were broken into, and I would explain how the thief got the door open using the interior handle or cabling inside the non-deadlocked door). Another thing that would happen as the vans got older is that the remote control might fail and would be expensive to replace, and some owners would just start locking the van with the manual key in the driver’s door.
I would fit Thatcham Category 2-1 alarm upgrades to this model van, along with deadlocks and slamlocks (usually slamlocks if the owner was a courier, and deadlocks if it was a tradesman or camper van owner). If a van was factory deadlocked, then it was relatively secure for a time, until thieves started folding the side load door down from the top in brutal peel-and-steal attacks. These were brute strength attacks, but they also exposed a problem with the design of the factory fitted Ford alarm, as that alarm would only sound if the load area doors were opened via a mechanical switch positioned low down on the doors. Because peel-and-steal attacks only opened the top of the door, the alarm would think the door was still closed, and there were no motion sensors fitted as standard on this van inside the cargo area. We started recommending high position switches and a load area PIR sensor to be fitted when we were fitting alarms to these vehicles, so that the alarm would get an early indication if someone was starting to peel a side load door open, and a PIR would detect the thieves even if they got in by cutting a hole in the roof of the van.
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I also developed an original alarm upgrade where we would add a high position door switch to the side load door and a PIR to the load area, and integrate that into the factory fitted alarm, so that the factory alarm would then detect and sound for peel-and-steal interruptions or hole-through-the-roof intrusions.
There was also a stage where we saw some thieves pulling the whole side load door off at the front and folding the whole door backwards, like they were suicide doors! We started recommending deadlocks in a high position to give a securing point to the top part of the door, and we would recommend two brackets at the front of the door to give additional reinforcement against both peel-and-steal attacks and suicide-door opening.
Technology changes the landscape too, and when thieves started stealing the whole van using an OBD plug-in device that allowed them to program a new key into the van in seconds, bypassing the Thatcham Category 2 immobiliser, we started suggesting a full Thatcham Category 1 alarm with manual immobiliser cuts.
A further technology blow would come around 2015, when the market became flooded with Ford Tibbe lock decoding / picking keys. Essentially a locksmith product, but one that was super easy to use, and it was available to anyone who wanted to buy one for as little as £20. The driver’s door lock on this van would unlock the front two doors if you turned it into the unlock position the first time, but if you turned it into the unlock position a second time, then the entire load area of the van would unlock. As well as unlocking the whole van with this lock-picking key / decoder, it would also disarm the factory alarm system too.
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Thieves using this lock-picking tool / decoder tool basically had the same access as your mechanical key after a few seconds of using it, and the number of break-ins to Ford Transit vans went crazy with this zero-destruction attack method. Having a zero-destruction attack method was good in some ways, as if the thief didn’t take anything, then at least you wouldn’t need to get your van repaired. But the real problem with a zero-destruction attack method is that tradesmen’s insurance companies were saying that the tradesman must not have locked his van, and therefore they would not pay out for the missing tools!
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We had many tradesmen contact us and tell us this, how their tools mysteriously disappeared from their vans without any sign of a break-in. It got to a point where tradesmen needed to know this was an issue, and also that tradesmen whose claims were being rejected by their insurance needed to be able to reference something to help them make their claim. I told this story by publishing a video on our YouTube channel, and this would lead to the BBC contacting me and featuring me as a ‘van security expert’ on the BBC news to explain the problem. We recommended to tradesmen that they replace their Ford Tibbe lock with a Replock that had a different key profile, one which was not pickable using the Tibbe decoding / picking tool. We also recommended an electronic modification, which I developed, to adapt the wiring in the van so that the driver’s door barrel would no longer unlock the whole van no matter how many times the key was turned. I also introduced a bypass switch so that van owners could revert the van to the driver’s door lock unlocking the whole van if their remote failed and they needed to lock / unlock the van by the manual key.
The Transit Custom and MK8 Transit launched in 2013 / 2014 in the UK with remote central deadlocking as standard, similar to the Transit MK6 and MK7. These model vans didn’t have the Ford Tibbe lock profile, so they were not susceptible to the same lock-picking / decoding tool. But it was only a matter of time before thieves would find ways to break into the van. The driver’s door manual lock barrel would still unlock all doors of the van if the key was turned twice in the unlock position, regardless of whether the van was locked normally or remote deadlocked with a double press of the remote control.
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Thieves started grabbing the driver’s door lock barrel with adjustable grips and rotating the entire barrel around 90 degrees, which would act the same as if you used a key in the lock and turned it 90 degrees: the van would then unlock the front doors. When the thieves returned the grips back to the starting position and rotated them a second time, the load area of the van would unlock too.
Mar 6, 2017 — an important video changing the behaviour of the central locking of the Ford Custom to stop the driver’s door from unlocking the load area of the van, something that Ford would later go on to do as a recall and implement as changed logic for the facelift model in 2018.
With the whole van being unlocked, thieves could steal tools from whichever door they wanted to open, it was so crazy. Now that thieves only needed a set of adjustable grips, which they might already have, it seemed to go crazy with break-ins.
This video went viral in May 2017. From its description: “A van driver’s video showing the two-second trick being used by thieves to break into brand new Ford Transits has been viewed more than two MILLION times. Alan Hills, 26, recorded himself forcing the main lock after having £650 worth of power tools pinched from his work van. He’s one of the latest to fall victim to the simple technique and has since heard of hundreds of other drivers who have been targeted in the same way.”
This video had millions of views across multiple channels, and multiple newspapers featured the story. Everyone knew about how easy it was to break into a Ford Transit MK8 or a Ford Transit Custom using the grips exactly as shown in the video.
We also saw wiring looms being cut where they go from the body of the van into the driver’s door, similar to the barn door wiring loom attacks that we had seen on the MK6 and MK7 Transit vans, where the hacksaw or Stanley knife blade would ground the unlock wire of the van, effectively joining it through the blade to other wires inside the wiring loom that were resting at earth.
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Jun 19, 2017 — where we bundled electronic and mechanical security together to help secure these vans from attacks, and also gave alarm detection by upgrading the factory alarm to detect peel-and-steal attacks as well as hole-through-the-roof or side-panel attacks.
We were also seeing peel-and-steal attacks to both the Ford Custom and MK8 Transit vans, and occasional hole-through-the-roof or side-panel attacks. These model vans didn’t always have factory alarms fitted, but even when they did, they had the same problem as the MK7 alarm, where the switch that told the van the door was open was low down on the door, and there were no sensors inside the van’s cargo area to detect these types of break-ins. I developed a way to integrate PIR detectors for the load area and a high position switch for the side load door, and we would recommend this to customers as a cost-effective upgrade for their factory fitted alarm, or we could fit an entirely new alarm with a load area PIR / high position door switch.
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When you think things wouldn’t get any worse!
We had been in a situation where thieves had been using adjustable grips to unlock the whole van, but at least the alarm wasn’t being deactivated from the driver’s door barrel or thieves using grips (like the MK7 Transit had been disarming the alarm with the Tibbe lock-picking key)… but then we started getting Ford Transit Custom owners contacting us here at Sussex Installations, telling us that they had been broken into via the driver’s door barrel and their alarms hadn’t sounded! I found that hard to believe, but we booked in one of these customers for security upgrades to his van, and he was right: turning the key in the driver’s door barrel, or a thief using grips to simulate a key turning in the lock, not only unlocked the whole van but was actually disarming the alarm as well, meaning the alarm would not sound and a thief could have free rein to rummage through a van and steal whatever they wanted in silence.
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Apr 22, 2017.
It seemed that during a changeover to a Euro 6 engine, and a change to a new design of body control module, somehow some flawed logic relating to the alarm being disarmed had been rolled out. We first saw it on some versions with an additional bench seat in the rear, then we saw it on nearly every van that was sold (seemingly those with an STG6 label on the inside of the passenger door).
Oct 31, 2017 — after the announcement of the software update, we tested a new Ford Custom that had just rolled off a forecourt.
Ford adjusted the software and the behaviour of the BCM, and how it responds to unlock signals from the driver’s door barrel, so that if the van has been locked by the remote control but is unlocked by the manual driver’s door barrel, it should not unlock the load area. This is very sensible, and similar to the electronic modification that we had been carrying out since the year before. Software logic is so flexible, and the modern motor vehicle is like having a mini computer, so there is a lot that is possible during software / firmware configuration. What is needed is for a security review to be carried out to highlight security vulnerabilities, then a consultation where security is a high enough priority among the other requirements, such as safety and user convenience, in order to get a security-effective, convenient and safely behaving body control module.
Seeing attacks in 2019 where thieves were making holes through the thin metal bodywork near the rear of the side load doors to attack the latch / central locking unit inside the doors, there weren’t any suitable internal covert shields at the time to offer protection to the latches. I had already learned how to use CAD software and had successfully designed and had made my own shields for the Vauxhall Vivaro / Renault Trafic model van, and now it was time for me to design my first covert shields that would be compatible with Ford Transits and Ford Transit Custom vans.
These shields became our first Stealth Shields.
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Feb 2, 2020.
There also weren’t any external repair shields available to cover the hole over and get the vans back on the road quickly and cost-effectively.
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Thieves started attacking the rear barn door with more hole-through-the-bodywork attacks, and I designed an internal Stealth Shield and external repair shields.
Sep 13, 2021.
The size of the holes thieves made got bigger, and I needed to design a larger size shield to cover the damage of the larger hole. We thought this shield was huge at the time, but shields would get bigger than this.
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Mar 12, 2022.
Thieves started attacking deadlocks as well as the factory latch, and I designed Escutcheon repair shields for the damage caused around the deadlock, as well as fitting our Stealth Shields and repair shields for the door around the area where the latch is.
Jul 7, 2023.
Damage became extra large, and I needed to design an extra-large size repair shield, and also began the idea of what would become the Stealth Trap anti-cut-around device.
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Mar 7, 2025.
We started to see vans that we had fitted our Stealth Shields to years earlier stopping thieves getting into the van, but we still had to repair the damage caused by the break-in attempt.
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We say that if thieves really want to get in, and will stop at nothing to get in, then eventually they will. But this Ford Custom van, which had deadlocks and one of our Stealth Shields fitted, impressively stood up to a physical brute-force attack that was really beyond the scope of what any security product can realistically be designed to stop, which reinforces my belief that Stealth Shields should be purchased as the number one security product before purchasing deadlocks. I believe that Stealth Shields typically give the maximum security improvement per pound spent of any security product, including deadlocks, slamlocks or surface-mounted locks.
I managed to get an early look at the new Ford Custom van in December 2023. I made a close examination of where the locks were positioned in the door and how they operated, and I looked at how the factory deadlocking functioned and the software logic of how the central locking responded to the driver’s door barrel unlocking the van when the van had been locked and deadlocked by the remote control. I noted that the van has Key Free operation, where you can lock and unlock the door by simply touching the buttons on the outer door handles, and what security weaknesses this may have for van users, and that van users can turn the Key Free function off if they wish. I examined how the alarm system behaved and whether it was disarmed by the factory barrel, and noted that it wasn’t. I looked at what sensors the alarm has and noted that there are ultrasonic sensors in the load area as well as ultrasonic sensors inside the cabin area. I removed the door panels of the side load door and barn door and inspected the latch mechanisms inside the door and the wiring route. I noted that the side load door has a very similar latch / central locking mechanism to the previous Ford Custom van, but the door pin switch had been moved inside the latch, instead of being a pin switch on the bodywork. I acknowledged that there had been an improvement to the factory shield around that latch in the side load door, as that had been the most vulnerable attack point of the previous Ford Custom for four years already, and I knew that the security of this latch was the number one priority for this van.
My confidential observation at the time was that the latch shield improvement would not be anywhere near sufficient to stop thieves breaking into the van in the same way they had been breaking into the previous model Ford Custom. I did not disclose this publicly at the time, as I did not want to encourage attacks of this nature. I inspected the rear barn doors of the van and noted that they had switched to an electronic actuator system, with an electric latch at the top and an electric latch at the bottom of the door that pops the door open. I tested the functionality of it and tested the potential security issues if a thief were to attack the latches or attack the wiring in the van to manipulate the locking electronically or by software, but I did not, and still have not, publicly disclosed my findings on this. From my review of the electronic locking of the rear door, and the behaviour of the buttons to open the door from the inside, to open the main barn door from the outside, and to use the electronic button to open the second barn door, I could see that it had been a challenge for the Ford team to manage this and implement software logic that is user-friendly. I believe there have been several software updates to change the behaviour of these electronic buttons in the nearly three years since the first vans rolled off the production line, and I’m not sure the logic is ideal even now from a user’s point of view.
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Dec 10, 2023.
My decision after reviewing this van in December 2023 was that I would need to purchase a van at the earliest possible date and begin development of security products for it, with the number one priority being a Stealth Shield to protect the latch inside the side load door. I found that there was actually a tiny bit more space inside this door than the previous model Ford Custom, between the latch mechanism and the outer skin of the door. I had developed a dual-layer shield with wrap-around features to deflect attacks straight on and from angles, but I felt compelled to out-develop myself and add an additional layer of shielding to make it triple-layer thick (6mm) in the most vulnerable places from a drilling point of view. The shield weighed in at approximately 2kg.
Registered Design — Stealth Shield (applied for 26.4.2024): view on TMDN →
Jul 26, 2024 — a new-shape Ford Custom van came to our workshop after being broken into, with a hole in the side load door and the latch attacked in the same way thieves had been breaking into the previous model Ford Custom vans since 2019. Nick, an electrician, told us there were no doors available to repair the damage, and so he might have to drive a rental van for an unknown period of time (months, or maybe a year) while he waited for Ford to begin production of doors as spare parts. I had already designed and developed a repair shield for this model van by this time, so we were able to repair the damage with our OG external bolt-on repair shield, and we also fitted our Stealth Shield and deadlocks to his van on the day he was here.
Registered Design — OG external repair shield (applied for 26.4.2024): view on TMDN →
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Video with Nick, Jul 26, 2024.
7.08.2024 — we had a new-shape Custom van arrive in our workshop after having deadlocks fitted by a lock-fitting company (not Sussex Installations), but with no Stealth Shielding fitted inside the side load door.
We developed an Escutcheon repair shield for the deadlock on the day, while the customer was here with us in our workshop, as well as fitting our Stealth Shields and our already developed OG external shields to cover the damage lower down where the thieves had attacked the latch.
I registered the design of the Escutcheon repair shield on 20.9.2024 with the Intellectual Property Office.
Registered Design — Escutcheon repair shield (registered 20.9.2024): view on TMDN →
We published the video on our YouTube channel on Dec 13, 2024.
Dec 13, 2024.
Jun 6, 2025 — a van owner visited us with a new Ford Custom that had holes in the side load door where thieves had broken in to attack the latch mechanism. This customer was happy for a shield repair, but wanted the shield painted to the colour code of the van. By this time we had built a paint spray booth at our premises in Eastbourne, and we had already painted our OG repair shield to the colour code of the van owner’s van before he arrived. We repaired the van by fitting our colour-coded shield at a fraction of the cost the customer had been quoted for a repair from a bodyshop (he had been quoted £5,000 for a new door repair).
Jun 6, 2025.
We have been suggesting for many years at this point that owners of Ford Custom and Ford Transit MK8 vans have Stealth Shields fitted inside their doors to protect the weak points, in addition to having deadlocks, and this is what gives layers of security. This van owner is one of our customers who did have us fit our triple-layer thick Stealth Shield into the side load door of his van, as well as deadlocks. He had thieves carry out a brutal attack on his van, where they attacked the deadlock as well as making a hole low down on his door to attack the factory latch / central locking mechanism. However, these thieves were NOT successful in breaking into this van, due to our Stealth Shield being fitted inside the door protecting the weak point of the factory latch. This is in contrast to a previous video from Dec 13, 2024, where there was only a deadlock and no Stealth Shield fitted, and in that video the thieves did manage to break into the van. These real-world results tell us that having a Stealth Shield is likely to make a van more secure than buying a deadlock alone, in cases where thieves are making holes into doors to break in.
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Aug 15, 2025.
We published a YouTube video that explains the different types of security products for the new-shape Ford Custom and what our best recommendations are for what security products to buy, what products aren’t really relevant anymore and aren’t such an effective use of a security budget, and also offers some free advice about how to use your new Ford Custom in a more secure way by understanding its features.
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Apr 3, 2026.
We show our patent-pending Stealth Trap and Stealth Trap Anchor anti-cut-around device, developed in response to thieves cutting around external shields, and explain why having a separate internal Stealth Shield plus Stealth Trap is better than having an external shield with an internal shield connected only to that external shield.
These extracts are from genuine five-star Google reviews.
★★★★★"I have a left-hand drive Transit and took the opportunity to stop off in Eastbourne to have my van made secure. It would also seem that the security work has already paid for itself."
Kevin Stanley · Google review, September 2023
★★★★★"Excellent service from initial telephone call to completion of fitting deadlocks on my Ford Transit Connect van."
Mark Warman · Google review, January 2015
★★★★★"I had a side door repair plate for my Ford Transit Connect, it covered the damage perfectly, the fitting was easy with the instructions supplied."
Lawrence Van Gils · Google review, 2024
Review wording has been lightly shortened for display without changing its meaning. Full reviews remain available on the Sussex Installations Google Business Profile.
It follows the vehicle's security story from the Mk6 model released in 1996, to loom guard attacks, barrel attacks and factory alarm quirks through software updates and higher-security barrels, and on to the more recent latch and hole-through-door attacks I have documented on the current Transit Custom shape.
It helped with one specific issue. The Ford security software update, along with higher-security driver's door barrels, made it harder for thieves to unlock the load area by twisting the barrel, but it did not stop attacks generally, since thieves moved on to different methods including cutting through the door skin.
Because it showed a real case of a Ford Custom's factory alarm being disarmed from the driver's door barrel, a serious enough finding that I wanted every Ford Transit Custom owner to be able to check their own van before it happened to them too.
Each page preserves the original description, historical context and the full available transcript.
What is the difference between a SLAMLOCK, a DEADLOCK or ARMAPLATE? What is the best way to SECURE your VAN? What are the best VAN LOCKS for my VAN SECURITY. Contact us via our website http://www.sussexinstallations.co.uk or 01323
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This is a video demonstration of the security products that we fitted to a Mercedes Sprinter 2016 van. We fitted an alarm system that operates from the Mercedes remote control with sensors in the cab and a load (cargo) area PIR de
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Please share with any van owners that you know! Lots of different van security options explained, deadlocks, surface mounted locks, OBD locks, alarms, alarm sensors and more. This is a comprehensive overview of many products that
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WOW! This Ford Custom alarm disarmed from the driver's door barrel. Please help us to SHARE this with every FORD TRANSIT CUSTOM owner so that they can check their alarm before it's too late for them as this Ford Custom owner lost
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As if van owners don't already have enough to worry about with all the van tool theft and theft of whole vans!! Vehicle theft has risen by 50% in the last 3 years and tool theft from vans is at an all time high. Tradesmen up and d
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In this exclusive video you can see how Van Security Expert Jeff Scott tests the security of the All New Ford Transit Custom. Sussex Installations are the van security experts and Director Jeff Scott examines the physical componen
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The Ford security software update (along with many vans now having higher security driver's door barrels) has meant that thieves are less likely to be able to unlock the load area of the Ford Custom van or Ford Transit van by twis
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This product can be purchased on our website here https://www.sussexinstallations.co.uk... Jeff Scott from Sussex Installations explains how to properly install an external security shield on a Ford Custom van door. This guide cov
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Thieves seem to be making more damage on vans than ever before and we look at what we can do to adapt to that and design bigger repair shield solutions for our customers so that we can offer them a quick and effective repair solut
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This is an EXTRA LARGE repair shield that we developed to repair the rear doors of the Renault Trafic, Vauxhall Vivaro, Nissan NV300 and Fiat Talento vans after they have had extensive damage by thieves breaking into the rear of t
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Developing internal door shielding for this model van was a nightmare, such a challenge with the little space that's available inside the side load doors of the Vauxhall Vivaro, Peugoet Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Toyota Proace and
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Tradesmen up and down the country have been getting in touch with us at Sussex Installations as they are desperate to find a repair shield solution for the Ford Transit Connect short wheel base (SWB) side load door; for when thiev
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Tradesman Nick Hempleman of Nitec Solutions Electrical Plumbing and heating Contractors brings his Brand New Shape Ford Custom van to us after he had been broken into. There's a savage hole in the side load door after thieves brok
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