Tony Ayoub

Updated June 2026

8 Minute Read

My First Call At 5:30am Wasn't To The Police. It Was To My First Client Of The Day To Tell Him I Couldn't Come.

That phone call cost me more than the ute ever did.

I've been a plumber for eleven years. Started as an apprentice at nineteen.

Went out on my own at twenty-six.

Built everything the slow way. Good reputation. Repeat clients. Word of mouth.

My ute wasn't just transport. It was my business.

Every tool I owned was inside it. Every invoice that week depended on it.

People who haven't run a trade business hear "my car got stolen" and think inconvenience.

Insurance paperwork. Rental cars. Phone calls.

They don't think about what I was looking at standing barefoot on an empty driveway at 5:30 in the morning.

They don't think about the Rinnai hot water unit waiting for an 8am installation.

Or the $4,200 worth of Ridgid tools bolted into the tray.

Or the apprentice I'd have to call and tell not to come in.

Or the property manager I'd worked years to earn the trust of.

Then I made the call I'd never had to make. "I can't make it today."

That call cost me more than the ute did.

The ute had vanished.

No smashed glass. No broken window. No alarm. No noise.

Just an empty driveway where my livelihood had been sitting a few hours earlier.

For a moment I convinced myself someone in my family had borrowed it.

They hadn't.

I had absolutely no idea where it was.

The Part Nobody Talks About

At first I wasn't thinking about insurance. I was thinking about Thursday's jobs.

Friday's jobs.

The invoices I wouldn't send.

The clients I'd have to cancel.

The apprentice I'd still have to pay.

Some vehicles aren't just transport.

They're businesses on four wheels.

And every hour they're missing costs far more than fuel and registration.

What Really Gets Stolen

🚗

Vehicle

↓

🧰

Tools

↓

💼

Jobs

↓

💰

Income

↓

⭐

Reputation

↓

🧠

Peace of Mind

Later I found out how they did it.

Not with a crowbar.

Not with a smashed window.

A relay device.

One person stood near my front door with a signal amplifier.

Another waited in the street.

They captured the signal from my key inside the house.

Unlocked the ute.

Started it.

Drove away.

The whole thing took less than forty seconds.

40 Seconds

Vehicle stolen

$4,200

Professional tools inside

8:00 AM

Missed installation

11 Years

Business built

Forty seconds to take eleven years.

I borrowed my brother-in-law's Hilux that morning.

Drove straight to Bunnings.

Spent $340 replacing just enough equipment to get through the next day's job.

Then I called the client.

Explained what had happened.

He understood.

At least that's what he said.

But I could hear it in the silence.

Something had changed.

Insurance Replaces Money But Doesnt Recover What You Lost Today

Insurance pays after assessment

Covers financial loss

Helps replace the vehicle

Doesn't find your vehicle

Doesn't recover your tools

Doesn't get tomorrow's jobs back

Doesn't restore control

Insurance wasn't my recovery plan. It was my reimbursement plan. Those aren't the same thing.

I couldn't stop thinking about one question.

Why hadn't the alarm gone off?

I'd spent around $600 having a professional aftermarket alarm installed.

Not the cheap kind.

A proper system.

It had worked before.

During a storm a branch landed on the bonnet and the siren screamed exactly as it should.

So why hadn't it gone off now?

Why hadn't the alarm gone off?

During the insurance inspection I asked the auto electrician.

He looked at me and said something I've never forgotten.

"The alarm worked perfectly. It was protecting against yesterday's thieves."

He explained that relay theft doesn't trigger alarms.

As far as the vehicle knows...

The correct key opened the door.

No broken window. No forced entry. No reason to sound the alarm.

The security system wasn't faulty.

It had simply been designed for a different generation of theft.

How Relay Theft Works

🏠

House

↓

📡

Key Signal

↓

📶

Relay Device

↓

🚙

Vehicle Unlocks

↓

Vehicle Driven Away

Time: Under 40 Seconds

Modern Theft Has Changed

Modern vehicle theft isn't about smashing windows. Professional thieves now commonly use:

Relay attacks
Key signal cloning
OBD programming
Electronic key replacement

The result? Many owners don't even realise their vehicle has gone until they wake up to an empty driveway.

The Question I Should Have Been Asking All Along

I turned that conversation over in my head for weeks.

Everything I'd done...

The alarm.

The deadlock.

Parking nose-first.

Trying to make my ute harder to steal.

Every decision had been focused on stopping the theft.

But the relay attack made me realise something.

Professional thieves don't think the same way ordinary owners do.

They don't arrive hoping for an easy opportunity.

They arrive prepared.

That's when I realised I wasn't asking the right question.

Instead of asking...

"How do I stop someone stealing my ute?"

I should have been asking...

"If they steal it anyway... what happens next?"

That single question changed everything.

Recovery Starts When Prevention Fails

The goal isn't to replace sensible security. The goal is to have a plan the moment your vehicle disappears.

If my phone had alerted me the moment the ute moved...

I would've had a location.

I would've had time.

I would've had somewhere to start.

Instead...

I found out when I opened the front door.

By then, the window was already gone.

The Biggest Problem Isn't Theft. It's Having No Way To Respond During The First Few Hours.

Recovery doesn't begin when insurance calls.

Recovery begins the moment your vehicle moves.

The Real Cost Was Never The Ute

The maths of what those six weeks cost me... Not the insurance payout. The real cost. Took me a while to calculate.

The vehicle excess was $1,100. The tool excess was another $800. The rental car wasn't practical, so I still borrowed my brother-in-law's Hilux whenever I needed to move materials.

I lost the property manager. Not dramatically. The jobs just quietly stopped coming. I estimate that relationship alone was worth around $12,000 every year.

Then I turned down a bathroom renovation because I simply didn't have the equipment anymore. Another $4,800. Gone.

🚗

Vehicle Excess

$1,100

🧰

Tool Excess

$800

🤝

Lost Client

~$12,000 / Year

🚿

Bathroom Renovation

$4,800

It took six weeks of watching my business slowly come apart before I finally understood something.

I wasn't protecting a vehicle. I was protecting the thing the vehicle made possible.

That was the real loss. Not the ute. Everything attached to it.

For weeks I'd been trying to stop theft.

But that wasn't the real problem.

The real problem was having absolutely no control once it had already happened.

That's when I stopped thinking about protecting a vehicle...

...and started thinking about protecting everything that depended on it.

Introducing Trackguard

Apple Find My

Uses Apple's Find My network to help locate your vehicle.

No Monthly Fees

Buy once. No ongoing subscription costs.

Magnetic Mount

Attaches securely underneath your vehicle.

Long Battery Life

Designed for long-term protection.

Recovery Is Better Than Hope

For years, I thought protecting my vehicle meant making it harder to steal.

Now I see it differently.

Good security still matters.

But no security system can guarantee theft will never happen.

What matters is what you can do next.

Recovery begins with information.

Not paperwork.

Not waiting.

Knowing where your vehicle was last detected gives you something every stolen vehicle owner wants.

A chance to act.

Old Thinking

Better locks
Better alarms
Hope nothing happens
Wait for insurance

New Thinking

Prepare before theft
Know where it moved
Open Find My
Act immediately

Built Around A Network Millions Already Trust

TrackGuard wasn't designed to be another complicated GPS tracker.

It was built around something millions of Australians already use every day.

Apple's Find My network.

If your vehicle is ever stolen...

You simply open the Find My app and see where it was last detected.

No new platform.

No complicated setup.

No ongoing subscription.

Why Not Just Hide An AirTag?

It's a fair question.

Many people already own an AirTag.

TrackGuard isn't trying to replace Apple's technology.

It's built around it.

The difference is that TrackGuard is purpose-built for discreet vehicle installation.

Instead of improvising with tape or zip ties...

You get a cleaner, more secure solution designed specifically for protecting your vehicle.

DIY AirTag

Temporary mounting
DIY installation
Designed for everyday items

TrackGuard

Purpose-built housing
Magnetic installation
Designed for discreet vehicle recovery

So much better than taping an AirTag under my car!

Sarah M.

Clean installation and peace of mind for my vehicle.

James T.

Professional solution that actually works as advertised.

Mike R.

No. TrackGuard works with Apple's Find My network, so there are no ongoing subscription fees.
No. The magnetic design allows installation in minutes.
TrackGuard is designed to be installed discreetly underneath your vehicle.
Insurance helps replace financial loss. It doesn't tell you where your vehicle is while recovery is still possible.
TrackGuard provides a purpose-built mounting solution designed specifically for vehicles.
TrackGuard is mainly designed for Apple's Find My network and requires a compatible Apple device, however an Android version is avaliable.

Hopefully... You'll Never Need It.

The best recovery plan is the one you already have before something goes wrong.

Because if tomorrow morning your driveway is empty... You won't be wondering what to do next. You'll already know.

Protect My Vehicle Today

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🍎 Apple Find My Compatible

🇦🇺 Australian Owned

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TrackGuard isn't another gadget. It's a practical recovery plan for the vehicle your family, your work, and your future depend on. Protect it today, and hope you never need it.