This is not a strategy that I can recommend, but it did work this time.

When Russell Stuart heard his car start up in his driveway very early one morning, he realized it was being stolen and reacted immediately.  "I just got out of bed and ran to my car, opened the passenger door and sat down," he said.

This strategy is extremely risky, but it would at least give you the advantage of surprise.  Especially if, like Mr. Stuart, you sleep naked.

"I don't know what the guy must have thought when a large naked bloke got in the car next to him," Stuart told the Daily Telegraph, "but when your car is being stolen you don't think about it, you just react. . . . I said to him, 'All right mate – where are we going then?' and he just jumped out of the car and legged it."

Probably emboldened by this, Stuart said he then started up the car and drove around looking for the thief, but eventually called off the hunt when he realized that he might be cited for indecent exposure.  The thief escaped.  "I'll never forget the look on his face, though," Stuart said.  "It was a peach."