Someone tried to steal my car last night. Seems they first tried to hotwire it – fusebox was open, but can’t see any obvious damage. Lights and radio work.

However, there’s a thin blade stuck in the ignition. It’s stuck fast, I couldn’t get it to move at all with pliers. I was hoping the car might still work if I could get this file out. But I suppose this means fitting a new ignition?

Car is a 1999 Focus, BTW. It’s an absolute banger, so if repairs are expensive it might make more sense to write it off.

I am not a happy bunny this Sunday afternoon.

Surely get the police to look over the car before you fanny about potentially destroying evidence?

@scruff9252 I don’t believe it would achieve anything. The same car got broken into a couple of years back, and the local cops were not at all interested. I could have hassled them into making some token steps, but at the cost of several hours filling in forms beforehand. They made it clear they weren’t going to bother dusting for fingerprints etc.

I’m not in the UK by the way. I’m in central Europe and the paperwork can be byzantine. And life is very short. I’d rather just get my car working again if possible.

Stupid phone.

They were obviously clueless numpties- Focuses (Foci?) use a transponder system so if they didn’t have the key no amount of hotwiring will get it going.
It sounds like they have made a mess of your ignition lock so you might as well try violence to get that bit of metal out, you are not likely to make it worse- and you might get lucky and find the key still works.
Is the steering lock off? If so remove the plastic cowlings round the column and see if you can remove the electronic switch from the end of the ignition lock assembly. You may be able to operate the lock with a screwdriver to operate the switch. Tape your key next to where you would normally put it so the transponder works.
Good luck!

@bikemike1968 – thanks for the constructive answer, I will give it a go.
Replacement cylinders/keys don’t seem to cost much online, so I could have a go at replacing it myself. I could really do without the hassle, though.
And yes, obviously numpties. They left a pathetic collection of random tools in the car. Since the car’s worth practically nothing, I may even come out of this ahead!

i had a snapped key stuck i took the barrel out drilled a small hole at the bottom of the barrel and knocked the key out