Howdy all,
Here's a post I wrote awhile back(on the vettenet), concerning my
attempts at car security.
I also really do scatter .357 shell casings on my dash, but only in
cars that are sitting for awhile in my driveway or back yard.
I would never shoot a vandal, but I would scare the crap out of him.
But anyone in the house (garage included) dies.
I think that the main thing to consider in car security is that you
want to make it inconviniant or risky enough that the scumbags will
move on to another car. I don't think that it takes much. There are
plenty of other oportunities for car thieves/vandals, something as
simple as a barking dog or a flashing red diode will make most move
on. No thief drives across town just for YOUR car, mostly they're just
browsing around, looking for a crime of convinience and opportunity.
Anyway, here's my post;
Aron Travis wrote:
>
> I have a security switch on my daily driver, a '66 Ford Galaxie beater.
> I teach adult ed. high school, but my students are not adults, they are
> dropouts usually between the ages of 14 and 22, often trying to continue
> their high school education as a condition of their parole or probation.
> That is why I need a security switch on a beater hoopdee.
>
> I located the switch under the steering column where there was a few
> convenient holes already, it is out of sight yet easy enough to get to
> without being obvious that I'm flicking a switch when I park the car.
> I used a 35 amp RV type toggle switch. I wired it to the "ON" part of the
> ignition switch. This has worked out super nice in that the car will
> still start with the ignition switch in the "START" position yet will
> immediatly stall when returned to the "ON" position-no power to the coil.
> I like this because I think that thiefs/joy riders will think that it's
> just some old beater that's tuff to keep running and give up,
> and not realize that it has a security switch.
> Now, of course, the question is-has this actually worked? Yes! Twice!
> Both times at school of course. The first time I heard the whir of a
> starter and the VROOM of a start (my Galaxie has a open exhaust) and
> then a stall. I heard this three times before it seeped into my brain
> that "THAT'S MY CAR" so I ran out and caught this squirly little punk
> drifting away from the Galaxie. He was in school as a condition for
> his probation on multible B&E arrests and went to juvinile detention
> for attempted grand theft auto and possition of buglary tools-the
> final straw I guess.
> Anyway -this
> happened exactly the same way again, except I didn't catch anyone the
> second time. Both times they pushed open the quarter window (breaking)
> the latch of course), and used a screwdriver with a pair of vice grips
> to twist the ignition switch.
>
> My insurance agent said that most cars are stolen for joy rides, and that
> the most sucessful security systems are ones that are owner created.
> Something to keep in mind, I orgionally thought that most cars were
> stolen for parts.
>
> Also I used to live in a fairly bad apartment complex and one of the
> games that the younger youth liked playing was to set peoples car alarms
> off- especially on non-school days like Thanksgiving! People would be
> on vacation and their alarms would go off for hours!
> This is where I
> learned that people ignore car alarms and tended to only call the police
> when it became a noise problem.
>
> -Aron Travis-
> "always in a automotive frenzy"
|