absence_of_color

I recently had some bling wheels put on my ride and not two weeks later, I myself have thwarted off someone obviously planning to steal my car AND my neighbor ran off some dude trying to get into my car.

Im worried and upset over this, so now I have to put a rush on an alarm system so I can continue enjoying my wheels along with my car. GEEZ!

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Seaver

Alarm systems are rediculously easy to foil, but I guess better than nothing.

One favorite trick is to wait for a thunderstorm, they will scratch off paint on a section of the car to allow a closed circut. They pop open the hood after a lightning crash (many car alarms go off by those so people ignore) and connect the battery with the car (ground). This blows the breakers and thus the power to the alarm. They can then steal whatever, or replace the breakers after disconnecting the alarm and/or hotwiring.

Dilbert1234567

Sounds like seaver may just be your culprit...

Unfortunately car alarms are junk, when was the last time you contacted the cops when you herd a car alarm?

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absence_of_color

Wow, seaver, I think you know way too much about the subject. Just not my ride ok? ;p

Yeah, dilbert, no one calls the cops for an alarm, but I sure will hear it and when I come outside and crack someones head in, who will need them?!!

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Infinite_Loser

If I were a car thief, that would be very valuable information.

When I think about it, though, that's rather interesting because once-- During some hurricane a few years back (I can't remember the name of it)-- A couple of thieves smashed in a window to my dad's Lexus without activating the car alarm and tried to steal the CD player as well as a few other things. Luckily, they were unable to strip the car and were eventually caught. I never knew why they would try to steal a car during a hurricane, but after reading your post it kinda' makes sense.

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Seaver

Well there are lots of tricks you pick up by having a varied background of friends. None of them were theives themselves, but instead had either old friends or family who knew many tricks.

There are other methods of fooling car alarms that are much more simple but take a lot more patience. Simply hit (but dont dent) the targetted car every day, preferably multiple times during the day, for just over a week. Watch the reaction of the car owner, most will be suspicious the first couple times. When he becomes fed up with it he won't even look out the window or even simply turn the alarm off. Then you just jack the car at your leasure.

I could go on about the many ways to steal expensive items from even the most carefully guarded stores without anyone noticing until long after they had left. I'll give you a hint, hollywood touches aspects of it... but it's 100x easier than they make it out to be. If yall want to hear it just let me know, dont want to thread jack.

mokle

Sounds like an "Ask the Theif" thread Just kidding, would be an interesting read though.

As for the OP, not a whole lot more you can do. I know they sell those keyed lug nuts (you need a special socket to remove them), but I'm not sure how effective they are.

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NoSoup

I'd be interested in hearing about it.

At the very least, it'll help us law abiding citizens know what to look out for

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bermuDa

This is why I drive a hoopty. Not because I can't afford a new car. Nope...

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Bill O'Rights

Unfortunatly, that's part of your problem. By putting "bling" wheels on your car, you are, in effect, saying "Hey! Look at me!". Nothing wrong with that, in and amoungst itself...however, in addition to everyone else, you're also attracting the attention of thieves. You might as well put a big "Steal Me" sign on your car.

Car alarms are a joke. Consider the witch (literally and figuratively) accross the street from me. Her car alarm goes off if the old man two doors up rips a fart. Think anyone even notices anymore? Not a chance. People are (A) immune to the sound of car alarms, (B) complacent because...well..it ain't thier car, and (C) there is an implication of a certain...arrogance with those who use car alarms. Kind of like a "I have cool shit and you don't, but you're going to help me watch over my cool shit, or have the crap annoyed out of you." attitude.

Seaver...good information, my man. Not quite sure how I'd feel about a "Ask a Thief" thread though. I wouldn't want it to devolve into a "Breaking & Entering 101" kind of thing. Still...it'd be a good thing to know what to look out for.

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Ustwo

You didn't get those spinner things did you?

Because if you did then stealing your car is a public service.

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Cynthetiq

having done a quick stint as a sidekick to a repoman, our motto was:

"If we want your car, we'll take your car when we want to take your car."

If we couldn't take it with a break-in means, we'd call for a flatbed and remove it. No one ever questions a person with a flatbed.

The gang would sometimes leave post its in people's cars like yours to just say "Hello! you aren't safe" to those people with fancy alarms and beepers.

The safest thing to do to keep your car, is put it inside your garage and lock it with another vehicle blocking it.

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Bill O'Rights

Actually...that'd be the second safest way. The safest way would be to bury it in the backyard, and pour a concrete patio over the top of it. That way the thieves will never want to bother with it.
Of course, that's not without drawbacks either, but at least you'll still have your car.

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"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Cynthetiq

oh yeah... that's right. The other car parked in front of it just delayed us a little while longer, and well garages did too.

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Jinn

Get Lojack.

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Bill O'Rights

Wasn't he that bald cop that always sucked on lollipops and said "Who loves ya, Baby?"?

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Cynthetiq

actually, installers are lazy, there are only so many places that one can hide the lojack transmitter, and more often than not thieves can find the transmitter on a vehicle they suspect lojack to be installed and disable it within about 15 minutes. I've also heard of radio jammers.

One of the most effective deterrents (again this won't stop flat beds and tow trucks) is a kill switch. usually allows for enough fuel for the vehicle to move a block or two finishing what's in the fuel line and then the engine cuts
out. Most theives will not try to figure out why a vehicle stopped working and will just abandon it.

I forgot that the other day I was watching a parking attendant move a car across a parking lot that had some odd angles, he used a tire skate, so the parking the car in front of the garage, again is just a time waster for the thief.

http://www.tireskate.com/

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cyrnel

I always wondered... Do repomen ever repo other repomen's repo-rides? It must have happened, somewhere, at least once.

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absorbentishe

Your first mistake was to "bling" your car. No offense, but why?? Is it for shows, or just to show that you have some money? Give me a shitty looking car that runs great any day.

Bill O'Rights

Had. The word is had some money.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

abaya

In the Philly ghetto, I have become oh-so-grateful for my shitty little '99 Ford Escort that hasn't been washed in years (inside or outside), and has nothing to offer to potential thieves. I drive past and people actually look *away.* It looks far worse than most of the drug dealers' cars I park next to every day... and guess who gets robbed? Yep, the bling-bling folks.

Just sayin'. I like being very low-profile, especially in a city that ranks #1 for homicides right now. Why do you want to be all blingy? I hope it's not for the chicks, 'cause as a woman I can tell you that it's not gonna work.

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Daniel_

Most cars on the market in Europe don't seem to bother with alarms any more, but imobilisers are very common.

My car (a very ordinary and cheap 2000 vintage Renault) has a device in the body of the key that trips the imobiliser and allows the engine to run, but fire the car up with the wrong key (even if it is cut correctly it needs the right eectronics in it) and it won't even turn over. The entire EMS computer stays asleep.

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Bill O'Rights

Can a 2000 any car be considered vintage? That's like 6 years old.
Hell, my truck is 30 years old. That's older than my HPOA asistant, and I daresay it works harder.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

krwlz

Pretty sure thats how my honda works. "Passive Anti-Theft System"

Either way, I know there are electonics in the key.

Jinn

Garbage. Show me ANY source that discounts the effectiveness of Lojack.

I think THEY have some confidence in it to, as they'll refund the entire cost of the system (and in some cases a partial cost of the vehicle) if the it is stolen and not recovered within 24 Hours. Do you have any idea how fast they'd go out of business with a policy like this and a dismal record like you purport?

From their website:
I don't even have it myself, but I've seen it be remarkably effective.. with the cops catching the car and the crook in under 20 minutes. My mom has it on her car, and they'll refund the entire unit cost including installation AND give her 20% of the car's net worth if it ever is. It may be a special deal, I'm not sure what exactly she paid. But I know it's been effective so far.

When they installed it, they put a tent up INSIDE the car so that even my mom couldn't see where they'd installed it.

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MSD

The best way to park outside to prevent towing is with the passenger's side against a wall (just short of scraping) and the front bumper on a wall, then cut the wheel all the way to the left. It's nearly impossible to get a tire skate under the front right, and towing would scrape the shit out of the passenger side.

shakran

What kind of attitude is that, where we blame the victim for the actions of the criminal? If he wants his car to look a certain way, he should be able to do it without having to worry about some lowlife messing things up for him.

Lojack is great. Car alarms are good too as long as you know what you're going for. Don't just get a normal car alarm. Get a PAGING car alarm. One with really good (at least 2 blocks) range. much more than that isn't useful because you won't be able to get to the car in time anyway, but if someone tries to jack your car while you're sitting in the house, you can go out and introduce yourself.

Cynthetiq

I never stated it was a DISMAL record. Please don't put any words into what I've written because it's clear that all I stated was that it can be COMPROMISED.

That's great, but two things. There are FINITE spots to hide the transmitter, once a thief starts targeting a vehicle, they learn all that they can as how it's protected. Just like any hacker hacking into any system, they learn the ins and outs and possibilities.

from lojack.com website:
Difficult, not impossible.

But since you've offered the challenge...

10% isn't dismal by a long shot,but it is still 10%.

Refund the MSRP of the LoJack system. Installation is extra, and not included.

Looks like a loophole to me to make it so they don't have to do anything if you don't have it inspected every 2 years.

From CarsDirect.com
Again, 90% recovery rate, good number. 65% of the US Population can get LoJack. Bad number if you live in Small Town, USA. Does that mean that not all police departments have access to LoJack retrieval systems? No. Police stations have to pay for the LoJack Retrieval systems, which is why it's not in every municipality, county, city of the USA. Even Poland is questioning it's deployment.

198,000 total cars with lojack installed, less 10% (19,800) gives you "180,000 vehicles have been recovered worldwide." !9,800 isn't a large number at all, but you have to admit it's greater than zero, and well, if I was part of the 19,800 it would still suck.

Oooh they refund the cost of the LoJack System. So they offer to refund you the cost of product. Your car is still stolen.

Now, you don't notice the vehicle is stolen for over 24 hours or wait longer than 24 hours to report it? It's gone. I happen to not see my car every day. I happen to have it parked in a garage 4 blocks away. If for whatever reason it got stolen from the parking garage, it can be almost 2 weeks from when I last drove it.

I can find nothing that suggests they will refund a portion or percentage of the cost of the vehicle.

some fine print: (highlighting and bold mine)
Finally, I grew up in LA. Lots of cars there had LoJack. What happened when the person who stole the LoJack vehicle drove it from the good ol' USA into Mexico????

NADA.

I do know someone who had a pager alarm system in LA. He got up and went down to investigate with a bat. Turned out someone was breaking into his car.

They beat the shit out of him and he was hospitalized, and he had his car stolen.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

shakran

And that, of course, is a risk that you take. But you take the same risk by simply walking down the streets of LA. You might get mugged. Should we all hide in our homes and hope the bad people go away?

go down and investigate, with a weapon. Scope out the situation. If you've got a bunch of guys breaking into your car, don't go running up to 'em. That's just obvious. Call the cops.

Just because you have one friend who got in over his head with his paging alarm does not mean the concept is flawed.

I also have a paging alarm system, and one day it went off and I went to investigate without any obvious weapons (had a folding knife ready to go), and stopped the jackass from getting into my car, and held him there until the cops arrived. And I still have my car, and he went to jail. You can have good experiences with paging alarms as well, but as with any defensive tool, you have to know how to use it. And by that I mean if you're gonna go running down to your car when the pager goes off, you'd better damn well be ready to handle yourself in a fight, because that's probably what you're running into.

Cynthetiq

Yep and that's what he wasn't prepared for... and neither am I, which is why that product isn't for me.

As an aside, when I did live in LA, I had the opportunity to work with one of the gentlemem who developed car alarm systems including LoJack. He explained to me car alarm systems companies don't really sell anything to stop a car thief as each system can be compromised in some way. Simple put they sell piece of mind.

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Bill O'Rights

What?!?

My illusions have been smashed.

Next...you're gonna tell me that reving up my engine and burning rubber isn't going to work either. Babes dig that shit, right? Right?


I think that the point he was trying to make was that if you're going to go out of your way to be all shiny and flashy, to attract attention, then you may not necessarily like some of the attention that you're going to attract.
Of course he's free to have his car look a certain way. He's also free to have me point and laugh, but that's a whole different topic. Point is, you can't put all of that scratch into a car, that you leave parked on the curb, and not expect to draw a little "attention".
As you say...he "should" be able to...but, then again, I should be rich and good looking. That didn't happen either.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

shakran

To a point. I didn't install my alarm thinking I was gonna defeat a highly organized and skilled gang of car thieves. I installed it intending to defeat the small-time jackass who likes to take cars on joyrides, or the random stereo thief.

that's a little stronger than the statement you interpreted Bill

And I disagree anyway. His first mistake was not "blinging" his car - his first mistake was blinging his car *without taking proper security measures.*

Alarm, lojack, wheel locks, and don't park the car out in the open if you don't have to. And if you do have to, have it parked by a valet - - -then they're responsible when your car gets messed with

Cynthetiq

that's a whole different issue... letting someone else drive your ride, they may rev the engine wrong, drive it harder than you do, play the stereo loud and blow a speaker...

the list goes on and on...

I did see this today in gothamist.com





I can't really tell what kind of car it is, but it makes me think of it being an older Benz SL

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

absence_of_color

I am a female.

Thanks for all the advice.
I did have an alarm put on the car with a kill switch if its activated, and it sure did give me piece of mind. The town I live in is notorious for car thieves, Id say the best in the area. I understand if they really want, Im sure they could figure out a way to take it. I just want to deter the common thieves and crackheads that either want my wheels for trade or quick cash. I really didnt think of that negative attention before I put the money into it. I can say I didnt "bling" it to be snobby or a show off, I just have never owned a really nice car, and probably will ever afford one, so I just thought of fixing up the car I have. It runs good, always has, runs even better because I also put some work into it under the hood and wheels, and now it looks good too. I figured out to just save myself the want of another and just fix the one I got. I also get personally attached to my cars. I know it sounds crazy, but I do. I give every one a name and feel a small bit of affection for them. Please dont mistake it for physical shallowness, its just I went for a long time without a car when the one I had before tore up and I didnt have the means to fix it. I like having a car, and its a good car. It gets me where I want to go and I APPRECIATE IT!!! So I said, what the heck, and gave it a new paint job and some "bling bling".

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Bill O'Rights

/me listens to the crickets chirping.
Whoa...that was a thread killer, huh?

Ok, I'll admit it...I'm a sexist ass. I didn't see that one coming until it smacked me up alongside of my head.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

JumpinJesus

I'm a bit late to this thread, as I usually am, but I do have two comments:

Seaver, did I read correctly? Thieves hang out by cars in thunderstorms, scratch some paint off to make a connection, wait for lightning to strike the car, then steal it? Do they hide in the bushes waiting for lightning to strike? Have any of them ever been struck by lightning hanging out that close? (I'm sort of joking, but not really since I am curious.)

And to the LoJack people: They guarantee the price of the alarm system. But if your car is stolen, what good is getting the price of the alarm system going to do? You're still out a car. I guess they can buy another alarm system (that apparently didn't work) and carry it around with them until their car is either recovered, the insurance goes through (if their policy covers theft), or they pay off the stolen car and buy another one. (I'm sort of joking, but not really.)

And absence of color: There's nothing wrong with putting bling on your ride....as long as your ride isn't, like, a 1987 Yugo or something like that. There IS, however, something wrong with saying "I put some bling wheels on my ride."

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MechCow

My dad's car (2005 Camry Azura) had a very loud alarm that only went off when it was being messed with and an engine immobilizer that is supposed to be difficult to stop. We were all tuned to the alarm because someone had tried to break into it a week earlier and we had caught them in the act (I believe this person was caught by the police in the end). It was stolen in the night and we never heard the alarm. There was some broken glass but that was it.

I would love to know how they did it.

krwlz

I'll correct for seaver... Nah man. They wait for lighting to strike elsewhere... The boom often setting off car alarms, and then they break in. That way if the alarm does go off, people assume it was due to the storm.

raeanna74

Hubby had a nice radio in his car. More for purposes of preventing the theft of the radio than the theft of the car he turned on the radios alarm that would go off about 5 seconds after the doors were opened unless you pressed the right buttons in time. He happened to be coming out of the grocery store and heard his alarm go off. The theif was sitting in the seat trying to yank the stereo out while grimacing because of the blaring alarm. Hubby walked up and yanked the guy out of the car so hard that he smacked his head on the nearby car and slumped to the ground where he stayed put while hubby stood there. There had been another man a ways back who'd set down his grocery bag and was calling the cops before hubby had even approached the car. In the end the guy was wanted for murder (if I remember it right) in another county.

The point of this - the alarm going off in the parking lot with someone IN the car alerted the other man to call the police and the guy DID take action and make the call. It also alerted hubby to something going on so that he was prepared when he walked up to the car. An alarm isn't completely useless but you can't expect it to do everything for you. If you can't hear the alarm because the car is parked too far away from your house it's not as helpful to you. If you leave it go off incessantly then your neighbors will ignore it when it's a real alert. Just like anything it's helpful if used responsibly.

Personally I would not buy a nice car or do anything obvious to fix it up if I could not hide it from prying greedy eyes in a garage or something.

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