dbg (12/06/82)
Well, it happened again. Some low-life broke into my car, ripped apart the dash, and made off with my stereo/cassete. About a half dozen cars total "got it" that night in the same lot. The good car (82 performance supra) didn't get touched -- presumeably due to the alarm system. They went for the older, unprotected car right next to it. Unfortunately, I own that one too. The point I want to bring up is about alarm systems. The alarm system in my supra disables the ignition and sets off a siren with any entry or motion. The disarming keypad is currently sitting up on the dash IN PLAIN VIEW. I just haven't yet decided on a nice place to tuck it away into. I may be wrong but I believe the fact that it was clearly visible deterred the would be low-life to choose another car as victim for his/her perverted and cowardly act. In other words, a keypad alone sitting on the dash (without the $200 worth of electronics and sensors) would have accomplished the same thing. I guess I'm not so worried about the whole car being stolen since the insurance will replace it. I'm more concerned with damage due to forced entry. And so it's a psychological game of making you think my car is well protected whether or not it really is (it is now, I've added a paging system and I keep a Louisville Slugger next to my bed). It appears you can get an alarm with ignition disable, siren, and paging system for about $200 from the back of the Car magazines. If you get an alarm, I recommend leaving it in plain sight. I'd appreciate hearing about any other deterents anyone has found to be effective. You may as well post it. Anyone could be a victim since I'm sure Naperville doesn't have a corner on the low-life market. ihldt!dbg Dave Green BTL, IH, Naperville, IL
bellas@ttidcb.UUCP (Pete Bellas) (07/04/85)
Along the Tesla coil idea. I was working "on loan" to Lockheed and had my car broken into and the stereo stolen (It was a "theft proof" model that was bolted to the transmission hump, they simply removed the entire hump, which I had to replace with sheet metal!). One of the guys in the electronics lab said he would come up with a good "alarm' for me. He called it the "Electro Zap", it used a solidstate oscilator and a coil to charge the entire body of the vehicle. When it went off touching any metal part of the car was like grabing hold of a spark plug wire. I installed it for a while, but eventually got paranoid over the legal aspect of "electrocuting" someone and removed it. My final solution was to move to somewhere where you can leave your windows down at night and you wallet on the dash, and not worry about anything being missing in the morning. -Pete- "It's nice out here in the desert... no rain, no crops, no white brother..."