Unofficial Master General Car Security Thread (theft deterrent ideas, all makes)

[brucey]

Wait, you guys lock your doors?

[Cobb]

Various gps trackers like american family insurance gps and I think the progressive insurance if you got an odb2 port.

I cant find it, but I had eyed one on the fit freak forum using an old prepaid cell phone you hide in the car so you can track it by an app if its stolen.

[Xist]

For some reason, I have had difficulty locking the driver's door on both of my cars, so sometimes I do not bother.

I like the cell phone idea! Wouldn't it need to be on, though?

[yoyoyoda]

Originally Posted by slowmover

I added a RAVELCO key to mine a while back.

That is a pretty serious looking security method.

If you want to increase car security beyond this, secure your home too.

All it takes is a gun pointed to you or one of your family members head for you to give up that key, or any key, to the robbers.

A key is nothing, all it is is a bit of metal that lets the car know who the owner is, if the key is stolen then it doesn't matter what security you have installed the car doesn't care who you are, robber or genuine owner.

The best method I've found is having a floor brake lock and storing the brake lock key seperatley from the other keys.

That way If you are forced to give up your keys to a robber you give him the ignition keys and not the brake lock key, this gets you a small window of opportunity where he goes down to the car to check it out thinking he has won, where you can lock the house door behind him or run away with the brake lock key.

I would at the very least install CCTV IP hardwired cameras with a 12v DC feed to the cameras via Power Over Ethernet, which then allows you to run both power and data over the same cable, I use thin ethernet cables to run through doorways to the outside of my house, then repaint them in the same color as the doors.

This combined with a battery backed up CCTV 12v power supply and a modern computer running Zoneminder on a UPS I don't see many methods which they can defeat a system like this without knowing with full knowledge of what will happen beforehand if they break in.

You can hide the CCTV cameras in plain sight, as I do, that gives you the upper hand when robbers come and visit because they won't think to put masks over their faces or get a can of spray paint and spray your cameras, or simply just grab a hammer and smash it.

Thats another good point, keep the cameras up high out of reach.

With CCTV all it is is an evidence gathering tool, thats all, it doesn't stop crimes it just reports crimes to you the owner, usually after the fact that something has been stolen. But its better than nothing.

The reason for using Wired ethernet is:
Wireless IP cameras can be easily defeated by thieves with a 2.4GHz ISM band Jammer.
Wireless is subject to interference from other access points which may change channel onto yours, in effect knocking out the CCTV system.

[P-hack]

If they have a gun then I WANT them to leave, unless they have a hostage, then I want them to go nowhere and be distracted so I can go get a gun and finish them. No talking, no negotiating, not leaving a hostage at your "mercy" while you drive off.

[Fat Charlie]

The best thing to do is move. It's not worth any of this.

[brucey]

Most career criminals don't have WiFi jammers and high tech car alarm defeaters.

Most of them are idiots unable to hold a job so they hold up liquor stores for quick cash. Or they see an unoccupied building and steal the copper lines from the water system to sell for scrap. Or they smash a car window and grab the stereo and anything else valuable in the car. Usually worth less than the window they smashed to get to it. If it's more complicated than a smash and grab, their drug addicted brain probably can't come up with a good method. Let them have your belongings if you're at gun point, it's not worth your life. You have insurance for a reason, and at the end of the day a car is just a bunch of plastic metal and wires that was made in the tens of thousands, while your life is something truly unique that can never be replaced.

Now if your LIFE is in danger, and someone is trying to kill you, you go ahead and try to kill them right back.

[Cobb]

I have wifi cameras. They are on their own router thats hidden like our primary one. They also email photos when motion is detected. I delete hundreds of spams a day, whats a few photos of a cat, bird, leaf or a walmart bag flying in the wind?

You can get them pretty cheap now days and many use 5 volts 1 amp or less.

My neighbor is into those game cameras. The ones hunters put up on a tree to photo deers and such by motion?

Still, someone wants to steal your car, they can do so with a tow truck in a few seconds and take it away.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by redneck

GPS vehicle tracking

Expensive...

All you need is an old phone and a 5v adapter for a DIY GPS locator.

[JRMichler]

I locked my truck maybe ten times last year.

Somebody called the police recently to report that a car out on the street was empty, and the engine had been running for three hours. The police tracked down the owner, who had forgotten to shut the engine off.