#1 Anything you do to a car that can harm a would be intruder is illegal in most states, here in washington it is considered a "Man trap" and you can go to jail just as if you hit the guy with 32 revolver.

Example, I used to work for a courrier service, we got a new emplyee, he looked like he had had a hard life. I asked him where he used to work, and he said in prison. He owned a mehcanic shop, and theives were braking into his cistomers cars. He wired 110 ac to the car body, somehow the guy got hung up on the car, or passed out half on it, it killed the thieve, the guy I worked with did 15 years for manslaughter, even though the car in question was INSIDE his shop with locked doors.

#2 Stealth, I can't stress that one enough Hide your stuff, male fake faceplates, and NEVER forget to pull your face out, 9/10 times they are checkin every night,a nd just waiting for you to forget your face. Stealth has other meanings too, so you're across town thinking your all good, bumpen your system like any other day, theive hears your system, a month later he spots your
car parked on a quiet street, he knows what you have so keep your stuff turned down around large groups of people. Also as I saw in another post, no Braggen to people you don't know. In some cases your friends will tell their friends about what you did (tryen to brag you up) and you'll get popped

#3
a)Alarms, they may provide a little comfort, but more than likely if they want it, they'll be able to get it quicker than you can get to your car.

b) Make the LED's very very obvious, Mine couldnt be seen well,(cost me a window) so I drilled some small holes in the doors, right next to the door locks I went to Radio shack, and got some nice red led's with the holders that just snapped into the holes, (if you look at the windows on my truck you can't miss em now)hooked that up to the already present alarm led. (you could just hook a toggle up if you don't have an alarm)

c) make sure you mount the alarm horn in a spot where you can really hear it, I found the firs mounting spot for my alarm horn muffled the sound by half. IO heard the window before I heard the alarm.

#4 Goons.
a) I installed a stereo for my wife on a sunday, took us 12 hours, and we also installed an alarm. Everything was covered, and the face was out of the rig(nobody could have known she had one + it had been stolen the week before). Monday morning the isuzu went into the local for dealer for some body work, she didn't have a ride, so the shuttle boy dropped it off that night. Monday night, as soon as we shut the lights off to go to bed I heard the alram do a short "whoop" I caught the theives in the act, but they already had my gear, and were on the road before I could get to 'em The reason the alarm was so short lived is because they unplugged the brain in like .5 seconds, I wonder how they knew where it was? can you say shuttle boy bandit!

c) it sounds harmless, but never ever give the stereo shop guys your phone number or address, they can also use a crossreference and get your address from your phone number. Some shops employee's have been known to sell that information.

Also if at all possible, do all your own installs in a garage, theives have also been known to watch the stereo shops for big installs, and follow you home to scope your system/break in potential.

If you're going to get credit to get your system put together, call american general, or the credit company yourself, this keeps your adress and personal information private.

5) CHEAP surveilance. So you can't afford a recorder/vcr/tv to dedicate to you car? Go buy a web cam, they have security software that "watches" your car if the picture changes by a few pixels (cat/dog/goon) It starts recording instantly, web cams can be had for the small sum of $30 you can also have them setup to upload the images so you can watch your car from anywhere with a internet conection (work frinds house etc)

6) Dogs, blue healer/dingo's are great, they are very owner oriented, protective, and get really pissed when people they dont know invade their personal space.

7) nieghbors/moving. Since I moved out of town into the country, I have left my doors unlocked and my face in the car 24/7 fo the last 6 years, I now know all my neighbors by first name, and they get to recognize who comes and goes, and who don't belong

8) For me it was better to move into a not so nice house in good neighborhood, than a sweet house in a terrible one.

9) USE the local police. Anything you see, anyone you see doing anything even remotely suspicious call, have your neighbors call, and everyone you know call. The more calls they get, the more their supervisors try to beef up the security/presence in your area.

10) Heard the loud earpeircing horn/blinding strobe idea, i think it rocks, awesome idea. How can you steal an amp if you cant see and your ears are ringen heehh

I know the post is long, but if one tip helps one guy keep his stereo its worth the post. If you guys have any other ideas to keep our rigs secure, post 'em here I would love to hear any ideas that i havent thought about

**edit**

Also, any thing that makes the would be theive nervous NRA bumper stickers, we're insured by smith and wesson. Even if you don't own a gun, if they get the impression you do, they more likely to hit the car next to yours.

I have one little problem with one point you make. #4 c) (BTW what happened to "b)"? ).

While I can understand where you are coming from, this is too generalized and being an installer for a speciality shop, I am actually the only installer, I am somewhat offended by this statement, not all of us installers ae theives, and this just makes us all look bad, I'm sure that was not your intension, but that is how it seems to be written.

I have heard of such a thing happening, there was a shop I worked in years ago, that I recently was told that a couple of the other installers would do this, install a system and then a week or so later, go and steal it, but this is a rare case. If the shop reputable, then this should be a non-issue, and if it is, then deal with a different shop, why give them your hard earned to stay in buisness, whether is it legit or otherwise? If you don't deal with them and other don't deal with them, because of same or other reasons, thne they will eventually most likely go out of buisiness.

Also, there is the issue of being able to contact you, if either you a) order something, or if b) you are getting something installed, if there is a problem or something needs to be clarified, then the store/installer can contact you.

I can see your points though, although it is quite sad that we need to go to such extremes as to not use our systems, and have to hide everything, this is part of teh reason I still don't have a system in my truck, I have a great alarm, and always leave lights on near my truck, but I just don't want the hassle, my truck was already broken into once, 2 weeks after finishing the body work and getting it in the road, before I was able to get a security system installed, luckily the police cought the guy IN my truck. It was still a PITA, since he did cause $1500 in damage, that still has yet to be fixed completly.

I certainly didn't mean to offend, or stereotype installers, there are some great first class installers I would trust with my systems more than I do myself.

I guess I should have stated, make sure you get your work done at a very reputable shop, or ask around to make sure they are legit.

I didn't mean to make it sound like "all stereo guys are trouble" I apologize for that. I guess just like anything you need to be comfortable with whoever is doing your work, in my case it was the dealers shuttle boy. This was a big dealer who had been around for a long time, and was very reputable.

I completely agree with you about how sad it is we can't enjkoy our toys (stereo's laptops etc) in public, or hve fun and enjoy showing them off to friends and people who give a
"whoaaa coool!" when walking by.

I think the problem is tolerance. People are so used to this type of theft no one cares, sure the guy who gets ripped is pissed, but the officers don't care, and won't investigate. Your neighbors will chime in with a damn too bad you didn't catch em.

How to help the situation? Makea huge stink every time something gets ripped in your neighbor hood, call the police time and time again offer any info, and keep asking if they caught them. Let the police know it's not okay.

The next time somone offers to sell you a "warm" stereo flip on em' encourage your friends too as well.

As long as their is a market (people buiying ripped goods) there's going to be theft.

The only difference I can think one person can do is, write your mayor,police cheif,govenor, and state reps. Let everyone know its not okay. don't buy hot goods, freak on people who offer them.

The other problem is punishment. A guy can rip 100 cars a night for a week,make 1-2k selling the goods, get caught do a day, if that in jail, and continue like nothing happened. Make them pay for a crime.

It's all too common place, and too widely accepted. I can't think of one person I know with a car that hasn't been ripped at least once, most twice, and when it does happen it just seems to be accepted as the norm.

Pretty ugly that society has gotten to a point where something like a theft is considered no big deal by all those but the victim.

i too am a professional. i work for best buy. i see the effects of people getting their cars ripped off all the time. i would say at least 1-2 a day. i wish it would stop but i know it will not. what i hope for is for these thieves to be more considerate. what is the point of taking someones radio, then cutting the factory harness off? i had one the other day where not only did they break the dash piece on this car and cut the harness out, they actually cut the antenna out. were these guys retarded? probably. not only did these jerks cost this poor girl the cost of a new radio and a new dash piece she also had to pay for us to rewire in a new factory harness (company policy) and a new antenna. she had to pay in the neighborhood of $60 for parts and install, plus the cost of the radio and dash piece. why cant people just get a job and work for their money like the rest of us? a question that will never be answered. low-lifes. to anyone who does not have a job and is looking for one while living honestly, the above was not intended for you.

thanks for reading my rambling

jacob

I agree with the "say no to stolen items", this is the only true way to stop or at the very least bring theft down to a very minimum.

The sad part is that often times, it is your neighbour, or friend who is buying the stolen items, not nessisarily items stolen from you, but in general.

Don't worry about the first part, I just get a little up tight when things are too generalized. Unfortunatly it does happen, but some (most) of us are actually against such acts.

That shuttle boy should be poked with a hot poker, have salt poured into his eyes, cut off both hands and **** on him, unfortunatly I don't even think cruel and unusual punishment would be deterent enough.

I to am disgusted, by the acceptance of theft and just about any other wrong doings, more so with worse crimes.

Side note, I by no means am implying I'm an "angel", but about the worst thing I do is step on the loud pedal from time to time, I think all of us on this board have and probably still do that.

Oh and tamu, that policy sucks, it is there for money grabbing only. If the people who make these "policies" were car audio enthusiasts, they would know that more connections in a wire will cause more problems than hard wiring the harness in after it has been cut by theft or the previous installer.

i agree it sucks, but its not necessarily for money. it actually follows another comp policy of reinstalling factory equipment free of charge. i dont think the "extra" connections are gonna hurt much when your considering factory wiring anyways. if someone was worried about quality, they would rewire the whole thing. realistically speaking, if the proper connections are used, your not gonna be losing much in terms of performance. probably less than 3% or so.

Read what you just wrote, again, it's the money factor two fold.

Install a new factory replacment harness, money in with this one, then when it comes to reinstaling the factory equipment you as well as I know that a harness that just plugs in will be quicker, so time (labour = money) saved.

I do agree that most of the time, the extra connections aren't going to hurt, but electrically speaking it is very diminishing to performance.

Don't worry I used to work for Future Shop, I know how Big Box Stores work, in this regard, and it does not flow well with actuall installation, but those pushing desks look at numbers only, part of teh reason I left, and now only work in speciality shops, again.

of course its a money factor. everything in business is about either making money or saving it. thats the difference in the 2 above. factory harness is making money, cuting down of labor is saving it.

Well, I made the mistake of showing my system to my neighbors in California, when I was living in an apartment out there.

They turned out to be stoners, and had their stoner friends over all the time. (Turns out he was a dealer, I later found out.)

Well, a month later, someone tried to break into my car, but I guess was too stoned to do it. They had pulled the driver's window out, and I'm guessing tried unlocking the t-top. (Like I don't keep it locked!)

Next, it looked like they had taken a screwdriver, and jammed it in the driver's door lock, and tried to twist the lock open. Uh, of course this didn't work. It did rip off the key lock cover though, which is still ripped off to this day.

They also pulled the rear license plate down, and popped that lock out, but I guess didn't know what to do from there either, so they left it.

I lucked out, and didn't have anything stolen, just some minor damage to the car. All it took was my handgun, and a truly idiotic confrontation with my neighbor to resolve this.

It was a STUPID thing to do, but my car wasn't touched by him or his friends after that. He also moved out within a month after our confrontation.

There are some smart suggestions here. I totally agree with not showing off your system. Also, never play your music within 2-3 miles from your house, or intended destination. If nobody knows you have equipment, then you are more likely to not have it stolen.

(and yes, I agree that thieves should be given the death penalty. If somebody steals your possessions, they steal your LIFE. you spend your TIME to WORK for your money, and it's not fair that someone can steal that away from you, and only suffer a slap on the wrist as a consequence. It isn't fair, but I do not suggest anyone take the law into their own hands.)

I made a mistake by threatening my neighbors with a gun. Yes, it solved my problem, but yes, it also could have gotten me hurt, or worse. It was a stupid emotionally driven idea, and I am lucky that nothing happened because of it, besides making some stoner find the need to leave town.

my setup is totaly Sony X-plod. it sounds fantastic, and isn't a security risk at all. why? its all behind stock pannels, so with it turned off (and the head unit face and remote out of sight) it isn't there, as far as a passer by is concerned.

i've installed car audio/security since 1984. i would never consider stealing equipment from a customer's (or anyone else for that matter) car.word has a funny way of following you around and unemployment ain't all that profitable.word of mouth can make or break you

All valid concerns.....sure, but I too am an installer. I just started as a pro, but I have been doing this for years.

Sure some of us don't make a fortune, some of us do. Most of us have families or personal responsibilities, I am currently a college student. Not to mention, Discount Auto Sound does a criminal background/driving check on new employees.....possibly continuosly. This is just one job where we come in contact with someones's personal property and the majority of us don't even consider stealing from a customer or anyone. The customers pay our salary and they WILL return, who wants to defeat an installed alarm and ruin the reputation of the alarm and installation....word will get around that your things just get jacked, nothing you can do. This hurts business, because no one will spend money when they feel it isn't a safe investment. We are here to ensure security of your vehicle, we can hide equipment and wire the best alarms money can buy. We are professionals and we do not benifit from felony theft convictions and suspicion.

I am a computer electronics/networking and telecommunications major. There are many more ways for your 'security' to be breached, than just your automobile: wireless internet?.....be carefull with that, garage door code spoofing, cell phones,....I'm going to start scaring people here....and no I don't do these things, I know how, but it is a serious FCC violation and the technology exists to counter act such actions (CIA,FBI,US NAVY's electronic warfare,VSWR,GPS,IRAQ.....) let's just say it is unwise to abuse telecomm technologies. To find out for yourself: set up an FM transmitter and broadcast some goverment protest nonsense......set your clock, see how fast the officials arrive....fun for you, fun for the kids, hey it's all fun and games!