The more time and money I put into my car, the more and more paranoid I am about theft. Can anyone help me be less paranoid?

The city I've been living in all my life has a huge number of vehicle break ins and thefts. People go out every night and check cars for unlocked doors, visible valuables, whatever. Some of them are so desperate they break windows just to check. You can tell who's doing it, riding around on bikes looking into every car. Unfortunately you can't even prove they are doing it since they are only "looking at themselves in the window."

The only time I ever left a car unlocked, it was rifled through and they took the only thing valuable, change. You can't put anything in the trunk where you're parking, because someone will open it with a master key. Only time we did that, my father got a nice jacket taken. No signs of forced entry at all. On a 2002 model car when it was only a few years old.

I have a garage but it's filled with crap, and the driveway makes me scrape my car every single time, no matter how slow, fast, or diagonal I go. Forward or backwards, doesn't matter.

So anyway, can someone help me balance paranoia and preparation? I mean obvious steps are: no valuables in sight, or even better nothing in the car at all. No playing music within a mile of your house and destination. Kill switches, removing parts, paging alarm, GPS. Full coverage insurance with a classic car insurance company.

Am I missing anything? I guess the only way is to get a garage and never let it out of your sight if you park it anywhere else.

And what about vandalism? I have been a victim of that too. I never drive like an a$$hole anywhere. There's not really much you can do besides cameras and a loud alarm. And even then, what are you going to do? I refuse to risk prison time over some losers.

 

Fix your driveway and clean the crap out of your garage. No car is 100% safe parked on the street.

 

Locks, alarms, and other theft deterrents only keep the honest people honest. Re-leveling your driveway (or raising the car) and accessing your garage may be the best way to protect your car, but I guess I'd also have to consider moving. Make sure that your classic car insurance covers the actual value of your car and update that as necessary. Unfortunately, there doesn't even have to be anything of value visible in your car for people to want to damage, vandalize, or break into it. They'll do it just because it's nice. Don't leave anything in it that you can't live without and make sure that you pay that insurance premium on time because obviously your paranoia is justified. Good luck protecting your ride.

 

I've heard stories of a "bulldog" alarm system that's illegal here¿ I guess it puts an electric charge to the body of your car, I haven't looked into it much but its a fun idea. And your drive way sounds like a nice excuse for an air ride system 8)

 

Put a stick on the lower part of your window that say "protected by…." You just have to make people think you have a car alarm.

 

it helps to also be on your porch at all hours of the night,with a nice mossberg nearby.one curious gentelman ran out of his shoes at the sound of the slide,but i digress

 

Something like this might help... this one is expensive by you'll get the idea...

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/...ortby=ourPicks

 

With Jim

Classic car policies usually want you car garaged.
If its stolen etc and not garaged they may not cover you

Less fancy you make it look the better.

Sucks....time to move out of this crime infested area called Los Angeles. Feel your pain man.

 

Yeah, right. He's in CA. I'm pretty sure that just saying "mossberg" is a felony there.

 

FreeSpirit, it's really sad that you have to always worry about your car and what's going happen to it,, makes it hard to enjoy owning it...I feel bad that you live in an area where thieves are lurking all night long and you sleep with one eye open.. I agree with JIM85IROC !!!! You gotta clean out the garage !!!!! ((Maybe you can even have a yard sale and sell some of the stuff in there and make a few bucks)) or neatly stack things against the walls so you can atleast fit the car in....

 

i am reluctant to post what to do because the same people read sites like this one to know what to defeat.it is that is my suggestion..................................

 

Was thinking same thing, my car must be garaged as per policy. Thats why its so cheap.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I was kind of hoping you would call me overly paranoid, but the reality is that there are predators out every day and night that will see your car, and I can't change that.

I didn't even realize I could fix the driveway. I inspected it, and it does have too abrupt of a slope. All of the neighbors' slopes are slightly better. I will get some quotes and compare that with the cost of the Griot's Garage Curb Bridge. A piece of wood (or two) could be a temporary solution, which would be a pain, but well worth easing my mind.

Hahaha yeah. I mean we can legally own guns, but actually using them, no matter what someone is doing to you, will probably get you a case. If they are only doing something to your car, using a gun on them will almost certainly land you in trouble. It's funny because we have so many gun-related crimes out here. Our prisons are so overcrowded with murderers, that they have to be lenient on other crimes. Even murderers get to walk sometimes. The police will classify a homicide as anything else if they can. Laws only stop honest people, like they always say.

 

killswitches, killswitches, killswitches. Hide some switches. No one will ever steal my car without a tow-truck. Removable steering wheels are good too. A garage is probably your greatest anti-theft system though.

 

If I were in your situation I would focus on trying to get the car into a garage, but until then a removable steering wheel is a great idea.

 

That's only helping his theft problem, there's the vandalism part.

 

The mossberg idea would be the only way to stop vandalism.

 

Does the car scrape on the air dam only? Mine does that every time in my drive way and it scared the hell out of me the first time it did it. Had my wife drive up so I could see if I was actually hitting anything and i wasn't, just the air dam scraping.

 

OK lets be serious about this before somebody gets in big legal trouble..... After California and New York I think my state Illinois or should I say Hellinois is the most liberal. In Illinois you can't even point a firearm at someone unless it is to stop a forceable felony. Not "prevent" but "stop." So in Illinois if you were sitting on your porch and someone suspicious walked and stopped at your car even you standing up and chambering a shell could get you an assault charge or menacing/terroristic threat. They would have to walk up and break a window or start to jimmy a lock before you can do anything. But then it gets iffy because the street is not your property and stepping foot on the street with a firearm could get you a weapons charge. In Chicago/Cook County it is illegal to have an uncased unbroken down firearm anywhere but inside your house. Even your front porch and garage is illegal. Bottom line if you own a firearm know your local/county/state firearm laws front to back before even thinking about involving one.

 

Locking lug nuts, tint the windows, radio with removable face plate, removable steering wheel. If you have anything valuable under the hood add some lockable hood pins. Mount a car alarm with all of the power cables as hidden as possible. The cables from the battery to the starter/engine block grounds try to make those as inaccessible as possible. If your car alarm ever chirps multiple times in a small amount of time start watching it and ask police to drive around the block. You can change out the lock cylinders so that each door/hatch is a different key.

 

My first suggestion would be to get the hell outta dodge. If you live in fear of something like this on a nightly basis, you are a chronic victim and no amount of alarms, locks, or retaliation is going to make the problem go away and it certainly isn't going to make you feel better.

I'm not claiming to know everyone's life situation, but can there be a reason good enough to continue to live under those conditions?

 

• Neighborhood watch group including video surveillance and possible bait cars
• Ultraviolet dye/power (they have microscopic traceable tags, just put on items that they'll grab) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...lice-trap.html
• Interior smoke bomb (Fills interior with non-damaging smoke, may cause them to return though)
• LoJack
• Hire your own thugs, easy to do if the neighborhood splits the cost

If you're leaving it in the street make sure it looks like crap and of little value. SNL had a couple of great skits on this actually. I think this was from an ad. lol
Any improvements need to be hidden but not in a way that it looks like it's covered up. Ie. No rear trunk lid or shade and/or towels/blankets on the seats or floor. If they can inventory the car without breaking in they may just move along.


IMO, you basically want to make your car less desirable via looks and your neighborhood more difficult for them. If you add obvious alarms and other things to draw attention to it, they're going to think that you have something worth stealing. If you use a silent pager you'll have to have some plan of what you're going to do when you confront them. If you can get images of them and then tie them to the ultraviolet dye you have a way of finding and convicting them without putting yourself on the line.

I'd grab an extra rear hatch ($30 @ local Upull?) as well since I'm assuming from your description of what's going on that it'll eventually get smashed. Probably swap it out now so you can put the original back on afterwards. If it's a different color all the better. Could also plastidip a fender and wheel with different colors while you're at it.

If all else fails, there's always the trunk monkey

Edit: Sorry about the youtube vids, I tried to link them off site but the software keeps incorporating them into the post.

 

A lot of these guys don't want to make a ton of noise over a prolonged period of time. When I use to park in the garages in Boston, I sometimes used my zip on car cover. If it is on the street I'm not sure if it would be legal since the plates wouldn't be visible, but just an idea.

 

I use multiple piezio sirens and wire them to trigger off of the door. Also, every alarm I install gets a hidden backup battery.

 

Sorry to revive a dead thread but everytime I go to visit my brother we get into a talk about antitheft ideas. We have came up with some good ones IMO but we have always been stumped by the thief with access to a rollback or wrecker. Honestly if you seen a tow truck pull up to a car someone get out hook up to the car and then drive away (as long as it wasnt your car) would you find that in the least bit unusual? No not really maybe it was broke down maybe it was being repo'd. Either way After its gone whoever took the car has all the time they would need to figure out how to bypass all your deterrents and kill switches.

I have always wanted to get a tracfone and permanently wire a charger into the cars electrical system and then hide it somewhere waterproofed on the car. Then if its ever stolen call the police tell them you left your phone in the car and the GPS is enabled give them the number to the tracfone. In theory it seems nice but I dont know if it would actually help recover your car if it was stolen

 

You can purchase vehicle GPS trackers for not too much. Only problem us it must have a battery backup, it must have a normal charging wire to the normal battery that looks very inconspicuous and it must be hidden in a sealed box. If someone towed the vehicle the first thing they're doing is cutting the power so you're relying on the battery back up until they find the tracker which they would. You tow a vehicle to strip it down to nothing but the body or you cut it up and recycle it.

If the car was towed at 2am and they started on it immediately they would find and disconnect a tracker before you awoke in the morning. Would your tracker have a program that tracks past locations? Would YOUR local police take you seriously and act quickly?

Best thing again to do is clear that garage and have an insurance policy that would pay the appraisal of your vehicle, not a run of the mill stock beater Thirdgen. Have it appraised every year and have pictures and video on file. If something happens you know you'll be ok and that will end your paranoia.

 

I have put a lot of thought into this for my own car.
It comes up like this.


Install an aftermarket system. Yes we all know it can be defeated but it does serve a purpose. Letting you know someone has triggered it with a screaming siren. Also keyless entry is nice.
Then install a kill switch or two if you want.
That's it.
They can vandalize it but it's not going anywhere without a tow truck.

 

pull a fuel pump fuse rreplace with blown one

 

Where I live people install webcams towards their cars. Sometimes this helps!

 

I saw a news story from Britain (no. 1 country for vehicle theft?) a while ago about a guy who had multiple devices (kill switch, steering wheel club, alarms etc.) he also had it CHAINED to a big eye concreted into his driveway. Still stolen and he never heard a thing. You can only do so much. Best thing is to live way out in the country. We haven't locked any vehicles parked outside for 30 years.

 

That's insane.

 

It's 2015. Is there a place out there where people are stealing thirdgens? ....and if there is such a place (although I can't really believe it) then move. I mean really. Car theft? Where do you live? I didn't know that was even a thing anymore.

 

Thats because it dont happen in NC lol

 

My car has only been broken into once. the guy opened my 86 trans am, my brothers 92 Rs camaro, my sisters carolla, and my moms Camry. All he did was empty out all the **** in the glove boxes and make a mess since he didn't find anything.

My trans ams locks don't work so I never lock it, I don't keep anything in it that's worth anything, just a cheap harbor freight screw driver and socket set for emergency repairs.

On a funny note, my sister has always been a brat and we never really got a long, when the thief took all her stuff out of the glove box and threw it everywhere she refused to clean it up, her argument was "I didn't make the mess so why should I clean it?" We all told her, "maybe because it's your car and the thief isn't gonna come back and clean it for you"

 

I know what you mean and hate the feeling. Luckily, I have my '77 Trans Am and the IROC in the garage. The first time I really felt paranoid was with the T/A. People would park next to it, only to walk around and look inside....shoot, there was once where a guy actually pulled on the door handle!! WTF! I ran out of the restaurant, half choking on my food to see what was going on.

 

I'm not too worried about theft, only 3 in my entire city, you'll be noticed. My big problem is in open parking lots Ill come out to people sitting on my cars, messing up my weak paint. No respect anymore.

 

that's my biggest pet peeve, people think they can just lean on anyone's car or sit on anyone's fender. My car is primered right now so of course when anyone walks by they rub their hand on it to feel the texture. I've never once felt the need to rub my hands over anyone else's car nor have I ever leaned against some random persons car. It's like going up to some random house and sitting on their porch, you just don't do it.

 

I've yelled at plenty of people lol. Luckily my FD lights can be a deterrence for now. It is really rude and a lack of respect