How Do You Keep Thieves From Jacking Your Car?

[hooD]

Whats to keep a thief from breaking into your garage and towing your "ride" away like the REPO MAN does?    What can you do to stop this from EVER happening?     

[Carlwalski]

To name just a few........

# Tilt censor alarm.
# Padlock bolt/chain it to the ground.
# Fully secure garage (bars on windows & doors, alarm, padlock garage doors, power switch).
# GPS alarm unit.
# Engine Kill switch/immobiliser.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Can you share where to buy a tilt sensor?

[Carlwalski]

Can you share where to buy a tilt sensor?

Hey Mike,


It's an option on most car alarms (is down here) so should be up there. Most alarm systems have the standard, doors, bonnet and boot monitoring system including vibration and motion censor inside the car. Most brands are compatible with tilt sensor systems. Sensors measure vehicle angle with respect to earth & triggers if angle changes - no response to vibration which is good.

I have one in Lucy and it's under the console, only small (around 1-3" box) and is best suited in a central area as you have good coverage of all 4 wheels. Works wonders and definitely worth having. I could careless about someone taking my wheels, taking the entire car is why I got it. Only way around it is to obviously disarm the car but with hidden wires (all black) and a custom steel box protecting the box, that's not going to happen, so the only "plausible" way to take it is cut around the car and take the slab of earth/concrete with it LMAO.

Here's a quick run down on my tilt sensor (Dynatron) - http://www.dynatron.co.nz/wa.asp?idWebPage=9530



Ps: Just saw Overhaulin' yesterday Mike, first time on NZ TV.
Was good, you handled yourself very well on TV mate, big ups.

[HP2]

Nothing really, if they are so determined they are willing to break into your garage. Most career criminals know how to get around alarms of most automotive and home types.

[mopower]

i put a dog door in so both of my 140 pd rotts can go out and say hello if need arises

[RDF]

i put a dog door in so both of my 140 pd rotts can go out and say hello if need arises

Agreed.....my 2 100lb labs tend to say hello to even the smallest lizard that comes near the house.....we live on a corner lot and people tend to walk on the other side of the street to avoid my dogs, even though they are fenced in.

Other ways I use are primative, but I roll my car up to the garage door so it can't open, then if I need to take it out, I just push it back a little then open it.  We also installed a kill switch in my car this past project so that will help a little.  I've been toying with the idea of putting a big hook in my garage floor and bolting my car to that at night.

Just some ideas, I can't stop all thieves, but if I can delay them leaving with my car, it's a good chance they'll have my dogs and Smith & Wesson beaming down their backs!    That's probably the only reason I like Florida.....the right to shoot and kill state if you or your family is in harms way.  My car is part of my family....

[Topcat]

When I worked for a dealership years ago, a LoJack dealer took us for a demonstration. They hid a car a few miles away. We all jumped in his van and his beeper on the dash pointed where to go like a Bloodhound on a trail.
5 minutes later, we found it hidden so well I couldn't believe it.

These units contact the law enforcement supposedly.
They hide them in your car for you without you knowing where it was put.

[cudagirl4406pk]

Well i have a 2 kill switches on my car must activate one to work other then also my garage has a computer lock on it and also i have a 9mm pistol for anyone dumb enough to try to take my baby.Since i have a carry permit she will always be safe.


michele

[Super Blue 72]

When I worked for a dealership years ago, a LoJack dealer took us for a demonstration. They hid a car a few miles away. We all jumped in his van and his beeper on the dash pointed where to go like a Bloodhound on a trail.
5 minutes later, we found it hidden so well I couldn't believe it.

These units contact the law enforcement supposedly.
They hide them in your car for you without you knowing where it was put.

I think that this is the only way to realistically secure the car.  The newer Lojack units will notify you by phone call to your house/cell and you'll hear a recording saying that the car has been taken without authorization once I think it's something like 1/4 mile away from where you are. 

The older units/base units are only good IF you know you car has been stolen, then it's up to you to notify the police.  If you don't know that the car has been stolen or you find out an hour or two after going out shopping, etc... the car could already be in the process of being dismantled and the thieves can find the Lojack transmitter and disable it, I believe.

Guard dogs are always good but if they want the car bad enough, a couple of dogs won't stop them, but they definately are a great deterent.

[ChallengerHK]

At some point, I'll have a Lojack installed for when I'm away.  When I'm home, Smith & Wesson do the trick.

[dawgs 73]

For the police to recover a LOJACK equipped car, they must have the equipment for the search. I work in the suburbs of St Louis, and not one department that I know of here has the search equipment needed for that. Not to say LOJACK doesn't work, but if the cops in the area in which you live or house your car don't have the equipment to search and locate the signal, you might as well just run whatever money you spent on the system through a shredder, or just give your money to charity (or me I suppose). Knowing what I know, I wouldn't waste that kind of money on something high tech like that, since no one around here is equipped to find the things anyway. And I think that you'd find most departments in the US like that. Except maybe the huge cities, who won't go out of their own jurisdiction to hunt down a car reported as stolen by another department.

[ntstlgl1970]

Just make is as complicated as possible to steal with kill switches, lojack if you have coverage chain it to the floor. The only thing that sucks about all that (for me) is that anything I put in the car can be taken out by the tools in my garage, so the longer it takes to defeat those the more likely someone would move on. That's about all you can do. If they want it bad enough, they will get it.

[mopar_guy]

If they want it bad enough, they will get it.

  but anything you can do to slow them down.even for a few seconds,is better than nothing.a couple seconds to them is a long time when you have to get it asap.

[72hemi]

I have been thinking about bringing my Challenger down here to Sunnyvale, but I have to make sure it is as secure as possible. The car is fine at work because the only people who would have access to the car are other employees because of all the guards. I have been looking at tilt sensors, car alarm, kill switch, GPS locator that I can track (like LOJACK but I won't have to contact the police to find it), wheel locks, and have the alarm notify me if anything happens to the car, alternative power source for the alarm, plus if that power source is cut set up so that I would be notified. Then if the alarm were to go off I would be polite and introduce the unlucky bastard to my .44 magnum. I have had that car for 10 years and it will never leave me. I know what they say, if someone wants it bad enough they will get it. All I have to say is they better be ready to fight for it because I know I am.