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-   -   ARTICLE: How to protect your car from THEFT (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/owning-car/73489-article-how-protect-your-car-theft-3.html)

Theives usually do their home work and may take weeks or even months to understand owner come-go patterns before the pros make the plunge. In that case whats beneath the covers , is going to be uncovered eventually sometime in the process.
Moreover 9 outta 10 times I can figure out whats beneath the cover from the shape, leave out the imports.
These professions would score 10/10 mostly.
Theives that take control of cars right away are the ones mostly found on the highway where they force you stop, drag you out and take control of the car.

car covers are not security devices.

It might pique the curiosity of the thief even more to find out which car is valuable enough that its owner covered it! :eek:

This is what a gear lock looks like. Images sourced from another thread on the forum.

How does the Immobilizer system (iCATS not sure ) in new Maruti cars work? Are they really fool proof

From pictures it looks like car is slotted in one gear
Is it not possible to move the car. Not sure as I have interpreted it from pictures

An excellent thread,
Essential and Lot of commonsense (quite uncommon) but very useful and practical.
Due to cheaper phones, May be a hidden device (GSM Phone) (powered from car battery and in-silent mode), which can be tracked, can be used.
May I invoke all the hardware engineers to come up to such installations, I am sure it will help everyone and everyone has a spare phone also.

Added an additional tip to my first post on this thread:

You can park your car on the street, or anywhere else that you want. If the car is stolen, YES, you will receive reimbursement from the insurance company.

No such thing as a theft-proof device :) Related discussion

the gear stick can be locked in neutral or reverse.

um

Some car theft anecdotes posted by me in another forum more than a year ago:

A car theft is a great setback for anyone attached to his machine. Despite all the advancements thefts have not stopped. The thieves are one or more steps ahead vis-a-vis any safety device invented. a few anecdotes here-
A victim's confession," A professional ring that chops cars for spare parts in Palo Alto city in South Bay (U.S.) steals Nissans, Hondas and Acuras. What I lost? I did'nt get a chance to say goodbye. The vehicle I loved for the last so many years, not a family member, friend or pet! Insurance cos' believe that the whole car is worth less than its sum of parts. A corporation cannot be reasoned with. A policy is a policy and policies do not cater to the whims and wants of humans- denial, bargaining, anger, despair, depression, acceptance- such a great loss to bear up with. Alas it was my favourite car!"
Now in a lighter vein Lo Jack, an auto theft protection device made in the US employs satellite homing devices that direct police to the stolen vehicles. Their promotional says " don't miss the one about the 80 year old ballroom dancing queen in Miami who has had her Honda Accord stolen and recovered 9 times - make it 10 times- at the time of going to the press it was again stolen and recovered.
Every 25 seconds a car is stolen in the US, according to their National Insurance Crime Bureau. 1,237,114 motor vehicles were stolen in 2004. The Honda Civic is the most preferred car by thieves. Out of the top 10 thief- preferred car makes, 6 are Japanese. Popularity and longevity top the list of stolen cars.
At home here in India :
(1) Very recently, two men who used to wash cars stole a Mahindra Scorpio CH 03 W 6746 in Sec 27, Chandigarh, using fabricated duplicate keys and were caught while selling the car.

(2) My acquaintance's old Lambretta scooter got stolen about eight years back, during April, while attending a marriage. Its resale value may have been Rs 1500 or so then. He reported the theft to the police and was perplexed as to why thieves should zero upon such an old,rattling and rusty scooter? The police said " these days sugar cane juice makers buy old Lambretta engines to squeeze the juice and they run it on kerosene. Thats why the theft reports for some old Lambrettas keep coming."

Is is really feasible in india to have such a setup done in India? If yes, can someone tell me how much would it cost?

Your thread deserves it,
You bombay guys are lucky to get it done free by the cops, but in bangalore we have dont have an alternative even if we are willing to pay for it,

come on bangalore bhpians, any solutions for this query

Hey one of those is my car! :)
Brilliant suggestion.
Setup would take time or research in the market. Get an 800 buck cheapo (or even a second hand one for that matter )and keep it in the car. Charge it periodically (will take less than an 20-30 minutes per week.)
Ahh! If only the cops would be fast enough to initiate investigations on the Mobile service provider side. If the theives detect the phone first then they get the phone free.

Guys we can also use tire locks like this but I doubt if these are available in India.

also a gps tracker also is a very efficient device to find out the position of your stolen vehicle.

Thats a very good initiative Dippy, in fact there was a lot of news made when one scorpio stolen from delhi was found in the basement parking of a picture hall complex in Ambala. It was found by the help of a tracking device which used GSM SIM & sent SMSes about its location to a pre fed number every 30 mins or so.