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Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

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Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#31

Post by chrischen »

dennisgorelik wrote: post #21
slug wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS would be useless for a determined thief, be it by simply jamming the GPS/cell signal or a RF sniffer to locate the (cellphone/whatnot) transmitter in the car and destroy it. From what I see, your social network sanction would be the only feasible option.

You probably meant "expert thief". Somebody who had 10000+ hours of expertise. Somebody who risked to get caught while gaining that expertise. There are not so many real expert thieves. That's why extended security measures do work: less experienced majority of thieves is caught outright, and more experienced minority of thieves is eventually caught due to unforeseen circumstances (unexpected witness, unexpected new…

Yea but it only takes one expert thief to tell his minions what to do.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#32

Post by signa11 »

a silly question, but isn't there any insurance on the said cars ? if the cars are lost/stolen etc. and they do have insurance, let the insurance company deal with law-enforcement or other 'out-of-band' mechanisms (too many hollywood movies) to retrieve the stolen property...

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#33

Post by sounds »

m0nastic wrote: post #30
kinkora wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologise for being a lil off topic but I do have a question for you. Before I ask that question, let me tell you a story. When I was growing up, I knew this girl who works part time at a cinema. Her job is basically to clean up the place after everyone has left once the movie has ended. While cleaning up the place, 7 out of 10 times, she will find something someone has left behind and out of that 7 times, probably…

So, where I grew up, everybody was a criminal. I don't mean that hyperbolically either. Everyone in my family (mostly bottom-of-the-barrel criminals, but a few actual bad-ass criminals), every other kid who lived in my neighborhood. All criminals. My older brother ran away from home when he was 15, partially to get away from all of that. I stayed until I was 17, but left for much the same reason. If I felt obliged to…

Sadly, such a situation is not unique.

Kudos for being open about it.

Kudos as well for being able, and having the balls to make the exit.

I'm speaking from a background of gangs, where there is no exit. Except a coffin.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#34

Post by yanowitz »

jackowayed wrote: post #11

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

I came here to post this too. I felt bad for them until I got to the "girls" part, at which point I didn't feel bad.

Although they didn't go out of business because of their sexist business practices, I don't shed a tear for them.

Yes, this is a marketing stunt, but I hope the day comes when the cost of this marketing outweighs the benefit (i.e., more people find the objectification of women offensive to the point of changing their purchasing decision than people who find it appealing).

This is related to a common theme on HN: discussions of why there are not more women in tech and tech leadership positions.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#36

Post by chrischen »

nostromo wrote: post #28
m0nastic wrote: post #5

That's sad to hear, but I think he's right to realize that it's going to be really hard to deal with losses when the auto theft community gets wind of their business. I am always amazed by the efficiency and technological prowess that the kids I grew up with who steal cars apply to their trade (even if I wish they were involved in a better trade). One kid I grew up with now has a ring of six guys working for him, pay…

Not to be overly prudish, but as someone that has had a car stolen -- not recently, but when I was right out of high school, completely broke and using it to get to work (where there wasn't any public transportation option) -- I'd really encourage you to turn in your friend. You may think it's not your problem, but you're complicit in those crimes and acting very unethically.

I can see how it can be a difficult situation for him to turn in his friend, but it's only because he's detached from the situation.

m0nastic: Just think of the people who have their cars stolen, and tell yourself that every time they steal a car and you don't turn him in then you've essentially helped screw that person over. That person could be someone just like nostromo.

Imagine young nostromo, coming to you for help. What would you do? Who would you side with? Every time they steal a car it's the same situation, except the victim may not personally know you so they won't come asking you for help.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#37

Post by dennisgorelik »

m0nastic wrote: post #23
dennisgorelik wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with running criminal business is that as soon as he tries to scale, he would inevitably and very seriously piss off lots of people. That would put extra pressure on law enforcement to catch the thieves and they would eventually be caught. Next step is several years in jail and close monitoring of the future crime activities. End result - the only expertise that he would gain over the years (in stealing)…

So, there are artificial constraints to the scalability of an operation like his. For starters, all territory is split up among the different crews who run them. That they do this democratically and unanimously without anyone muscling in on surrounding territory is something I've never quite figured out; but it's been working for forty years. That limitation on potential territory makes you maximize your resources in…

> all territory is split up among the different crews

That's probably not that much due to negotiation, but because smarter team tips off police about criminal activity of competing team, and competing team ends up in jail.

I would guess that more aggressive team is more likely to end up in jail, which causes natural evolution toward less greedy teams.

Still, stealing is a stupid choice for people capable of running efficient organization.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#40

Post by sounds »

signa11 wrote: post #32

a silly question, but isn't there any insurance on the said cars ? if the cars are lost/stolen etc. and they do have insurance, let the insurance company deal with law-enforcement or other 'out-of-band' mechanisms (too many hollywood movies) to retrieve the stolen property...

The insurance premiums will go up.

The problem is that the cars are owned not by HiGear but by wealthy clients who want to rent out their car (instead of having it sit in a garage). The cars have sentimental value. They may be customized and difficult/impossible to replace.

I suppose there are already businesses that don't use a Peer-to-Peer model. If it's just a matter of arranging rentals in a more traditional model, and only for wealthy customers, I don't even have to google -- it's been done before.

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