NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

Post by zamnos » Tue, May 02, 2023, 10:56 PM UTC

noduerme wrote: post #141

Animats wrote: post #112

LoJack used to be the go-to company for this. No more. Classic LoJack had good privacy. It's a box hidden somewhere in the car, with a connection to vehicle power. It has a transmitter, but normally doesn't transmit. If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. That broadcasts an ID over a subcarrier of some local FM broadcast station. The receiver in the Lojack unit listens for th…

Just a thought here... Why not just write a simple script that collects GPS location, host it on a private server, point an old Android phone at that page, and wire the phone under the dashboard?

Post by teaearlgraycold » Tue, May 02, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

alfalfasprout wrote: post #139

I gave up on Airtags. Under the guise of "protecting against stalking" Apple has removed all of its useful functionality. For starters, any family that shares keys can forget about using airtags. You'll get spammed with alerts about an airtag following you and even if you mute them (for 1 day max) you can't use the airtag to find the keys. This also happens if the person next to you has an airtag and is riding in the…

Post by 7speter » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:00 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #76

vkou wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips…

> Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with t…

Post by seanw444 » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:02 PM UTC

HDThoreaun wrote: post #124

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> did you see them do it? otherwise it's not our problem If we're trading anecdotes, I had two laptops lifted from my apartment. The NYPD's detectives followed up with the building for footage, identified a suspect, followed up with the resident they were seen with, got the suspect's Instagram and got an arrest warrant. That resulted in them nabbing the guy when he was ticketed for jumping a subway turnstile.

I actually know multiple people who were robbed and NYPD caught them when they used the victims metro card. Wild that thieves haven't realized that the cards can be tracked and the stations are under surveillance, but maybe that's why they turned to crime.

Post by seanw444 » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:03 PM UTC

mperham wrote: post #79

trafficante wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portland Police Bureau are in good company, it seems. The only reason to file a police report for a stolen vehicle these days (in Portland) is documentation for insurance. I very rarely hear about people getting their cars back via PPB without it being months later (and in pieces with mysterious stains everywhere) due to being incidentally swept up in a rare chop shop bust. And yes, this is a policing problem. It’s a…

Portland city political positions are nonpartisan. Portland "democrats" can range from center right (rene gonzalez) to progressive left (no one). I'm hopeful RCV will help. Eric Adams may have a D next to his name but he's a traditional Republican according to his policies (cutting libraries/schools, more funding for cops).