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A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

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Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#181

Post by kube-system »

EGreg wrote: post #164
kube-system wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Locks are often intentionally omitted from equipment in environments where high availability is prioritized. They are also often omitted in locations where physical security is provided at a broader level.

Sure, let's intentionally omit locks from equipment that is designed not to fall into enemy hands. Let's not have a kill switch, either. Sure, makes sense for an agency with more money to spend than every corporation in America!

Yes, it does make sense that the DoD is more concerned about their own soldiers' lives than whether or not the Iraqi military has their vehicles stolen from them. These vehicles were already given away, adding some stupid biometric system would increase both the price of the vehicles and the number of lives lost due to failures. Throwing technology at problems is not always a solution. The vehicles typically have better security than a lock anyway, they're occupied or guarded by soldiers with guns.

You might be familiar with locks on vehicles due to your own experiences, but deterrence to unoccupied theft is a requirement that is somewhat unique to civilian passenger vehicles. It is completely normal for many other types of vehicles to have very minimal or zero theft mitigations due to operating in different conditions with different requirements. For example, multi-million dollar jets have no anti-theft systems at all.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#182

Post by brewdad »

hutzlibu wrote: post #102
postmortembees wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raking house locks is a) not difficult and b) not expensive. You don't need to be a professional to do that. But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence. When my neighbors have been burgled, this is the preferred method of entry I've seen.

"But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence" But that would be loud. You don't want attention when breaking in. (Unless you are a fucked up junkie not caring about anything anymore) But yes, my parents for example are paranoid about always locking the front door 2 times(and get angry if I don't do it when I visit), but have a glass door in th…

> But that would be loud. You don't want attention when breaking in. (Unless you are a fucked up junkie not caring about anything anymore)

Pre-Covid, it didn't matter if you were loud. You and your neighbors were all off at work all day. So long as a thief felt confident there was no alarm to trigger, they could make all the racket they wanted and no one would hear.

Today, it's a little more risky but of the half dozen houses on my street I'd probably only hear one getting broken into and that's only if I were downstairs. Our homes aren't on especially large lots either (7-10k sq ft).

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#183

Post by jack_riminton »

SoftTalker wrote: post #136
jack_riminton wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to eliminate all crime before doing anything to prevent crimes? Righto boss I'm off to remove all locks from my house for the cause

People used to use horses for transportation. You can't lock a horse, but there were substantial penalties for stealing a horse. It maybe was a capital crime at some point?

You're right, the technology of horse locks wasn't available so people went to other lengths: branding, guards, registering of horses. In societies where there was the death penalty for such things there was still horse theft.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#185

Post by K0balt »

woobar wrote: post #153
K0balt wrote: post #84

1.2 million grant for this? Now I’ve seen grift, but come on. I want to hire their grant writer. Literally a relay in the starter lead. This looks like one of my afternoon projects, and I’m not even joking. I have a 1990s montero diesel and it leaks power, and I often forget to disconnect the terminal. So I bought a relay from AliExpress (same one shown in this photo but one size up) and hooked it up with an esp32 an…

This is very close to what the original LoJack did in 1979. They added keypad to replace switching on lights: [LoJack] could also include the incorporation of a scheme whereby an additional step was required to activate the ignition. Prior to starting, it would require the activation of any number of the usual vehicle features such as the radio, headlight switch, or other switched device. Without knowledge of the pro…

As they do this system as well lol.

But good for them. They will learn a lot.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#186

Post by pohl »

K0balt wrote: post #84

1.2 million grant for this? Now I’ve seen grift, but come on. I want to hire their grant writer. Literally a relay in the starter lead. This looks like one of my afternoon projects, and I’m not even joking. I have a 1990s montero diesel and it leaks power, and I often forget to disconnect the terminal. So I bought a relay from AliExpress (same one shown in this photo but one size up) and hooked it up with an esp32 an…

Prototyping is a tiny fraction of product development.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#187

Post by bookofjoe »

SoftTalker wrote: post #136
jack_riminton wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to eliminate all crime before doing anything to prevent crimes? Righto boss I'm off to remove all locks from my house for the cause

People used to use horses for transportation. You can't lock a horse, but there were substantial penalties for stealing a horse. It maybe was a capital crime at some point?

Short answer: yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_theft

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#188

Post by seabird »

EGreg wrote: post #164
kube-system wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Locks are often intentionally omitted from equipment in environments where high availability is prioritized. They are also often omitted in locations where physical security is provided at a broader level.

Sure, let's intentionally omit locks from equipment that is designed not to fall into enemy hands. Let's not have a kill switch, either. Sure, makes sense for an agency with more money to spend than every corporation in America!

Even if you put the locks on, they would never be used. If you need it you need it right now, and it's usually life or death. If somebody is trying to steal it, you shoot them. The last thing you want to be doing in a gunfight is fucking with a lock.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#189

Post by zerkten »

dharmab wrote: post #95
hutzlibu wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Today, your house keys are basically useless for security" They are not useless. Only some people have the skills and tools to open them - so they are useful at keeping most people out, even though they don't provide perfect protection. Most thieves are not professionals, but for example junkies who look for something easy. A simple automatic light, is already doing wonders to keep them away.

A friend of mine was bored and bought a Lishi tool online recently. Within 10 minutes and with no previous lock picking experience he was able to silently pick his house's deadbolt.

This can be true while it still keeping most criminals out. It's going to depend on the location and context. I'd say an analogy for this is engineer thinking versus economist thinking. My observation is that criminals prefer the latter. Rather than doubling down on engineering, they try to move to a more lucrative venture. Getting better at burgling houses doesn't change the upside as much as other crime.

In my suburban area, the biggest problem is unlocked doors on houses and cars. Despite this problem existing for many years, doors are still regularly left open. The criminals don't attempt to exploit the same neighborhood repeatedly. They pass through in waves and then go elsewhere before returning when everyone has let their guard down. When they attempt forced entry, or anything more than casual theft, they get a lot of attention and caught.

They could improve their takings by developing some lock picking skill, but it's also higher risk since they have to spend some more time on each target which increases the risk that an observer will actually notice them. I could easily imagine a dog walker ignoring someone entering a home through an unlocked door, or making it look like they are checking a door is locked when entry fails.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#190

Post by jaclaz »

wongarsu wrote: post #42
camhenlin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My buddy has an 89 Prelude that got stolen a couple of times. It basically got driven around and left with an empty tank around town both times and no signs of break in. I think the keys are relatively common for those so maybe the thief has one. Anyways, I installed a switch up under his dash the disconnects the fuel pump +12v wire. It takes just a moment to flick the switch if you know where it is, and afterwards,…

Some cars also have unused switches on the dashboard (presumably features you didn't pay for) that are perfect for such use cases.

I remember (in the late '70's or maybe early '80's) a friend's car where he added (it was not unusual at the time to add "accessories" to cars, like fog lights or rear lights ) a number (four or five) lever switches (connected in serie) that acted like a dip-switch, you had to set them in a given pattern (like up-down-up-up) to be able to start the car.
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