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Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#31

Post by michaelt »

leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

Well, with modern car immobilisers you can't bypass them or break them, because they're built right into the ECU that runs the spark plugs and whatnot.

There's not really an equivalent for that in bicycles - a vital electronic component that, if removed, makes the bike unusable. Sure, you can get a bike tracker on ebay, but if trackers were making a significant dent in bicycle theft, thieves would just look for them and remove or disable them. For trackers to get a signal the antennas have to be exposed, making it a simple enough matter to put a nail through the patch antenna.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#32

Post by annnnd »

leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

Not just bicycles, other sports equipment could be protected by such anti-theft devices (maybe even at the discretion of the owner). Are there any such tracking bugs already on the market?

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#33

Post by louhike »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #26
adventured wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most types of crime have declined meaningfully in the last 25 years. The only segment I can think of that might have picked up some of those former car thieves, would be the drug trade (from pot to pharmaceuticals), as it did not see a decline.

With recent legalization of weed, I'd be interested to see what happens to those figures. At the very least I'd expect to see a lot less people getting arrested for having small amounts of weed on them. (note: I watch Cops, main source of information there. Not sure if elderly bearded dudes wearing schoolgirl outfits for giving up fake names is representative of the US though).

They might specialize in other drugs like cocain, heroin, MDMA, etc. This kind of drugs may never be legalized and there will probably still be people buying it. But it might harder to enter in this market as people selling it are often quite organized and violents (apart maybe the last seller on the chain).

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#35

Post by rectangletangle »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25
da02 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, what town or city do you live in? How many times has it happened to you?

In the Netherlands / Amsterdam it happens all the time - to be fair, people have adjusted to it, all you see is very cheap old bicycles, and it's not uncommon to just steal someone else's bike if your own gets stolen. I read a cute news bulletin from the police the other day that they arrested a 60-some year old bike thief using a 'lure bike'. They do that regularly actually: https://www.google.com/search?q=lokfiets+…

If anything Amsterdam probably has too many bikes. They're literally covering every surface that you can lock one on to, often several layers deep. They're almost like barnacles there. This is exacerbated by the old infrastructure that isn't quite up to par with cities like Rotterdam.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#36

Post by svantana »

michaelt wrote: post #31
leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

Well, with modern car immobilisers you can't bypass them or break them, because they're built right into the ECU that runs the spark plugs and whatnot. There's not really an equivalent for that in bicycles - a vital electronic component that, if removed, makes the bike unusable. Sure, you can get a bike tracker on ebay, but if trackers were making a significant dent in bicycle theft, thieves would just look for them…

Well surely the entire bicycle frame could be used as an antenna? Then the electronics could fit deep inside the frame, which would make it quite difficult to disable. A problem would be how to power the device though.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#38

Post by petercooper »

kalleboo wrote: post #6

Is this native advertising? > One of the factors that keeps car theft going in the United States is the reliability of old Hondas. Eventually, mid-1990s sedans should become too old to be worth stealing at all, but that hasn’t happened yet. “They keep running,” said Mr. Morris, and therefore they keep being stolen.

No. The New York Times make native advertising very clear. For example: http://paidpost.nytimes.com/netflix/women-inmates-separate-b...

A special "paidpost" subdomain, "PAID POST" at the top of the page, and the name of the sponsor is stickied to the top as you scroll.

Namedropping a company into a story (which is almost certainly not happening here) would be payola or product placement neither of which are anything like native advertising.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#39

Post by Tiksi »

alec_heif wrote: post #3

Interesting that the Honda Accord and Honda Civic are (or rather, were) the two most stolen cars. Is that because Hondas are more reliable (so there's more old Hondas on the road) or because they're easier to steal?

I remember reading a long while ago that the accords were stolen for their engines. Supposedly, they would be swapped into a civic of a similar vintage and this caused a huge demand and skyrocketed the value. However I can't seem to find the source to verify that.
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