Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

A lock and chain will only stop the honest people from stealing your motorcycle,

I used to keep a chain of this size on the front of my Harley.
photo source" the net"

The bigger the lock and chain, the more people you'll keep honest!

These were some words of wisdom that I read in Easyriders magazine many years ago.

Good advice then, even better advice now.

I used to laugh and say that a thief would be a fool to steal one of my cars when there are so many more desirable, and valuable cars in my neighborhood.

That might be true but it takes a more sophisticated crook to steal a modern car with an alarm and a theft proof "chip key."

My '96 Mustang has a chip key but my Explorer doesn't.

They can be defeated but it requires the use of a scanner to override the anti theft feature.

I got to thinking that the thief might have been looking for a certain vehicle that didn't have the chip key. Unfortunately, he found one.

All he had to do was break the window, break the ignition lock and turn the switch with a screwdriver. Crude but effective.

Some of the things that I had done to my Explorer might have made it a little easier to do the deed.

I knew that I had a problem with the remote locking system. It appeared that the front passenger's side door lock would stick, either up or down when the locking button was pushed. I should have replaced the lock actuator. When the doors are remotely locked then the alarm can be activated. Instead of dealing with the actuator I fitted a battery disconnect switch.

Now the doors would remain locked but the alarm couldn't be activated. My Explorer has a feature that activates the interior lights when the front door handles are pulled. With the battery disconnected there wouldn't be any lights turned on. While a thief can check out the contents of your vehicle, he might also see something else. Like an additional anti-theft device.

It's kind of disconcerting to think that someone could just decide to take your car and then just do it.

There's nothing I can do to stop someone from smashing a window.

There's nothing I can do to stop someone from breaking the ignition lock.

All I can do is take measures that will tend to keep more people honest.

The best thing that I could do to keep my car safe is to keep the car in my garage at night. That adds more levels of security to the equation, and also adds another felony, burglary, to the auto theft. This might tend to keep most people more honest. But I'd never be able to keep all my cars safely parked indoors.

Parking the car in my driveway or directly in front of my house would also help. I could hear the alarm and the thief could be caught on camera. I'll admit that my Explorer was parked around the corner and in a dark area where no houses actually face the street. In fact, there's no way to see the street from those houses as their aren't any windows that could look out and can directly see what was happening.

About the only thing that I can try to do is to make stealing this car unattractive, and add a layer of defense that will slow down the process. I could use an aftermarket device like "the Club".

With only two hooks it is quick and easy to engage.

I had always been a non-believer in the effectiveness of this device. I've heard that a thief can cut through the steering wheel with a bolt cutter to remove the device. Probably, but he'd have to have brought that bolt cutter with him. That might discourage some more folks.

I needed to do something. I tried a "Club like" device from Master Lock. It had four claws that could grip around the spokes of the steering wheel. The thing even boasts of a 1,000.00 anti theft warranty. I'll bet that would be hard to collect on!

This didn't fit properly on my Explorer's wheel.

I just couldn't get that thing to fit properly. I still wanted something to immobilize the steering wheel in addition to the column/ignition lock.

Hanging next to the Master Lock steering wheel lock was a brake pedal to steering wheel lock. Years ago I had purchased a pretty flimsy version from J.C.Whitney to use on my '57 Cadillac. It didn't inspire too much confidence but it was better than nothing.

The quality was much more reassuring.

This device fit quite well and it was possible to secure it to one of the wheels spokes. However it would still be possible to move the steering wheel to some degree. So I had a brilliant idea, "Why not use two?" I purchased another one to secure to the other wheel spoke. Now the wheel and brake pedal were both immobilized. It would be twice as much work to defeat these devices. Even if the thief cut the steering wheel to remove both of them, it would be harder to drive the car with what's left of the wheel! At least I hope so.

This is what you see when the interior light comes on.

You can see how the triangulation works.
These devices are even color coordinated to the interior!

Will these measures work? I certainly hope so. In this case, the Explorer was driven from the scene. I didn't take the battery disconnect knob with me when I parked the car. It was a simple matter to reconnect the switch. I also used to disconnect the battery in my '56 Cadillac but I used a chain to lock the hood. I was mostly concerned that someone would walk off with the original air cleaner. Just something else to slow the crook down.

I'm not minimizing what happened to me. A crime was committed. It ended up costing me a lot of money and aggravation and work. None of this was my fault. Even if I had left the keys in the ignition of an unlocked car, that doesn't give anyone the right to take it. I, or any honest person wouldn't drive off with it. However there are obviously plenty of people out there that would.

Like in every aspect of our lives we are responsible to take the best measures to ensure the safety and security of ourselves, our family, our homes, and our possessions. We won't be successful in every scenario, but we can try to stack the odds in our favor!