<VV> REALITY HAS STRUCK

[Tony Underwood]

At 04:03 hours 05/17/2005, Mark Noakes wrote:
>Not that it's at all guaranteed but if I have to leave my car someplace 
>that I feel uncomfortable, I pull the coil wire totally out and take it 
>with me.  Even ignition disablers could be bypassed at the engine 
>compartment.  An engine lid lock would go a long way towards keeping 
>someone out.



Trouble is, that won't stop the hit&run thieves who use standard "repo" 
wreckers which simply back up to the car, the swivelling "claw foot" lift 
extends under  and around the tires and plucks the car up and off it 
goes.  Depending on the vehicle, the driver might not even have to get out 
of the wrecker.   In the case of an older vehicle like a Vair, the crook 
will "slim-jim" the window and released the e-brake and/or bungie-cord the 
steering wheel, depending on which end of the car he's backed up to, takes 
about 10 seconds tops if they're good.    What's more, he could do it and 
nobody would likely know anything was wrong if the door of the wrecker had 
an official sounding name in big bright letters on it, complete with bogus 
phone number.   A large magnetic stick-on banner works well, goes on and 
comes off quickly and easily, nobody is the wiser.

A fellow I know who ran a wrecker service used to do contract work for a 
local bank, repo'ing cars from lien-bearing deadbeat customers.   He'd tow 
a project Vair for me now and again cheap, knew him from Back When.   He 
told me all sorts of things on how to go pick up a car with his new 
space-age "fork foot" claw lift wrecker and be off with it in 30 seconds or 
less.    He was a big "country boy" named Aubrey, business was called 
"Fat-Boy's Towing".

He also went on to tell me that these new wreckers with the swivel 
claw-feet pickups were great for the tow-recovery business since people 
like him who carry a little extra padding around the middle don't have to 
crawl under a car to hook up to it.

However, it also made car thieves much more efficient since they could 
simply back up to a targeted vehicle and clamp onto the tires, pick it up, 
and be off and gone with it in less time than it takes most people to go 
into Burger King and buy a milkshake... and never actually lay a finger on 
the car itself.

Moral of story:   Don't leave the specialty or vintage car outside 
unguarded or where it's easy to get to it with a wrecker.   Get an alarm 
with motion sensor.   Steering wheel locks won't help, and in fact can 
actually aid a crook with a space age wrecker since he wouldn't have to 
secure the steering wheel to pick the car up by its back wheels and pull it 
off.   If you can cough up the bucks, get a locator transmitter and install 
it on the car so if it's stolen the cops can track it.

I can think of few things which would tick me off worse than having some 
lowlife steal a car of which I thought highly.



tony..