<VV> REALITY HAS STRUCK

[Dave Morris]

The sticker on my window with a photo of a king cobra and the text "Caution 
- Poisonous snakes" seems to keep the lowlifes away from my cars.

Dave Morris

At 12:37 PM 5/17/2005 -0700, you wrote:

>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..
>
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