5 lifehacks; car theft prevention edition

Since my car got my car stolen in front of my house about a year ago and my roommate’s car got stolen at almost the same spot recently, I took some time thinking about practical ways to bring down the odds of stuff like that happening. So I thought I’d share some of my knowledge with you;

1.       Cheap steering wheel lock. Although it is really easy to remove a cheap steering wheel lock, a thief will see this obstacle and leave your car alone and steal another car without a steering wheel lock. Therefore, even a 5 dollar lock will protect your car in a urban environment.

2.       Bad neighborhood trick. If you are forced to park your car in a really bad hood for a short amount of time, remove a small but vital part of your car. Examples are; fuse of the start motor or engine management, main battery fuse, main spark distribution cap. Epic tier is definitely to take your steering wheel with you; this annoys the thief even more!

3.       Don’t make enemies where you park. I’ve lived in quite a bad neighborhood for about 2 years, but the youngster/oldsters hanging on the street corner till early morning knew I lived there and what car was mine.  No junkie car thief will steal a car in a hood like that because he knows he can get into trouble with the group of people standing on the corner ‘protecting’ ‘their’ hood. My car never got vandalized in that part of town, it’s my new ‘good’ neighborhood where my car got stolen and molested one too many times.

4.       If you have a car that’s worth it, invest in a car alarm. This one is obvious, my cars never were worth the money to install a good alarm system, but if you car is…protect it. There are even GPS trackers on the market which let you track your car on google maps for less than ~$200 !

5.       Crank down your sound when you get home. This sounds a little weird but it’s actually quite practical, a professional thief will know a good sound system when he hears it. Also thieves tend to be outside for most of the time. Therefore, turn down your sound when you are about turn in the street where you are going to park. The villain won’t know what you’re sound system is worth, so it is less likely you will find your car with the window smashed and your audio ripped out.

These were my tips, reading them back I see they are mostly useful in urban environments. Oh well, thanks for reading!