Some advice to PREVENT theft/at least get your money's worth

[SixSquared]

Hey guys... thought I might toss this up in this forum... I know a lot of people come through here trying to help fellow members recover things. I've been in the car scene a LONG time, and during that time, have picked up some valuable information, and wish to share it with you in an effort to help prevent cars/parts being stolen. There's also info in here about how to make it hurt less if things ARE stolen from you.

Security:
- Get a GOOD alarm. Not a little Wal-Mart or Pep Boys noisemaker with a remote start. 95% of the people on this board have at least $3,000 in their vehicle. Why buy a $60 alarm to protect that? My two favorite brands are Viper and Clifford. Both of them make top notch alarms with a LOAD of features. They are both made by the same company, Directed Electronics. You save in the long run, because even if your car isn't stolen, insurance companies will give you a break for having active (an alarm that makes noise) and/or passive (a cutoff or something that doesn't make noise) security installed.

Directed Electronics online:
http://www.directed.com/

- If you can't afford an expensive alarm, and either get or already have a cheaper one (a noisemaker if you will), INSTALL A FUEL PUMP CUTOFF SWITCH. This mod literally costs $7 at the most, and can be the difference between your car sitting in your driveway and it sitting at a chop shop. It's a VERY simple idea... Switch is on, fuel pump electricity flow is on. Switch is off, fuel pump electricity flow is off. On, motor starts. Off, it doesn't. Yes, I realize that if a thief REALLY wants your car, then they will go through and look for the switch. In some cases, they will find it. In most cases, they won't. Thieves don't like to spend more than a few minutes at a car, lest they draw attention. So say there's two 93 civics sitting next to each other. Both can be hotwired easily. Thief jumps in one after popping the lock.... fumbles with the wires, can't start the car. The turning over noise is going to draw attention, so the thief isn't going to keep cranking it and cranking it and cranking it... After about 3-4 turnovers, the thief will leave. Probably trash the interior of the car a bit, but at least the car's still there. Reason the car wouldn't start is there's no fuel going to the motor. Say another thief tries the other car. Pop lock, pull ignition wires, touch the live wires, car turns over, thief is GONE. It's that quick, people... that quick.

How-To on installing a fuel pump cutoff:
http://www.teamdelsolwa.com/howto/fuelcutoff.htm

- If you have an alarm, consider putting it on silent alert mode.. The security features come on, but it doesn't actually sound the alarm. There's ups and downs to this. Advantages are if you have a pager, you can be paged, walk out, and catch someone in the act. Also, if a thief doesn't hear a car making noise, they will probably be more sloppy, which gives them an even greater chance of setting off the alarm. Main disadvantage are it won't attract the attention of passerby... But think about it this way... How often do you hear car alarms going off in parking lots? Probably about once a day, right? Do YOU go out of your way to see what's up with someone else's ride? Probably not... I know I don't. The siren isn't quite as effective as it used to be.

- Be observant. Park under streetlights, yadda yadda yadda. Something I have learned, even if the rest of your car is filthy dirty, keep your windows as clean as possible. Wipe em down once a day with some windex. Takes about 60 seconds tops. But, do you have any idea how nicely clean glass picks up fingerprints? I'm in the habit now.. every time I come home and park, I take that minute or two and clean the glass. By doing it every night, I know if anyone's touched my glass, because I don't touch it during the day.. I open the door with the handle, maybe put the windows up/down a few times during the day, and close the door by pushing the doorskin, not the window. So if there's fingerprints on that glass, better believe they're not mine. Marks/fingerprints are especially noticeable on tinted glass, and I look for them... Also look for curved marks that look like a pear... that's the mark left behind by someone's hand against the glass as they're peering in.

- LO JACK! Again, yes, it can be costly, but you gotta decide what's worth more... your car, or a monthly fee? There's a couple of different vehicle tracking/GPS systems out there, but Lo Jack is the most widely used, and it's because they are DAMN good. For those of you not familiar with how this works, it's basically a tracking device on your car. It's hard as hell to disable when it's installed well, and your car can be traced using the positioning device in the car. This is also considered passive security by an insurance company, and some insurance companies actually have a seperate box to check if you have Lo Jack/GPS, and will give you an even BIGGER discount for it!

Lo Jack website:
http://www.lojack.com/

Insurance:
- Again with the idea of spending a little bit extra to save yourself more... FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE, people... Seriously. At least look into how much it would cost to get full coverage on your car. You'd be surprised how little it can be had for. Theft coverage is a good thing! Rental is a good thing! Being covered if you dent your own car is a good thing! Hell my full coverage insurance paid for my entire car after declaring it totalled because of a blown motor that I blew... Liability won't do that! Sit down and look at how much you have in your car... break it down dollar by dollar. Is it worth it to you to spend an extra $30 a month to protect all of that? I know it is to me! I'm insured by AAA, and most people don't even know they offer insurance. Not only do they offer insurance, but it is CHEAP, and you can include your AAA membership with the cost of insurance, so it's all paid for at once! Kill two birds with one stone! They also offer homeowner's, life, etc... all kinds of insurance!
- Along this line, when you get your quote about full coverage, see if your insurance companies offer any kind of aftermarket parts coverage. A lot of companies are starting to offer different plans for modified cars. It may cost a little more, but in the event of theft/destruction, the insurance company will shell out more dough for your car. No one wants to get a $5,000 check for the 99 Nissan that you have $17,600 in, right?

- AAA website if you want a quote: http://www.aaasouth.com/insurance.asp?insProd=auto

- Homeowner's insurance. Yes, I said homeowner's insurance. This is kind of a catch in the insurance world, but if you have homeowner's already, listen up. I got this idea after my dad insured my laptop on his homeowner's policy. He said everything in the house valued over $500 was covered for theft, flood, fire, etc etc... That got me thinking... What about things outside the house? I know his tool collection is covered... hell his toolbox alone was $500. So he and I went and met with his insurance agent. When we left, my entire audio system was covered by homeowner's, my racing seats were covered, and my wheels were covered. When my car was declared totalled by the *auto* insurance company due to the motor being hydrolocked, and they said I couldn't get my parts off it, *homeowner's* kicked in after dad made a claim for flood damage. I got almost $1700 extra, which was pretty close to the value of what was lost. If you have homeowner's insurance, see if they will cover the expensive stuff in your car. They might, they might not. Worth a try and a decent argument, though, ESPECIALLY if theft coverage is at stake.

Photos:
-Take LOTS of pictures of your car. You love your car, you should have an album up anyway. Take pictures of every little dent and imperfection, take pictures of the motor, take pictures of the wheel/suspension setup... all of it. But don't JUST take pictures of the car. Take pictures of the area the car is stored in. Got a garage? Take pics of it! Driveway? Pics! If your car turns up missing, it's good to have photos of where the car was so that police can file as detailed of a report as possible. With enough photos, you can also make flyers if that's your thing... the more people that see the car, the more likely it is to be spotted, right? If you don't make flyers, you can at least post your most up to date pictures on forums.

-Take pictures of mods before they're done... like, take pics of just your seats, just your wheels, just your turbo, etc. Be sure to zoom in on any serial numbers, just in case people question whether something is actually yours.

-If your car/stuff IS stolen, take as many pics of the area as possible. Take pics of any burnout marks, any stuff left behind, anything you see that wasn't there before the stuff/car got gone. Take pictures of any marks that may be on the car if the car's still there but there's stuff gone out of it. That way if cops try to be lazy and not take fingerprints, you have hard proof that there are fingerprints to be gotten off the car. A LOT of police will shove car thefts under a rug, which is understandable cause there's murder and stuff to deal with, but theft is theft. The fingerprints should be taken and ran regardless. There's a LOT of fingerprints in the database, and most people who steal cars/steal parts out of cars have been in for something or another before.


I'm about out of advice for now.. tiredness is setting in hardcore. Just thought I'd put this out there for people to see... Some is common sense, some people might not know. Hope I helped!