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RE: Alarms

With all the talk on alarms I thought I'd share my opinion on alarms in
general with the list to see what everyone else thinks.

I agree that any alarm can be defeated, but some are considerably more
difficult than others, and some thieves are considerably more resourceful
than others.  There are there are different levels of thieves as I see it,
requiring different levels of protection in order to thwart them.

1.  The opportunist, kid from down the street, skilless thug type who
generally wants something that is in your car, but may know just enough to
get it started.

These are the most common.  I have run into this one more than once
personally and know MANY others who have as well.  The difficulty in
defeating this guy is that it only takes a few seconds to break a window
and steal something from the car.  Most people are pretty numbed to the
sound car alarms going off and just ignore them.  This guy knows that so he
is often brave enough to do it alarm or not.  He does not have enough
knowledge to defeat an alarm, so he would not try to steal the whole car.

So for this guy the only thing that matters is whether or not he perceives
that you have an alarm.


2. The run of the mill car thief who likes what he sees and intends to
steal your car.

This one knows what he's doing and can get the job done and be gone fairly
quickly.  He may or may not be able to defeat a good quality, well
installed alarm.  So the scenario will probably go like this.  The thief
walks up to your car and observes whether or not your car has an alarm.  If
there is no alarm, he steals it.  If there is an alarm, and he does not
feel comfortable dealing with it because of his ability or the location of
the car at the time, he goes away.  If there are plenty of similar cars
without alarms which represent less risk to him, he may go away for easier
pickings.

If there is an alarm, and he chooses to try to steal the car anyway, the
security system obviously must present the thief some difficulties he was
not expecting in order for it to defeat him.  This is the point where a
sophisticated alarm vs. a good alarm or the illusion of an alarm becomes
important.  If he simply breaks the window, pops the hood and rips out the
siren, he can then proceeded in peace to do whatever else he might need to.

The things that will help above and beyond a good quality alarm installed
by a skilled installer alone are IMHO:

A. A hood lock and a backup battery for the alarm.  I've seen armored
sirens with built in backup batteries which might be a cheaper alternative
offering some additional protection.
B.  Air horns.  These make a LOT of noise and will draw considerably more
attention than a standard siren alone.


3. The knowledgeable professional car thief.

Most everything I've read or heard has said that if this guy really wants
your car, he's going to get it.  If nothing else they can just tow it away
or use a more direct in your face approach. The only help here would seem
to be one of the tracking devices that would enable you to recover the car
after it was stolen.  Fortunately these guys are the least common.


As a side note, I originally came to these conclusions while broke in
college after getting ripped off and consequently doing much thinking and
research on the topic.  Since simply giving the definite impression that
your car has an alarm will take care of virtually everything that having a
basic alarm will, I designed an electronic gizmo that would allow me to
mount an LED just like one from an alarm and have it flash when the car is
turned off and stop flashing when the car is switched on.  It worked nicely
for a year or so until I could afford a sophisticated alarm system.  If
anyone is interested E-mail me and I'll see if I can find the parts and
plans for it.

Jimmy Shrake
Current: '93 318is
Previous: '85 325e (150k)

jim@domain.elided