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Ask Slashdot: Protecting Tech Gear From Smash-and-Grab Theft?
rstory writes "I seem to be hearing about more smash and grab thefts lately, from low-tech purse snatching to thieves after laptops and cameras. Bold thieves are even snatching stuff in church/day-care parking lots in the 5 minute window while a parent goes in to pick up their child. I often drive around with my laptop, and want to find the best way to protect against theft. Besides the obvious 'don't leave equipment in the car' solution, what else are people doing? Right now I just use a regular backpack instead of a fancy laptop case. I don't have a trunk, so when I leave the car I put the backpack on the floor of the back seat, sometimes throwing other junk on top. The only interesting thing I've found while googling is a couple of 'anti-theft' backpacks which have wire mesh to prevent cutting them open and a (thin looking) cable for securing to a stationary object. What do you do to protect your gear?"
Well for laptops you can install software that can help you track your laptop or protect your files from a remote location. There are ton of them out there, listed in the article below http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387748,00.asp
If I park somewhere that has a reasonable chance of a smash-and-grab, I take valuables with me.
Period.
Who cares if it's locked down to something, if it looks like there is something valuable in the car, it's going to get broken in to. And if they can't take the thing they really want, they'll likely do extra damage, just because.
Other than that, I try to avoid leaving my car in locations that I worry about its safety.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Get a dog and keep it in the car.
I do have a trunk... so I throw it in there. Beyond that I minimize the impact of it getting stolen by using full disk encryption.
Does your car not have any kind of lockable storage (actually what kind of car is this anywayno trunk?). If so, put it in there, otherwise you could always buy a jewellery safe and have a friend who is good with tools weld it to the floor, roof, or remove one of the seats and put the safe there. You could also keep your laptop and GPS and other gear in a hardened suitcase handcuffed to your wrist at all times
I don't leave it in my car. And when I leave it in my work vehicle, it's locked in a floor safe because it's work related and the company paid for it.
Om, nomnomnom...
Not even pocket change, any incentive for a thief to break your window and score something of even minimal value is going be motivation for someone weak eventually.
If you are really concerned, take the extra minute or two and lock your valuables away in your trunk or glovebox. Out of sight, out of mind.
...holding laptop, make sure to solder an unobtrusive on/off switch someplace you can reach but non-obvious on the briefcase (or connected to the briefcase by wire.
Fun! :)
(I had a friend who did something similar to the hood ornament of his Dad's Mercedes during the 80's when everyone was stealing them.)
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>>I don't have a trunk, so when I leave the car I put the backpack on the floor of the back seat, sometimes throwing other junk on top.
Seriously? You expect technology to solve this?
Sorry to be so blunt with the title, but that sums it up. If you don't want your shit stolen, don't leave it laying around for an opportunistic thief.
Take your stuff with you.
Some ideas:
- Best solution is obviously to not leave it in the vehicle. Theives cannot take what is not there and no solution will be this good.
- Any visible "bag" type of thing is a red flag. So if you leave your bag in there, whatever it looks like, hide it. Put something over it, a blanket, etc. Put it on the floor of the backseat. Helps if your car looks messy and has a lot of junk.
- Laptop might be safer in the trunk than in the back set. You can also install a bolted-to-the-frame metal lockbox in the trunk which would increase the time to steal needed significantly (if you pick a good lock) and may protect valuable cargo from accidents and weather as well.
- If you can fit it where your spare tire is stowed, if it is inside the vehicle, might not be a bad idea to put it there. Smasher and grabbers won't look there.
- Hide it IN the seat. Gouge out a flat, horizontal slot to put your laptop in and create a nice-looking cover.
- Research drug cartels and how they stow things.
- Strap it to the inside of the hood somehow, but this will be difficult.
close the car doors before leaving? hehe
I live in a third world country, and shadowed windows and a good alarm are a must for this reason. Also, anti-theft laminated windows help a lot.
like to those used for firearms by people who carry concealed weapons when they're forced to leave their sidearm in their vehicle (e.g., when dropping by the post office or a bank).
http://www.google.com/?q=vehicle+firearms+safe
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
I never leave my backpack, and have never been robbed although I usually travel to "interesting" countries, and stay in "interesting" places.
But I would always refuse to leave my computer in a car, including in the trunk, if I'm not ready to carry it with me at all time I keep it at home.
Get a Trunk Monkey..
http://youtu.be/geynA-JYDHE
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
To keep things legit... Put a high voltage label on it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I have a Pelican case to carry my laptop in, but if I was really worried, I would rather call a tow truck in the case of a major flat tire (you can get the fix a flat stuff in a can), than lose a laptop.
I have two pad locks and eye-bolts on my subwoofer box since it was stolen before.
I have bolted down my amp with a 1" piece of flat steel over it.
GPS beaconed and battery-backuped/powered strong box hardwired into your car's battery and built into its frame is the most definitive solution. Throw some biometric thumbprint scanning and numeric passcode locking if you really want to go overboard. This is an expensive solution though. ($10K plus to start with.) If you are driving a car without a trunk, upgrade your car for maximum protection. You set priorities in life, so you decide how secure your want your setup. I think that you could suffice with a small strong box with lock, key, and tumbler code and some degree of heft to it. Perhaps 35 pounds or more. This would deter speed and swiftness.
Help me, help you. - Jerry McGuire
It's an old photographer's trick to keep gear in a diaper bag. Nobody wants to go near that (literal) shit.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
When I was carrying my laptop around in a slim jacket instead of backpack, I'd just put it under the floor mat on the passenger front side.
Make sure it is covered by auto/home-owner/renter insurance and back-up regularly.
rstory, as the submitter of this question, you neglected to provide a link to yourself and your /. profile doesn't seem very informative.
Can you please give us a few details. Particularly, oh I dunno, maybe some info on where you like to park your car? Thanks!!
P.S. FYI, you can post stories as ac.
Its been said many times that people will vary rarely try to steal something they do not see. Even if the trunk is unlockable from inside the car, its very unlikely that someone will try to break in to see if there is anything in the trunk. Crimes like this are about numbers. You don't need to be secure, just more secure than the other cars around you.
Plus getting things in and out of trunk are easy with modern (last 10 years or so) cars that have remote open on the trunk.
is to put medium sized valuables under the seats. The cars I drive usually have that space and it's almost impossible to actually see if there's something down there. Some laptops may or may not fit down there. You'll have to test it. There's always a chance to kick the equipment so if it's something really sensitive I would advise against it.
This combination doesn`t exist: ETIs that know about humanity and want to see us dead. Otherwise we wouldn't exist.
If I'm going around with my laptop, I put it in the inconspicuous place in my car *before* I get in my car. Not after I've stopped and everyone nearby can see that I'm hiding something valuable.
t
What do you mean "you don't have a trunk". What the hell do you drive that has no trunk of any kind? Even hatchbacks have storage spaces in the rear you could add a false floor to...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not that I like the NRA but a GOA sticker doesn't have the same brand recognition.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It is a lot harder to sell a laptop covered in stickers and scratches than it is to sell a laptop that is in mint condition.
It might not look professional, but that is kinda the point.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
This seems like a strange question. It seems like the best policy is to assume there's nothing special about your laptop or any other tech gear and just treat it as if it was a woman's purse. What do you do to keep anything from being stolen?
The bottom line is that most petty crimes are crimes of opportunity. "I was just standing there watching videos on my iPhone, not paying any attention to my surroundings, and a guy ran up and grabbed it out of my hand. Can you believe it? What's this country coming to?"
Here's one idea: Use a laptop cable to lock your laptop to the steering wheel (or something else) when you leave the car. The catch: Nobody will expect you to do that, so they'll still smash your car window before they realize the laptop is locked. Works great if you're OK with paying for a smashed window.
Breakfast served all day!
You could always buy a laptop lock and tether it to a fixed piece of metal in the car. The thief would then either have to break the laptop or bring along bolt cutters. Why bring along your laptop, though, if you're just going to leave it in the car?
I put the pack on my back whenever I get out of the car.
In my life, I've had 2 stereos stolen from my cars. After the first caused about $1000 damage to the dash to remove a cheap $100 stereo, I learned to NOT bolt the stereos in place. The second only cost me a window....and a stereo.
I've always wanted to do this, but legal issues prevent it.
What if stealing a stereo/laptop/camera might be deadly? I always thought it would be rather easy to build the electronic components necessary to trigger a detonator once it's a certain distance from the vehicle (say 300 feet). Someone steals the dummy device from your car, and when they get down the street - it kills them...and whoever they're with.
I would be willing to bet that the theft rate would plummet.
Women don't leave their purse in their car if they are worried about a smash and grab (at least smart women don't). Why do you think you can leave your laptop safely? Unless you are looking for solutions along the lines of the trunk money or connecting a car battery to it, what do you expect us to say? It's like asking "how do I secure my wireless network without requiring MAC filters or a passcode to connect?"
1. Eliminate risk: Don't leave anything in the car or leave your vicious dog in there...
2. Mitigate risk: Encrypt drives, backup often, insure financial loss
3. Security theater: Put everything in the trunk or leave it under the seat
beyond the obvious 'dont park where you're likely to get broken into', fully encrypting your drive and getting insurance (auto or home should cover it) is the most reasonable thing to do. Phone-home software may or may not work - frankly, I don't bother. Just encrypt and have offsite backups of the important stuff. Take the insurance payout and replace.
Don't leave it unattended in public?
Most thieves are opportunists, and unless they've been watching you and really, really, REALLY want what you've got, then simply locking the car securely is your best bet.
The other night, I was walking home (about 11:30pm, through East London), and there was a guy walking toward me. He was testing the door handles of each car he passed, until finally one opened. He took the stuff out that he found, throwing some of it away and pocketing whatever else it was he got.
I stood staring at him as he did this, quite incredulous that he would do this right in front of me, and he just looked at me and said, "Well, should've locked their car, shouldn't they?" and walked off, carrying on.
I didn't do anything because this was a very tall bloke, and was probably carrying a knife. I didn't call the police either, since, this being East London, he was no doubt part of a gang and knowing my luck I'd walk into him the following week.
So, lock your car and don't keep anything of value on show. Thieves won't smash EVERY car they come to - only the ones they know they can get stuff out of.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Always make sure there's a little rust on the body of the car.
If a crack in a window can stay small, keep it.
If your trunk is inaccessible from the cabin, keep all your doors visibly unlocked, and a couple of windows down.
park crookedly
Change you alarm to someone actually yelling something instead of a standard alarm.
Don't put all your secrets about this subject on slashdot.
watch robocop.
Go too Goodwill, grab a ratty looking Barney the Dinosaur. Cut a hole and insert.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
If you've got a netbook or a tablet, consider a drop leg gas mask pouch. You'll want to check that the dimensions are large enough for your device of course, but I'm ordering one for my netbook.
I take the train a lot. If I get up to go to the restroom or the cafe car, I don't want to leave my netbook at my seat (everyone around me knows I have one because I've been using it). It's took big to stuff into my pocket, and it's a pain to have to pack it back up in the laptop bag and then take that with me, so I'm hoping the gas mask pouch will work better.
It's better than a fanny pack. People laugh at you for wearing those (and rightly so). But no one's going to give me grief if I'm wearing a gas mask pouch.
That said, I'll be a little wary the first time I try using it at the airport. I know they make "tactical" handgun holsters in a similar style, and besides, I'm sure there's going to be at least one "security" person who's going to wonder why I'm at the airport with a gas mask strapped to my leg, but what can you do?
If you're going to insist on Besides the obvious , then the best that I can offer you is to leave the car unlocked, and protect the windows by leaving them wound down into the door where they may be safer. That way the thief might not break a $300 window while grabbing a $99 GPS (or even a few lose CDs, or change, or other shiny objects). Thieves sometimes steal cars by "popping the ignition", using a large screwdriver or similar pry-bar to break the lock. So I'll also suggest that you can prevent the expense of a broken ignition lock by gluing something into the keyhole where they would normally try to insert the screwdriver, blocking it. I suggest gluing in the original key.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
12 Volts at 550 Amps wouldn't even go through your skin. Needs to be closer to 48 Volts. If you converted to AC and added a transformer, ~100 amps could be delivered. If you wanted to be lazy, a good inverter will also do the trick. Just make sure and bridge all fuses (check inside, too!)
Sig: I stole this sig.
I have a similar problem. I drive a club cab pickup truck, so I don't have a trunk. What I did was I bought a First Alert Electronic Digital Security Lockbox model 3040DF. I found it at my local national hardware chain (the ornge one, not the blue one) on sale for $40. I bolted it to the floor in the back seat. It would be a bear to take the whole thing out.
"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable." - Robert Heinlein
But want to leave it in the car.. why even bother with the backpack if you arent going to really go crazy and put it on your back.
Save the money for your next replacement.
They've already won, man. They've already won. Next it's going to be the government after your children, and before you know it you'll be making posts that sound like they're coming from For A Free Internet.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I never leave mom's basement and there are bars on the windows. My stuff is safe!
Cheap security solution when in the car - giant slightly soiled granny panties laying atop the laptop bag. NO ONE ever wants to touch dirty underwear in a hot car. Worked for two decades, so far. (and no, i'm a guy, they aren't mine - try a thrift store.)
I hug it close and whisper "my preciouuussss" ....
While it's not feasible and would be massively expensive, I'd love to have James Bond's car from For Your Eyes Only that blew up when someone tried to smash his window, killing the bad guy in the process. Granted, I'd probably be put in jail for life for it, but that would be the last smash and grab he'd ever do.
Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
Ingredients:
1) shock ball
https://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/91b8/
2) sound activated switch, or remote control key fob
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&cp=15&gs_id=4t&xhr=t&q=sound+activated&tok=cfDqh3Z4o5al7PvFQnbO6A&newwindow=1&safe=off&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1158&bih=1045&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4723724170775609297&sa=X&ei=2y7qTuy_FurL0QHZx83ICQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEsQ8wIwAQ
3) small high current battery with 12v dc charger to power the above two circuits
4) Some wire mesh, or thin wire to thread through the knapsack and straps. Note: A good connection to the metal zipper is essential.
While this home brew device, like your theft deterrent bag idea, will not prevent a thief from smashing through your car window to open the door, it will be quite entertaining to the people passing by, and present an event that they might actually take note of and thus produce viable witnesses. Add a motion activated video camera to your car dash if you want to watch for yourself. I bet the video would go viral on Youtube and you will quickly identify the culprit.
550 Amp Truck Battery connected to metal briefcase ...
I suspect that would earn you multiple broken windows, taillights, headlights, slashed tires, and key scratches everywhere from the attempt. Or maybe they'd just torch it.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
I repair for a living and always have a few laptops in the car and what not. So, I do take some precautions that seem to be working for me. So, Here are some of my tricks.
1. Take some card board or paper and make a sign that says something like "Jim, Just throw this laptop out the motherboard is shot". Or similar and put it on the laptop in the car. They will see that and think "why bother?".
2. I have all kinds of wrappers/garbage in the back seat. Just put your valuables underneath it all. Also, Dont drive a really nice car for those in the repair field. A junker car with garbage in the back seat is not worth breaking into.
Some friends of mine that lived in NY during a garbage strike used to put their garbage in a box and wrap it up in holiday wrapping paper and leave the back door unlocked . Worked like a charm to get rid of their garbage!
Trunk Monkey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee3L9BQQ4Gs
A friend of mine was shot in the face for her Macbook Pro after the perps observed her locking her laptop bag in the trunk of her car. They were casing cars to rob and they knew the bag was worth it. The police arrested one of them later, and he told them that the only reason she died was because she made it hard for them. If she had not locked her laptop in the trunk, she would probably still be alive today. All they cared about was they had a drug habit to feed and she got in the way.
A similar event happened in London where a group of criminals broke into someone's house. She didn't have any valuables worth stealing, and she had made it difficult for them, so in retaliation they put her pet cat in the microwave and turned it on.
Criminals only care about the money. It's not worth your life. Just give them what they want and move on. If you make it hard for them, they just use more violence until they get what they want. You can't possibly win, or even break even. The only thing you can do is surrender.
was move to an area with less crime.
That said:
Get a child seat bolt put into your car. Secure you backpack to that.
Or
get a small dog.
Or,
Lock your car and get qet car alarm.
What you should do first, is look at the actual crime statistic instead of 'word of mouth' anecdotes. Overall, crime is down.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Replace your car with one with a trunk.
Not everything needs a high tech, well thought out solution. Thieves are grabbing items that are visible and highly valuable. Solution: make any highly valuable item either invisible or not valuable. Probably making it invisible isn't as likely to ruin it.
Or, for short, put it under your seat ya dummy!
Leaving sharks with laser beams on their heads inside or around the car. If that doesn't work, agitated mutated sea-bass will work, but they're not as effective.
Out of sight out of mind.
I'll push the passenger seat all the way back and tilt it back a litte, and put my laptop bag there during the daytime. Someone walking by quickly glancing in isn't going to note it there, just looks like there was a really tall person in the car. At night, i'll leave it on the floor of the passenger seat. Again, someone would really have to be intent on rooting through my car to note it, and at that point they're already in. During the daytime though, the car gets pretty hot. Ended up leaving the laptop in the trunk.
Really, just don't make it an easy target by leaving it in full view on the passenger seat. that encourages the smash and grabbers. if's not in plain view they'll just pass by your car and hit the next car that has something on display inside of it.
I can't think of a car without any form of trunk or storage department, though.... what do you drive?
So it's obvious. So why aren't you doing it? And why are you dismissing it out of hand? I'd never leave a valuable laptop sitting in a car like that.
Reading all the comments I can't resist making a social political comment about the problems the otherwise most advanced country of the planet apparently has not yet solved:
- Don't work in a country where theft from workers or the poor is considered the official way to support the poorer or the richer
- If you must live in that country, stop voting for governments that care more about IP/copyright/corporate "theft" than citizen theft
- If you must live in that country and work for that company, keep your personal laptop at home and have your company buy you another one for work, which stays at work.
Come on Slashdot, I expected the comments to be full of ingenious booby trap ideas. I like "metal laptop wired to battery," but how about some other ideas? The main problem I've run into is that any booby traps also need to be safe for the driver and passengers in the event of a crash -- this rules out explosives, cyanide gas, and acid. Here's five to start us off:
1) Use some conductive glass to rig a circuit that will fill your whole car with spray foam insulation when a window is broken.
2) Put a really obvious fake laptop next to a rolled-down window. Sharpen that window to a razor-sharp edge. Rig a laser detection circuit so that if anything passes through the window opening, it will roll up quickly and sever the offender's hand. Make sure that this is disabled automatically when friendlies are in the vehicle.
3) Rig a circuit to spray pepper spray out of any windows that are shattered.
4) Hide a GPS tracking device in all of your valuables which will automatically alert you if they start moving when they should be still. Carry a long-range, scoped rifle and sit near the window.
5) Give your car a robust air-tight seal. Each time your car is parked, pressurize the inside so that if anyone breaks a window, the bits of glass will fly out into their face, disabling them and hopefully knocking them back several feet into oncoming traffic.
Any other ideas?
Drive an old car. Take the radio out and leave wires hanging. Leave fast food wrappers and empty soft drink bottles on the floor. Leave a copy of the "help wanted" ads in plain sight.
Nothing's ever been stolen from my car, but I once came back and found a bum sleeping in the back seat. (joking)
Get a Volvo or any other car with laminated glass side windows. It takes some serious effect to punch enough of a hole in the window to unlock the doors.
Of course the sun roof and back windows aren't laminated glass, but rarely do thieves try to smash those.
I don't have one, but i know a police officer who carries one with him at all times. He had a safe put in under each of his chairs. He can't lower them(which I'd like to do because I'm so damn tall) but it works. he keeps his gun under his chair and his laptop and other stuff under the other one. It become hidden, secured, and even protects it if he is in an accident.
Google it, I have one for my netbook, and couldn't have cost me more then 50$ to get it and install it.
Back up your data so if your laptop does get stolen it's an inconvenience rather than irreplaceable loss.
Make sure you always lock your car, so many people "jump out for just two minutes to buy something from a shop" and come back to find their car has been emptied. Always lock your car. This will put off opportunistic thieves who are looking for a quick easy target. How many of the break -ins were on unlocked rather than locked cars? If somebody has to break into your car, they might leave evidence, which means at least you might be able to claim on insurance.
Thieves aren't going to sit in your car and try and open locked bags, they will just walk off with them and open them at their leisure elsewhere. So wire mesh laptop bags? these seem like a waste of time for this situation, unless you are also D-locking your bag to a steel mounting point in your car. Easy enough for thieves to get some wire cutters when they've got your bag back at their house and take their time opening it up.
Mark your laptop so it can be traced.
All you have to carry is that little smoke can so you can put them to sleep while you drive.
I do photography on the side. That means laptop AND camera. First thing I do is use carrying cases and bags that don't advertise what they carry. My laptop bag looks like an army surplus hippie bag. My camera bag looks like a small backpack. If they are going to stay in the car, I make sure they are out of sight, usually in the trunk of my car. I don't make the mistake of parking my car THEN hiding my valuable, therefore advertising *where* to go to get the quick grab. I also drive a fairly common car that also isn't among the models that make the "top stolen" lists year to year. Not standing out in a parking lot has it's advantages. However, if you drive a vehicle that is largely labeled or *branded* (like BOB'S COMPUTER REPAIR or FRANK'S PHOTOGRAPHY), just ignore this and move to backups and insurance.
Backups. Your laptop likely has data you can't live without. Backup your entire user folder, and any data outside of it. Remember how you had to keep reburning that mix CD you loved before you got your mp3 player? Don't be cheap, use external drives.
Finally, Insurance. I'm still pricing mine out, but make sure that whatever you get covers theft wherever you are. PPA.com (for those based in the US) is an option I'm looking at as a photographer. It's a trade association that includes insurance in your dues, and covers a variety of situations that may not be covered by a regular policy. Also seems to offer quite a few resources for photographers (I am not yet a member).
Prevent by keeping it out of sight, but insure with backups and an insurance policy.
He was an Auto mechanic with some spare time and decided to have the inside of his door handle electrified when the door is locked with enough current to put you on your ass that he could turn on and off when needed and only him and a few others knew about. Worked fine till 1 person sued him after they got knocked out when they say they "grazed up against" his door handle, fat chance when only a strip on the inside of the handle that you have to grab to touch had current to it.
Long story short, he had to pay a fine for some charge and had to take it off. I honestly would have liked him to keep it and throw a camera up too so it records the people when they try.
That's what I meant to say, buy lots of insurance, don't keep personal info on your computer (including any access to e-mail) and be sure that everything on the computer is backed up. Then the friendly people at the insurance company will give you full replacement value for everything that was taken and for all repairs needed as a result of the smashing to get in. They are happy whenever something like this happens because it helps them sell more insurance. And it makes it easy for people like the original poster to avoid the common sense Besides the obvious approach of just taking the temptation out of the car.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I drive a Jeep Wrangler, which is as secure as a tent. Basically, it IS a tent.
So the passenger's side floor is pretty much always full of Dunkin Donuts trash. I slide my laptop bag under it all, throw a few empty coffee cups on top, and noone's going to think there's anything interesting to steal.
Out-of-sight, out-of-mind works very well.
My phone has GPS, so why can't they put a real GPS on the Network cards.
Have a program on the harddrive that sends a packet to 127.0.0.1 when you put a password in. This will keep the card from sending where the laptop is to some database every 5 mins.
If they wipe the drive, or don't use the program. Then you just have to call up the people with the database and ask where your laptop was last seen.
If I have to keep the laptop (or anything valuable) in the car, I have a ratty, bulky old jacket that I toss over it on the passenger's seat. Anyone casually glancing into the car for goods to loot will see a nasty jacket that even Goodwill would throw away, and nothing else.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Funny, those of us in the constantly-mocked "flyover country" generally don't have to deal with these issues. Sucks to be you, I guess. Plus, we're basically just better people than the coasties -- better in many different ways. We have a lower cost of living, a higher quality of life, a longer life expectancy, and -- oh yeah -- people aren't constantly stealing things out of our vehicles.
From my perspective, if you choose to live in places like this, you get absolutely no sympathy from me. You have options, and don't expect decent people to give a rat's rear if you choose to not explore them.
This will get modded down in about 0.005 seconds, but it needs to be said.
I recommend you try it, I've used a simple car battery to make an electric fence and believe me - it works.
tech related a question as you hoped. If you really want to fix it you need to address inherent flaws in consumer capitalism, market driven sales, and social inequality.
churches, children, whatever the hell a five minute window is, are not all universally shared and certified as morally sanctified places; in other words, thieves dont care. asking slaskdot what product we would consume in order to protect the products we consume is perpetuating the very same problem that causes the kinds of thefts you've outlined in the first place.
the only reasonable solution is to buy a reasonably sized laptop that does what you need; perhaps something used on ebay. Bring the laptop where and when you think you will need it, and its dated appearance will likely serve the dual purpose of deterring thieves who want a very nice looking laptop, as well as preventing you from using it as a suburbanite status symbol. backup your data often so that if and when the laptop is stolen, a quick restore to another relatively inexpensive ebay laptop will solve the bulk of your problems.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Vehicles without trunks are for people who don't need to carry anything of value in their vehicle, in other words, for very few people. I think people who do need to drive with items of value are foolish to buy these vehicles.
For example, someone I know has a giant expensive SUV, he's almost always the sole driver, the vehicle gets terrible mileage, and he has no way to secure valuables because there is no trunk. As you can imagine he always drives with a laptop. The only security is that the rear portion of the vehicle has tinted windows.
Sad to say but vehicle purchases are mostly emotional, which isn't great for your portable electronics.
None of you appear to actually be familiar with normal theft.
Don't be the easiest (or juiciest) target in the local vicinity. This is absolutely the most important thing you need to know to prevent theft and most other crimes.
#1 The best way to prevent theft is to not leave valuables in your car, of course. This won't necessarily prevent a break-in, though - but that's what insurance is for.
#2 If you are going to ignore #1, then don't leave valuables sitting out in plain sight. It's best to put them in the trunk, rather than burying them under a coat or something. Thieves aren't quite that stupid - if they see that you're obviously trying to conceal something then they will be more interested in it (bulge under the coat, backpack stashed someplace unusual). Keep in mind that your definition of a valuable item is not the same as a thief's definition of a valuable item. You had best put all your small electronics out of sight - not just your laptops, but your smartphones, your iPod, your USB stick, your fancy sunglasses, your designer jacket, your spare shoes, your watch, and other junk that you may consider expendable but the thief may not. If the trunk isn't an option, then consider putting things under the seats, in the glove box, or in the shadows (with reflective surfaces downward).
#3 If you cannot possibly hide your valuables somewhere, then disguise them. People in poor areas occasionally take up the bad habit of using the back of their car as a garbage can. You can simulate this bad habit with little effort, and hide stuff under the rubbish. Empty McDonald's bags, empty liter bottles of soda, used-looking tissues. No one wants to dig through trash unless there's a very high probability of a payout from it. Don't try to hide things in a backpack - that's just stupid. Backpacks are great theft targets in and of themselves - text books to resell with no questions asked, expensive calculators, laptops, iPods, etc. Hiding stuff in a purse or suitcase is also an obviously bad idea. You could use a trash bag, maybe a diaper bag like one of the other posters suggested (though that might be odd enough to draw attention to it, unless you go the extra mile to make it really look like you cart your kid around with you). Grocery bag might work, especially if you put a bag of chips on top of anything valuable.
#4 If your car does not blend in with the surrounding vehicles, then you will be a target for break ins. Even if there is nothing obvious of value sitting out, someone may decide that your car's value implies you own other valuable things and might've left them out. If you truly need to spend lots of time parked in bad neighborhoods, then buy an appropriate vehicle for it that doesn't draw attention to you. Used car, dents, faded bumper stickers. A for-sale sign is always a good touch. This tip extends from your car to you - don't make yourself an obvious anomaly. Wear a worn, slightly stained trench coat over your business cloths if necessary. No fancy jewelry, like nice watches or designer glasses.
If you can't take it with you, put it in the boot (trunk) - much harder to smash and grab from the boot,
I don't know where you got that idea.
Trunk locks are utter crap and trunk latches are just as bad.
Not to mention that they can just smash a window and pull the trunk release.
All things being equal, you should prefer someone smashing a window
and pulling the trunk release instead of prying open your trunk with a crowbar.
Newer cars have locks on the cabin trunk releases, and have no exposed lock keyholes on the trunklid. The trunk unlocks only with the remote transmitter, or by unlocking the inside trunk release. Also, the seats should only fold down when unlatched from inside the trunk, not from the cabin.
Whether a crowbar will open the trunklid, and how easily, depends on how flimsy the trunk latch is; on some cars, it's decent and on others, it's awful. (I once rented a Subaru where the locked trunk could be opened with one hand, no tools, just finger pressure.)
In any event, since you can't see what's in the trunk, and since the percentage of random cars with valuables in the trunk is probably fairly small, it's probably a risk worth taking. Most thieves won't bother popping an average of, say, five trunks to get one laptop.
A 12 volt battery will only deliver 550 amps through a 0.21 ohm load. Since the human body is around 50,000 or more, your "friend" would have delivered a whopping 0.00024 amps to the would-be thief, which you can't even feel. Sorry, but I used to be a truck mechanic and the batteries were rated a good bit higher than 550 CCA. I touched both terminals numerous times, and you really feel nothing. I started trucks by shorting across the starter numerous times which touching the frame. Nothing.
Now, the ignition coil at around 20kV, would be a very different thing. I never experienced that first hand since everything I worked on was diesel, but my mechanic friends told me it hurt like a s.o.b.
I think the actual "don't steal my hood ornament" car battery trick involves routing power through a/the starter and then when the person touches the hood ornament the connection to the battery is dropped and the starter ends up generating a lot o' volts through the ornament and ***ouch***. Just my recollection though.
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Drive a hoopty, no one will think you have any valuables.
having been the victim of a smash and grab myself (stole my GPS unit when I parked in a small public lot and went into a Qdoba Grill for about 5 minutes to pick up a meal to go), I'd say one of the best things you can do is make it appear there's absolutely nothing in your car or truck.
Most smash and grab thieves are looking through the windows of the vehicles they pass by for *anything* they think they might want to take and get a few dollars from. Spare coins sitting in an ashtray that's opened partially? Yep, enough reason to smash and grab! (They did it to my younger brother *3* times, stealing a total of about 79 cents, when he parked in his college's lot! If they even see a few pennies, they think maybe there's more than that in the tray they aren't seeing, and money's money.)
So as other people said, keep things in your trunk or even in the glove-box or center console, or under the seat if that's doable ... anything to keep stuff from being on display through your windows. Very few of these people would bother smashing your window just to take a guess that maybe you have something good in your glovebox or under a seat. They'd rather walk on to the next car or truck where they can see something definite inside.)
The exception to that rule is when someone watched you put something of value away in your vehicle. Years ago, I worked for a company that just purchased a new, high-end laptop for one of their salesmen. The day after I configured it for him and issued it to him, he went someplace to take a client to dinner and put the laptop, in its carrying bag, in the trunk of his car. Someone saw it, and when he got back, he found they had taken a crowbar to his trunk and pried it open to steal the machine. That's a different type of thief though, really.
Of course, people keep saying "Don't ever LEAVE anything in your car! Take it with you!" .... but I know this isn't always practical or realistic. Sometimes, you put an item at more risk taking it with you than leaving it in the vehicle -- or you really don't have a good place to put the thing if you take it with you. In the summer, I've had times I didn't even have any pockets in the clothes I happened to be wearing, so just taking my car keys with me was enough of a hassle. That's why I'd go with the idea of just ensuring the stuff is concealed outside of plain view, and try to do so in an inconspicuous manner, just in case someone IS watching you.
If, say, your only item(s) of value are locked in the trunk already, you might even want to just leave the windows rolled down or the car unlocked? I know a few people who do this regularly in high crime parts of town they live or work in, because all in all, replacing the broken window glass is more of a costly problem/risk than anything else. If the thief doesn't have your keys, they're not likely to steal the car itself unless they're enough of an expert that they were going to do it regardless of the doors being locked or windows being rolled up.
try tinting your side windows chief.
Yes, everyone seems to be missing the point that it was a joke.
You can generate some good quality heat to the briefcase, but you'd need to use something like the starter (as you alluded) to convert current into voltage.
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My dad actually rigged up something like that once to protect his files.
In all seriousness though, I'd like to share a story that I was actually told by my dad who is a detective in a major city. He worked this case involving a massive car theft ring that was getting through some very sophisticated anti-theft equipment. He and his partner eventually pick up this one kid who they took a shine to because he probably would be working at NASA or MIT if he hadn't been born in such a lousy neighborhood, plus he cooperated which will always get you points with him.
Anyway, too impressive feats by this kid. First off, he had been the reason the thieves got past the anti-theft systems. BMW said that its anti-theft system was unbreakable - he cracked it in under five minutes in front of one of their representatives (which my dad says was hilarious to watch).
Other thing: some strip club owner was tired of being robbed so he bought a robbery-level safe (most safes you see are rated for fires and junk and they only happen to be helpful at stopping the common thief) from the same company who made the ones under the Pentagon (sadly, that company is no longer in business, fyi) with a sign over top that said "NEVER AGAIN!" The kid hears about this and decides that the owner can't get away with that. When my dad and partner picked him up he had a plasma cutter, one of the few things that could break into that quality of safe. BTW, if anyone has any bright idea about the Pentagon and plasma cutters, the level safe they have is probably the model that has poison embedded in it that is released when the metal is breached.
Anyway, the point of all that is to say that even top quality safety tools can be overcome by a knowledgeable/determined enough criminal. You shouldn't so easily cast aside the notion of not leaving your stuff in the car - there's a reason the the most common advice that cops give for this stuff is to take your valuables with you. Some of those thieves will steal anything that isn't nailed down (and they'll still have a go at the things that are) but actually robbing an actual person is far more rare because, once you involve interactions with a victim, the punishment is dramatically increased. Notice that most burglaries occur during the day or vacation.
Still, if you're insistent on leaving your stuff behind, I rather like the electric-suitcase idea. I know LoJack (which works AMAZINGLY for the actual car) makes something for computers but it's software based and yeah... If they ever made the same thing for laptops as they made for cars, I would TOTALLY get one. They're far more effective than GPS devices. According to my dad (who, if the story didn't make it obvious, deals with car theft rings all the time) says our city's police dept has an over 100% recovery rate for cars equipped with LoJack (the extra coming from vehicles that weren't reported stolen in the area and were probably sent here to be shipped out).
Thieves like that are opportunists. If they can't see anything worth taking inside your car in less than 5 seconds they will go break into another. Just hide under the seats if you can.
Scientia est Potentia
Keep the car unlocked and put an obvious sign saying its unlocked so that the thief can grab without smashing.
Besides the obvious 'don't leave equipment in the car' solution, what else are people doing?
Nothing - that's all that I do. Easy and only breaks down when I'm being an idiot.
Move to a place with lower criminality. I routinely leave electronic gadgets, money and other valueables openly in the vehicle. Over the years, I managed to have stuff taken from my car exactly once, but the police left a notice that I can pick up the stuff at the station (well, I did leave the windows open, window auto opening via the remote sucks when carrying something), and twice our private security guys have left a note that I left the car open.
Move to the country.
Where I live, there was a rash of smash'n'grab jobs (primarily against women) in traffic jams. Thieves would drive up on a motorcycle, hammer the window, and grab the purse on the seat. Since the victim was on a traffic jam, the bike could get away rather easily while the victim was helpless.
As a result, a vendor began importing film that can be applied to car windows to protect against such smash jobs. The film doesn't keep the glass from breaking, but instead keeps holding it together making it very very hard to actually make it PAST the glass in a short amount of time. Thus, the effect of the "smash" part of the operation is broken: smashing the glass is not enough to make it past it. And obviously you're concerned about protecting the data and the time and effort lost if the laptop is stolen, so an investment in this sort of passive protection system might be warranted - even if you throw in the price of a new (set of) window(s).
This is an example of just such a technology. I'm sure there are others and more than likely at a better price. The flipside is that in the event of an accident, it might increase the chances of injury (just a guess), or delay emergency personnel from prying your damaged laptop from your cold, dead fingers.
We have 3 very large dogs, each are approximately 100 pounds, and they love to ride along. I crack the window and make sure hey are comfortable. Nobody has ever breached the door to our car, house, or garage. I've seen a few approach, but the hearty WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! accompanied by a person sized animal sitting in the passanger seat has always been enough of a deterent--the WOOF's are good enough for the house and garage.
Seriously, all those great ideas about hiding places you've had? Like under the driver's seat or in the spare wheel well?
You're not the first person to have those great ideas. In fact, you're probably about the 4,000,000th.
Of course, it only takes 100-500 mA to stop your heart.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2011-10/16bit%20-%20In%20The%20Death%20Car%20%288cto%20X%20Ckrono%20Remix%29%281%29.mp3
Simple, easy, effective, free.
My solution to the problem of being in situations where my laptop is often out of my control is to secure the data by full drive encryption and enabling the bios password etc; combined with making sure that the laptop I use is cheap enough that I can afford a loss or two a year. I save my money for good hardware for the items that will be behind the deadbolt and alarm (and be covered by the gold-standard insurance). Even so: protect the data and have savings ready for replacement of mission critical hardware.
As soon as the see it's an Inspiron, they will probably just move on.
Get a Care Bears backpack for your laptop.
To err is human. To arr is pirate.
Don't leave anything out that will be tempting and it will deter most thieves.
Backpacks are often full of valuables so while it is better than a laptop bag, it is still risky. It is best to hide everything you can from sight.
Putting it in the trunk is good, but don't let anyone see you do it. I knew someone who put his laptop in his trunk and someone watched him and later broke into the vehicle.
If the area you are in is very risky, carry your valuables with you. There is not much you can do once someone decides to break into your vehicle.
Just do what i do, a coleman cooler with "CAUTION:MEDICAL WASTE" and biohazard stickers allover the lid.
I live in a small town. It doesn't eliminate theft, but it greatly reduces the incidence (which is all the other suggestions really do, short of storing your stuff in a body-mounted safe). I usually leave my truck unlocked, and the bed's cap is always unlocked unless I'm leaving for more than an hour. Of course, my stuff is insured, but it's pretty rare to have stuff stolen most areas around me.
I am planning to mount my iPad in an area that is visible, and I got a locking mount from RAM for that. The lock is very visible (I suspect it's mostly for deterrence). The weak link is that it's not too difficult to disassemble the mount arms by unscrewing so I might purchase a heavy cable to lock it to the base, though even that is easily foiled by bolt cutters.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
you can simply avoid a certain brand.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
I dunno about that.
I've felt the shock a few times while working on the 12V side, if it's wet and you bridge from a hot line to the chassis, you can feel it. Now, it's not really painful, but it's noticeable. I suppose if you were working in a shop, it's somewhat unlikely that you'd be working on the side of the road in the rain, where as I live on a tropical island and drive clunkers, so I'm on the side of the road constantly, which might account for the disparity in our experiences.
Also, I've taken 14kV (what that particular car's coil outputted) across the tits, and again, it's not really painful, but it certainly wakes you up, and leaves the ingress/egress sites tingly for a a while. I suppose if your jerk reaction was insufficient to pull you away quickly, it might get worse. All told, I'd rate the experience worse than 110V AC, but not as bad as 220V AC.
It occurs to me, as I wrote that and thought about my experiences with electrocution, that it's a wonder I'm still alive.
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
They're padded, have a lock, are secured with a cable, and slide under the seat.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
Most people with subwoofers aren't assholes and you can't hear them away from the car.
You are just too stupid to know that.
Simple, cheaper than buying a new laptop, and easily mounted in cars and trucks. As long as you mount it in a smart manner and remember to lock it, you're golden. http://www.tuffyproducts.com/p-256-182-laptop-computer-security-lockbox.aspx
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
I don't have a trunk, so when I leave the car I put the backpack on the floor of the back seat, sometimes throwing other junk on top.
What car has a back seat but no trunk?
Almost anyone I know who does a lot of work in Detroit and commonly has gear in their car (vid/photo/computers) has a car chock full of trash. Literally trash. Old fast food containers, crumpled paper, broken bits of stuff. And the cars often look like they've been recently rifled through as well. Opportunity slows down a great deal if you have to go through a pile of trash to find the goods. And is discouraged when the car looks like any other worthless junker.
My father said he used to get his car broken into for his sound equipment a lot during the 80's.
First he put a sign in the window that said "doors unlocked, no radio, please don't break my window". People broke it anyways.
The second sign said "I'm in the lighted apartment window, I can see you, and I have a rifle." He never had a problem again.
I was going to wire an electric fence unit to my car with some grounding strips etc back when I had the spare time in high school.. Then I realized that I might hurt someone (child) that accidently touched the car. Worse, I might get sued.
I've heard anecdotal stories where some robber breaks into a house, really hurts themself then successfully sues the homeowner. Don't recall if it was due to a deliberate trap left by homeowner or just a dangerous conflux of chance.
tl;dr = Hurt robber, get sued, lose. Cheaper to let them have the stuff.
One more reason to keep an eye on your money.
1. Carry your laptop under the passenger side floor mat.
2. Most hatchback and SUV vehicles with an open cargo area have a carpeted cargo area. Get some plywood and wood blocks, and build a little platform to lift the carpet. Maybe as much as 6 - 8 inches even. Hide your stuff under there. Unless they look carefully it'll look "normal."
3. Hide stuff under a pile of old water and soda bottles. Make sure the pile is "deep" enough that you can't see the stuff at the bottom.
4. As many others have said, take your valuables with you.
5. Move somewhere this stuff doesn't happen. Crime rates vary considerably. Where I live, UPS leaves packages on the porch and they stay there, unmolested, all day. I've left my back door unlocked, and sometimes slightly open, for days at a time. And I leave my car unlocked, and sometimes running, when I stop at the dry cleaner. (If it's actively snowing, you want to leave the defroster and wipers going if you don't want to have to clean the windows.)
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
Police department IT guy here. We've got a couple of "bait cars" rigged with a computer system and a private network 3G aircard for comms. Onboard are hidden cameras, mics and video recording system, remote controlled door closers and locks, remote control windows, GPS tracking, remote engine shutoff and brakes, all sorts of fun stuff. They're not only used to catch car thieves, but also we'll leave stuff laying in the back seat of floor to catch car burglars too. Lots of hilarity ensues on the videos we record inside these cars. Especially when a subject hops into the back seat and tries to grab a backpack that the strap is tied under the front seat rails so you can't grab it and run, and all of a sudden the door slams shut, the window rolls up and they can't get out of the car. By the time they try kicking out the window, a couple carloads full of uniforms arrive to greet them.
Consider a splash of red paint...use soldering iron to engrave name...stickers are good...try one of those "Back Off" bumper stickers..
Go to Goodwill, grab a ratty looking Barney the Dinosaur. Cut a hole and insert.
I once got arrested for doing that.
The most simple solution I have found, obscures your car's contents and increases the difficulty of breaking through the non laminated windows.
http://www.llumar.com/en/AutoSafety.aspx
Pickup, jeep (like Willys Jeep / Wrangler / Samurai), hatchback, SUV, liftback sports coupe...
Hi there. You may remembers me form such posts as "even hatchbacks have a truck where you can put in a false floor".
Like the one you responded to?
I have a Jeep. It has a trunk. It's not a SEALED area, no, but again it IS an area where it's practical to put something that is... (like the false floor idea in the MESSAGE YOU RESPONDED TO).
The original poster simply said "no trunk". My definition of trunk is "storage area passengers cannot sit".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I am surprised that the Slashdot crowd has not come up with the obvious solution. A well placed Claymore or two would discourage repeat offenders.
Seriously, way back in the late 1970's I built a police type siren that would pump out maybe 20 to 30 watts sweeping between 300 and 4000 Hz. I had a hard wired alarm system on the vehicle with the horn speakers INSIDE the car. Trip the alarm and the interior of the vehicle would be about 130 to 140 Db of the worst sound you ever heard -- while you could still hear. If you don't leave stuff within reach of the window it WILL discourage anyone from sticking their head inside to look around.
My car is a POS. Nobody has ever bothered to try and steal anything from it - they don't even look inside it! It's unwashed, and disreputable looking. I've even left money on the seat (accidentally) in a bad neighborhood, and come back to find it still there.
I'd like to point out a major potential flaw with putting your laptop in your trunk. If the thief sees you get out of the car and put your laptop into the trunk, he'll know to break in there. That's a common enough situation. You run back to your car after a meeting and throw your crap into the car and take off. Then when you park somewhere and decide to put the laptop in the trunk, you can be seen doing that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd_Dog , he likes to just sleep in the backseat, also prevents towing. Friend asked why I wasn't locking my doors, my reply was "Would you reach your hand in that car?" .
It is important to recognize, I now believe, that this /will/ happen to you.
I work in biomedicine/biotechnology, take my laptop everywhere, and am incredibly paranoid. I have often drawn the ire of my wife and friends because I insist on having my laptop under my arm at all times, even when going into a store for a few minutes with the car visible outside.
Nevertheless, my laptop was stolen on Friday morning. I live on a cul-de-sac in a rather "ritzy" area, at the top of a steep hill. There is *nobody* there at 8:00 in the morning. I put my laptop in the car at 7:55, leaving the car unlocked, and went inside to get my 2-year-old son. I became a bit distracted, had a bowl of cereal, etc., and when I returned at 8:10 the laptop was gone. I could NOT believe it. I've been staking out the neighborhood every morning since then, and there simply isn't anybody on the street. I truly can't understand how it could have happened.
So...get ready for this to happen to you eventually. Here's what I recommend:
1. Full-disk encryption is an absolute necessity. I would appreciate some education from Slashdotters on this question, though: does FDE prevent software like Prey from working? Same question goes for Find My Mac. I think, as a practical matter, that FDE will prevent this software from working--because the thief will end up leaving the laptop off most of the time, until he wipes it.
2. If your employer will pay for it, get a GPS device and put it in the laptop bag. In my case, we were able to track the bag for a while with cell phone triangulation, but it wasn't precise enough to locate the bag.
3. Buy security devices and use them. In my case, a few minutes' delay is all that would have been required to prevent the theft. For my next laptop, I'm going to try a PacSafe bag with attached lock. I'm also going to get a Kensington MicroSaver lock.
4. Write down your serial numbers. The police will want them, and they may lead to eventual return of your laptop. Furthermore, there is the ghost of a chance that having serial numbers could allow your law enforcement officer to get useful information from the Apple security team.
There's no room for false floor compartments of any meaningful size in most vehicles.
There's not room in any car for a false floor slightly higher than a LAPTOP? Really? Not even three spare inches?
I owned a 1975 Honda Civic CVCC hatchback - smaller than any modern car, including the MINI Cooper (Ok, perhaps a tiny bit longer than a smart car). There was plenty of room in the truck for such a thing. Of course what I did was simply create a ceiling above the open area so that smashing in the windows could get you nothing and you could not see in the trunk space. But a false-floor kind of deal would be much easier for people to create.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Keep all valuable looking objects out of view, covered up. Avoid places where thefts are likely. Lock your doors. And in the case that doesn't work, insurance and backups.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Put it in the fucking trunk.
Park in a crowded area and use a slim jim to unlock the other cars nearby.
Slashdot is not a game, Slashdot is not a game. Crap, I just lost points.
I've taken 14kV (what that particular car's coil outputted)
People should keep in mind that the ignition coil on a car is not designed to generate significant current, so you can't use the typical 'volts and ohms determines amps' calculation. By contrast, 14kV generated by, say, an industrial transformer connected to the power grid is pretty firmly on the "this will kill you" list.
Yes, absolutely. I was speaking specifically about the high-tension line on a car, but you're right, it's not a bad idea to make sure people understand that distinction.
As the saying goes, "Volts jolt, mill(iamp)s kill".
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
The only real solution is to get better law enforcement. I live in a major city in Europe but we don't have an endemic smash-n-grab problem. Obviously you can't prevent all theft and you cannot catch everyone so you're still encouraged to take valuables with you, but on the whole police patrols, adequate sentencing and rehabilitation are the best way to fix this issue. Get together with other people and petition your government for more effective law enforcement.
My solution is simple: I'm 5'11 and 330 lbs, and I look like a rocker/biker. I leave my laptop at the bar while I go take a piss, and sure enough, it's still there when I get back to my beer. If someone has the steel balls to grab it, I'll track them down via GPS/WiFi, apply various blunt objects to their vital organs, and burn their house down... with the lemons!
Or you could just carry your laptop with you. That's what them fancy $20 tote bags with the straps and handles are for.
When I was more of a road warrior (read: when I still had a valid driver's license), I bolted a steel cage under my seat, where I could slide in the laptop and lock it under key. Aside from keeping it out of sight, it also meant people who knew where to look would still have to break into the car without setting off the alarm, remove the seat and unbolt the cage from the floor. Or whip out the plasma cutter :P Even if I forgot to lock my door, that would slow them down enough that they'll either get caught, or move on to another target.
I did catch a thief once, he was clawing at it with a wrench, so I took his wrench and beat him with it. That was the last time anyone ever tried to steal my shit.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Make sure you have a webcam setup so you can see the action.
Out of sight, out of mind.
A friend of mine keeps policeman hat on the back seat. Says that it helps. It might depend on the neighbourhood and/or country you live in. In some places that might attract vandals ;-). In *my* country, I can imagine it might keep some thieves out.
How about having bait cars with laptops in them, and then giving the criminals 50 years in prison, hard labour?
No, we can't have that, it would actually work, and mean that the 99% of us, who AREN'T criminals, would no longer have to live our lives in constant fear of being victims of these scumbags. Sorry - 'victims of capitalist oppression'.
Or how about - split the country into two parts, in one part we have my sort of justice, which is very long prison sentences (25 years for burglary, 25 years for car theft, 50 years for mugging, death penalty for murder, etc.), and in the other part, you can keep your current laughable sentences.
Guess which part ALL of the criminal scum would immediately move to? YOUR part.
Thus proving my idea is correct.
(Notice I didn't say 'half' rather than 'part', because we all know that 95% of the population would rather live in a crime free country than the Lefties' insane totalitarian nightmare, which we currently live in).
Just get a hide-a-pod http://hideapod.com/
Smash-n-grab theft is a crime of opportunity. The bad guy
A) sees your valuable stuff
B) takes it fast, and
C) runs.
The weak link is in step A.
Drive a crappy-looking car! Maybe a little rust, discolored paint, with door handles missing, maybe a hubcap or two, etc. And keep your laptop out of plain sight. They will not give you any trouble.
Also, you get to save lots of money on the monthly car payment!
I had trouble with my bike getting stolen until I bought a bike that was a few years old, had dings and nicks, bad paint job. I called it my "butt ugly". It was a high quality bike, but appearances were enough that I rode it for years without issue before getting something else.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Most smash and grabs are to get things to resale. Marking items with something that cannot be removed makes the items much less valuable and much more identifiable. A thief does not want to carry around any thing that is easy to identify.
The original poster was asking for stupid things to do rather than what he admitted was obvious, removing the things that you didn't want stolen. So I gave him some stupid things to do to at least help prevent damage to the car while the poor misunderstood misguided urbanites were drug into a life of crime by the temptation he insisted on offering them
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Park the car where there will be witnesses. Then, lock the car with the valuables inside. Thieves won't want to break into a vehicle where they'll be seen and it will be obvious what they're doing. Park the car on the busiest street you can find. If it's going to be there overnight, don't leave the valuables inside.
First let me say that by far the worst place to park a car is at a beach parking lot. People who are going swimming usually lock their wallets in the car and every crook in the world knows it. Health clubs are next on the list as people usually feel that the lockers in gyms are not secure so they lock their valuables in the car. I have the advantage of being a professional, industrial model maker and built a steel safe that was welded into the floor of my vehicle. It did lock with a good pad lock in such a way that when locked a lock cutter could never touch the locks jaws. It would have been unreasonably difficult under any conditions to remove and open the safe. Better yet if the lock was damaged in an attempt to force it open a milling machine would be about the only way to cut into the walls of the safe. I carried a lot of gold back then and needed to have a severely secure spot that could harbor a bunch of gold about twice the size of a pack of smokes. If you have machine shop skills you can do a similar build but you will need to build it to fit in your vehicle. If you have a mechanic drop your gas tank you could use bolts into the receiving holes of some of the commercial lock boxes sold in places like Wall Mart or Home Depot. That way the crooks can't get at the ends of the bolts and the tops of the bolts are covered by the safe, while the bottoms of the bolts are covered by your gas tank.
I was buying a lock-cable in a computer store (ironically) and put my heavy laptop down on a table to reach into wallet to pay. Within a 5-second window someone had taken it out from under me...
I ran outside, chased him down, got him in a headlock and yelled out for the police and arrested the guy!
Moral of the story, never ever let it go. I was incredibly lucky and learnt my lesson.
Unfortunately the idea of protecting against a "smash and grab" type of crime is pretty impossible. (See: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/about/about.html )
At best you can hope to make your self less of a target by keeping things like Laptop bags out of sight. Place your laptop in the trunk, under a blanket or use a standard backpack and make some minor modification to it for your laptop is stead of a DELL/HP/Brand Name laptop bag.
Many have pointed out that you can use LoJack software for Laptops but in reality it only aids in the RECOVERY of stolen equipment, it doesn't do anything to prevent the crime. The reality of the matter is that Locks only keep honest people honest, because criminals who are going to smash your window and steal are going to do it regardless of the steps you take to prevent it.
Assuming that it passes through the heart.
Skimming the topic, I'm seeing electronic solutions and whatnot. However if I were to run into this type of situation, I'd go more old-school.
Several feet of ridiculously heavy duty stainless steel chain, with one end bolted to the frame, using lok-tite on the threads and additionally stripping the bolt head so it can't be undone regardless. Attached to the other end, a stainless steel mesh (or solid if you prefer) box with a massive padlock on it. If you don't need to hide much, arrange it so this sits under a car seat. Otherwise, the trunk.
I do this currently with my 10" subs and amp (attached to the sub box). The box itself is removable (I have a cable coupler for a trailer that I used to make sure it's a high enough gauge to not kill the sound), so I can drag that out by handles on one side and wheels on the other as needed. When I'm on a trip or have it otherwise in the car, the aforementioned massive chain and padlock combo keeps it in the trunk.
No more 5 minute theft... you want those subs (or in the original description, laptop-in-a-box), you'd damn well better have a plasma torch, or a helluva lot more than 5 minutes and a hacksaw with a dozen blades to swap out.
How about taking a small gun-safe and bolting it to the floor or deck of your car? Put whatever you want to protect in the safe and then remove it at your destination.
I'm sure we could find some creative solutions to this problem using some large capacitors. ;-)
I'm waiting to see someone combine these remote tracking and accessibility methods with semtex and finishing nails packed in the old optical drive bay.
I can see the appeal, but it's no good if you fly with it.
I drove a beat-up RX7 with non-functional door locks for a few years. I usually left a CB radio in the car, but no one ever touched it. Toward the end of the time I owned it, I was debating just leaving the keys in the ignition full-time. I suspect that had I done that, no one would have touched it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Crook smashed the window and stole the GPS (really, are used GPS's _worth_ enough to buy meth with?) and broke into a couple of other cars in the same 3am run.
Mobile window-replacement service, they'll show up at your home/office, done in an hour, even vacuumed the car (more or less; we were finding stray glass bits for a week.) They'd have been happy to sell us a car radio as well, since radio+window used to be a standard business model, but that didn't get taken. I don't remember who they were, but we found them on Yelp.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I drove a van for years (you'd probably call it a caravan?), and my current car is a crossover-thing that you can think of as a square hatchback or small station wagon. My wife's car has a cover over the back cargo area, but it's still just a lift-up thing, not something strong. My current car doesn't even offer a hard cover in the US, just a cloth one.
And yeah, it's surprising how little it takes to interest a thief. Usually when my van was broken into, the thief had the decency to do it right and use a coathanger or screwdriver, but one time it was parked in a brightly-lit high-traffic-area parking lot, so they just smashed the window and grabbed the walkman and a bag of shopping. (The walkman was there because the last two radios had been stolen.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5veSYnDfco
06:12 - "Burglar Protected" white Lotus Esprit
Yes, it's a minor annoyance, but I've got the Kensington cable looped around the seat mounting, and lock the laptop with it if I'm leaving it in the car. Trying to lock the laptop bag would be silly, but the cable's at least a bit of a deterrent. Putting things in the trunk only works if you have a trunk, which I haven't had since well before I had a laptop.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Uninformed comment. It doesn't matter how much current you can supply. The current going through your body is a function of the resistance of the body and the voltage across two points.
48V may kill you if you lick it, or stab yourself in the heart with it. But that's about it. Many western countries consider 50V the maximum fully safe touch potential.
As someone who's had my share of 240V zaps, even that isn't guaranteed to kill you depending on where the current goes. I did have a dead arm for about an hour though.
Try again after you get some education. 1/2 an Amp can stop your heart - fact. It's not about burns or resistance of the body, it's about disrupting the electrical signal and rhythm of your heartbeat. Volts and Amps are different things. In this particular case, Volts don't matter, which is why you're still alive after getting your 240V shock and why people can touch Van der Graaff generators (at upwards 5 megavolts - but no amps). You're correct about the conduction path and that also probably saved your life. The current went in your arm and out somewhere, but either didn't have enough Amps to matter or (more likely) didn't cross your heart.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You can get installed (or buy and install yourself) security film, like VehicleGard.
Then, you won't have to worry about smath and grab with such film. (Downside is that you can't easily break out if you're underwater but I think for most people the chance of someone breaking in is a lot higher than going underwater....)
Danny Kumamoto
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_shock
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I leave a nice white G3 laptop in a fluorescent green laptop sleeve in my hatchback trunk.
Meanwhile my i7 Macbook Pro is tucked away in a less conspicuous place.
This is dangerously incomplete advice. Put it in the boot LONG BEFORE you arrive at your destination.
Thieves watch parking lots. If you have something valuable enough that you go to the trouble of removing it from the passenger compartment and putting it in the trunk when you park, you've just advertised to all observant bad guys "I HAVE SOMETHING WORTH STEALING IN THE TRUNK!!!"
Your valuables go in the trunk, yes. But they go there long, long before you arrive. If I have much of anything valuable in the passenger compartment, I don't hesitate to pull into a gas station or parking lot some distance before I reach my destination, stow my stuff in the trunk, then continue on to my final destination.
I have learned all this the hard way.
Leave empty car with keys in running while going into a store? No problem. The only real nuisance was teenage jackassery.
You don't need to read anyone else's answers -- because I have it.
It doesn't require Lo-Jack, expensive devices, software, or a McGyvered solution.... ... are you sitting down, because this will blow your mind? No, really, make sure you are seated.
OK, here goes;
Dirty Laundry. Especially if you've got some underwear or old socks. I keep dirty gym clothes in my front seat for just this situation -- you slide your laptop under that, and thieves have better things to do. Theft is a VISUAL crime -- what they see is what they take. If there is a nice car and nothing inside it -- then it might be in the trunk. If it's a nice car and they see dirty socks -- they know you are a slob and figure someone ELSE has the iPad.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
I got into a taxi in London and the taxi driver told me hed seen someone breaking into a van outside my friends house.
Because its my friends house I encouraged him to report it so we can defend our neighbourhood.
He wouldnt. He was afraid or something I dont know. I couldnt understand it. He said "I dont want to stick my nose in", made excuses. I was pissed but I had to catch a flight so I sent an SMS to my friend to ask them to tell the carpenter whos van it was. They didnt either. I couldnt get them to even look after the are right outside thier own door!
If I see this again and Ive got time Ill kick the crap out of the taxi driver until he furfills his duty. For his own protection of course ( karma ).
A blog I run for the wealth
I'm 5'10" and built like a slim gymnast who has let himself go. I weigh 220 lbs but sometimes I bloat a bit and my love handles need more love.
I like long walks on the beach and jogging -- well, when you do it of course. I'll just enjoy a lemon spritzer and a steamed towel.
What are the chances of getting you to chase me if I steal your mouse? How angry will you be -- because I plan to be naughty. /// OK, just kidding -- I couldn't help it because it sounded like you were filling out a personals column and GPS/WiFi sound REALLY kinky.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Intel has a tpm application (TPM = trusted platform module) which is on the mother board (soldered in). They have an ability to burn a fuse remotely in the laptop or device the next time it goes onto the internet. It is a theft protection service for the contents. The action for the tpm can be,
white list everything
black list the device until an internet signon allows use for the next nnn days
hard stop with no chance to again use the motherboard.
The TPM contains a critical part of the bios and also the encryption/ decryption keys for the hard disk.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Most renter/homeowner insurance (strangely, not auto) policies cover items stolen from your vehicle; therefore, make sure your policy covers it, encrypt the internal drive, keep decent backups & don't worry about it.
you're done bro, no one dares to teef dat!! :D
In this particular case, Volts don't matter
And we're back to uninformed. Yes Amps are the killer, but you don't get amps without volts and resistance. Here's a trick. Go hold on to both terminals of a car battery and bask in the glory of absolutely nothing at all happening to you despite the being capable of delivering about 100A or so.
The reason is the VOLTAGE of the battery isn't high enough, and the RESISTANCE of you body isn't low enough for enough amps to travel through you body.
The reason why you can't die from a Van der Graaff generator is the same reason you can't die from a 12V battery. One of the 3 variables in the V=IR equation is limited, and the R bit is constant. It's called Ohms law.
So in summary it doesn't matter how much current CAN be delivered. If the voltage isn't high enough it won't kill you because the current can't be delivered. This is something I learnt in highschool. No EE degree needed for this basic fact. Maybe you should go back and finish your education.
There is no better 'protection' than making the inside of your vehicle look unattractive to potential thieves.
The easiest way to do that entails leaving lots of assorted junk and garbage inside your car, with which you can, say, toss a sweatshirt and some used paper towels and gum wrappers over your laptop and walk away knowing that even if you forget to lock the doors there is little chance that a thief would want to stick his hands in that mess.
The downside to this method, of course, is that the chicks don't dig it.....so just go with it and grow a ZZ Top beard while you're at it. F**k 'em.
Works great on livestock, costs about $100, and makes you involuntarily curse and want to wet yourself all at once. You can feel the good ones all the way across your chest...something like 1 joules should do it.
...crucifixion and public flogging for the thieves.
Although having my laptop and back up external drives (thank god for TrueCrypt) stolen might have embittered me a little.
Other thing: some strip club owner was tired of being robbed so he bought a robbery-level safe (most safes you see are rated for fires and junk and they only happen to be helpful at stopping the common thief) from the same company who made the ones under the Pentagon (sadly, that company is no longer in business, fyi) with a sign over top that said "NEVER AGAIN!" The kid hears about this and decides that the owner can't get away with that. When my dad and partner picked him up he had a plasma cutter, one of the few things that could break into that quality of safe. BTW, if anyone has any bright idea about the Pentagon and plasma cutters, the level safe they have is probably the model that has poison embedded in it that is released when the metal is breached.
Smells like high-level bullshit. The first half I could probably buy, but poison-embedded safes from a just-so-happens-to-be defunct company that built safes under the Pentagon?! Sure, pal, suuure.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
A friend of mine has a ton of stickers on his laptop. Stickers for OpenBSD mostly. Another has a bunch of bumper stickers on it. My wife has flower stickers all over her iPhone.
I have reflective stickers on my nikon everywhere there is enough space for one.
Yet another guy uses a similar ploy with his bicycle. He sprays the bike with 2-3 colours of paint making it ugly.
The key here is to make the device unique in a way that takes effort to remove. If nothing else you are less likely to inadvertently swap laptops at a meeting. A bunch of stickers means that the thief either has to pawn a memorable item, or he has to spend time removing the stickers.
While this isn't guaranteed to work, it will give you a bit of an edge.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
I use a carry on sized Pelican case locked with a pad lock and cabled to the metal seat frame. Of course it can be defeated, but not in the typical smash and grab time frame.
Ya, I took Physics and EE courses too, but you're missing the point. Yes, resistance *can* prevent current penetration of the skin but *if that fails*, you're basically one big bag of saline - through which current travels very, very well (your skin provides the stopping resistance, not your body) and as little as 1/2 amp can kill you if it crosses your heart. I'm not contesting your assumption of prevention, but I certainly wouldn't count on it - if you're skin is wet and/or you have an open cut, etc... you're probably fucked. My assertion that 1/2 amp can stop your heart is correct. You're arguing "not if it doesn't reach it", which is also true, but that doesn't in-validate my statement. Now, you keep playing with electricity all willy-nilly and I'll come to your funeral before you come to mine :-) Have a good, safe weekend.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
My solution is to look poor. I store my laptop in a cardboard box and drive a 1988 Chevy Nova.
What is to keep a person from setting up their computers with:
1. A locked, password protected profile, and
2. An open, non-passworded, guest profile with an hidden keylogger that sends out all the keystrokes to a location that you have access too?
Is there software available? Is it legal?
Expanding on the person who suggested personalizing.
You can also uglify your kit. A couple wraps of duct tape and some paint will make your equipment look undesirable. This is a technique used by a lot of journalists who work in third world countries. They make their real camera look like trash and, if space allows, carry a nice looking bait camera. Once you are targeted you have lost, but not looking like a target is a good thing. (Obligatory XKCD reference http://xkcd.com/538/)
Regarding putting valuables in the trunk... It has been 20 years since I was a cop, but at the time we had a lot of parking lot thieves targeting trunks. They would sit in a parking lot until they saw someone pull in and put things in the trunk. Then they would pop the trunk with a stubby screwdriver and steal what they found. By pulling into a parking lot and immediately putting something in the trunk the tourist was advertising that they had something valuable enough they didn't want it in plain sight.
Read the entire Snopes article. My solution contains WATER.
Read the paragraph starting with Yet, even though..
Water is denser than gas so it is first to be picked up by the fuel system.
The truth shall set you free!