Posted on 02/26/2024 2:15:12 PM PST by grundle
Whenever Dennis Wilson wants to take a drive in his new SUV, he has to set aside an extra 15 minutes. That’s about how long it takes to remove the car’s steering wheel club, undo four tire locks and lower a yellow bollard before backing out of his driveway.
His Honda CR-V is also fitted with two alarm systems, a vehicle tracking device and, for good measure, four Apple AirTags. Its remote-access key fob rests in a Faraday bag, to jam illicit unlocking signals.
As a final touch, he mounted two motion-sensitive floodlights on his house and aimed them at the driveway in his modest neighborhood in Toronto.
But all of these security gadgets, Mr. Wilson is convinced, will do no more than delay what seems inevitable: Toronto’s seasoned auto thieves won’t be deterred by the defensive gear, and they’ll make off with this Honda SUV just as they did with its predecessor — and its insurance replacement, which they returned to steal.
While there has been a surge in car thefts across Canada — up 24 percent in 2022, the most recent year nationwide statistics were available — the scourge has hit the Toronto area particularly hard, creating a mix of paranoia, vigilance and resentment.
So pervasive are car thefts in Canada’s largest city, up 150 percent in the past six years, that the issue has become something of a common bond among vehicle owners. If not a victim themselves of a theft, or thefts, many people seem to know someone whose car was swiped, and just about everyone can instantly recall one of the car theft headlines that news outlets have had plenty of opportunity to publish.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bingo!
Root cause right there.
On my Datsun cars I would remove the rotor from the distributor cap, and I had a cutoff switch under the dash. On my old Chevy I had a cutoff switch for the ignition and for the fuel pump - which worked against me if I took off without turning on the fuel pump and the engine would die a minute later.
Send them to Nigeria. I’ve seen the TV show on that, too.
First GM car was 1964-corvair. It was a brute in snow. Never needed snow tires with engine in rear and rear wheel drive.
I had very good luck with GM cars. Think my total repair bills from 1964 to 2022 Trax has been less than $1000 for 7 GM cars. Spent that amount on just 2 Ford cars during that period.
I had the brake pedal to steering wheel lock first. Now I still have it and in risky places I use both locks. The thief would need to cut steering wheel in several places.
Everywhere is.
I used a homemade ignition cutoff switch. I hid the switch under the dashboard. One night thieves tried to steal the car, and managed to push it about one-half block, but they could not get the engine to start. They did not find the switch.
“remove the fuel injection fuse.”
That didn’t stop the thieves
who stole my ‘85 5.0
convertable.
A neighbors video camera
showed a commercially branded
tow truck back up to the
driveway. While one of the
thieves readied the rigging,
the other slid under the car
and removed the driveshaft.
Less than a minute....the
car was never seen again.
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