Thread: Anti-Theft

Doesn't matter if your equipment is kept out of sight...a persistent thief will always get what he/she wants. Check out this scenario....

You're driving through town and someone eyes your monitor when you stop at a red light. If it's a thief, they're going to think, okay, there must be other expensive equipment with that monitor....they follow you or figure out where you live and break into your car late at night. Regardless of what is in plain sight, they know that there is probably expensive audio/video equipment in the car

An alarm or taking your monitor with you aint going to help thwart a thief who has already seen what you have.

Our only recourse is to make sure 1.) Nothing is in plain sight when you park and leave your car unattended (this is just commone sense); 2.) You are not overly showwy when driving through town.

As a side note and to further explain my point...a friend's girlfriend who attends med school near Downtown LA went to an El Pollo Loco (fast food chicken place) in that area and she stepped out to get some food and take it back to her place. Within 5 minutes her driver's window was broken, all her medical equipment and her $2k laptop, which was stored in the trunk, were stolen.

Nothing can help you against a persistent thief other than having your wits about you.

-HD

Magnets mess up LCDs, be careful.

Originally Posted by CFlux

if you think that a car batery can't hurt you then by all means touch both terminals. It's current that'll get you, a car battery even though it is only 12 volt is more then able to supply enough current to stop your heart.

I've touched both terminals of a car battery. I felt nothing. However, I've had several zaps from the business end of the ignition coil. You only need to get zapped by that a few dozen times before you learn your lesson.

The thing is, people are fairly resistant. (I know I am) Unless you're soaking in salt water or sweat, your resistance is probably in the mega-ohms.

So, car battery = 12 volts. Person = 1,000,000 ohms resistance. If I touch both terminals of a car battery - 12 / 1000000 = 0.000012 amps of current. That's not enough to feel. However, the secondary windings on an ignition coil are over 30,000 volts. 30,000/1,000,000=0.03 amps. That can hurt.

Believe me, I've thought of many ways to protect my car. It was broken into/attempted stolen six times in two years, while parked in a "secured" underground parking lot.

Good luck,

Kris

I don't think they do...I think magnets only mess up CRT screens. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Originally Posted by mykolJay

I have two ideas that i'm thinking about implementing.

First I am going to have the screen in dash but detachable w/ a magnet mount.
This works really well with me because I live in the city and only drive my carevery week or so.

and/or

You can rip off the face of a stock unit (if it's broken, even better) and lower din pocket and simply have velcro. That way when you get out of your car, it'll look like you have a regular stereo instead of a screen.

I'm using velcro...Been using it for the past 2 years.
It has some nice advantage to it too.
first, it's adjustable, I can make the screen higher, lower and tilt.
second, it's removable. I just rip it out when parked in shady areas.
third, it doesn't mess up my LCD, and people can't really tell that I have velcro on my dash.

I wish I can show you guys some pics, I'm not home right now, I'll attach pics when I get home.

Originally Posted by b_nom

magnets don't hurt LCDs, only CRTs.

But doesn't magnets will do something to those electrical metal stuff in the LCD? In order to mount a screen that big and wouldn't fall off everytime you hit a pothole requires some strong one. Probably industrial magnets... I know I'm not gonna take that chance. Beside, industrial velcro is great ^^