My poor truck has been targeted by scumbags again

My girlfriend got a text from our neighbor this morning, saying he heard somebody open the hood of my truck at about 2am. He opened his curtains and turned on a light to look and they scurried off in a white Durango. Neighbor called the cops and they came out to look around, and he said he saw them back a few hours later to check up, too. Nice to have good neighbors.

I fully expect to go out to a missing battery tomorrow morning. Evidently that's the new thing around here.

What sucks is that since I don't lock my doors (because I'd rather not have to deal with a broken window on top of whatever else they decide to damage/steal) there's not much I can do to keep the hoodrats out from under my hood.

I'm not really worried about it being stolen, even though the steering column is still broken from a few years ago (when I chased off somebody trying to steal it), because I always pull the fuel pump fuse when I park it overnight or out of sight. It should take a car thief a some extra time to figure that out - extra time he doesn't want to spend on a $500 truck.

If I wired my hood latch to the battery (with a hidden switch inside for me, of course) would that drain the battery?

The only way I can see it not draining the battery is if the circuit isn't completed until turbo dope does whatever that makes the curcuit close.

I think it would short out the battery, unless you electrically insulate the hood latch handle from the chassis and hood.

If you could, and then you stripped off the paint from the chassis and hood near it, then it would work well.

Easy button:

1) Contact switch for hood 2) Relay 3) Toggle switch

Mount contact switch under hood so it does not make contact with the hood closed. Run a wire from this switch to a toggle switch inside (hidden of course). Run a wire from the other side of the toggle switch to the relay control circuit, then use the relay to blow the horn. When you park the truck, flip the switch on. When the little E36 M3heads pop the hood latch the horn goes off.

For the next week, remove the battery every night and place a paper plate with a steaming pile of...something...in its place.

Just a thought.

But seriously, Curmudgeon is onto something...

Chain down your hood. 10$ easy to do on a $500 truck.

Or plan "B":

Extra credit for a 150+db horn under the hood.

Add a mercury switch to the horn circuit, with a deactivation switch hidden someplace.

Rubber mat with contact switch inside(like they used to use for automatic doors) placed directly in front of the bumper, or next to the driver's door(as though you were using it for working on the truck), hooked to trigger whatever medieval torture implement you choose.

I can think of all sorts of crazy E36 M3 to do. I like the horn, but lets add to that a windshield wiper nozzle with pepper spray. Blinding (flashing) light would help too.

I am with Teh E36 M3 on this, Headlamp squirters with evil juice aimed at the release handle.

Better idea, wire a rocket igniter to a hood switch, rigged to a strip of firecrackers someplace, you can add actual gunfire if you want, your state laws permitting.

$500 truck..

$10 contact switch

$500 of C4, gas and nails

Scumbag raining on the neighborhood... priceless

i like the idea of a blaring horn, and the pepper spray thing seems fun... also add some strobe lights... put everything on a delay so that they actually get the hood all the way open before the fun starts... make sure to rig up a camera of some sort to catch all the fun so we can see the action set to Benny Hill music..

We had some vandals around a couple on months ago.

This is what I did.

Motion recording, up to 16 cameras, 2Tb hard drive, internet connectible.

The insurance company even gave me a break on the rates.

Yep, that's how Toyman caught me. My parole hearing is next week.

How to stop cats pissing on your car

Apparently it's a thing in some parts of Columbus to use a battery powered recip saw to zip open a hood so they can get the battery. There's a $8 core on batteries, you know...

I like the idea of a fake battery with a GPS in it. Not sure where to go with that that doesn't involve words like "felony", though, so HD security cameras are still the best option.

fake battery under the hood, hooked up to one of those explosive blue dye things they put in money that banks are transporting, along with the already mentioned pepper spray and strobe lights and what not..

put the real battery in the back of the car somewhere..

1. Goddamn, I'm glad I live in the berkeleying country.
2. TOYMAN! TELL ME MOAR!

15-ish years up here. One egg hit the front doors of the shop a few years ago, and I figure that was random. No "riff-raff" = no crime. My car is unlocked and full of tools, as always. Sometimes there's a bunch of guitar equipment in there too. If you guys need it worse than I do, please help yourselves. God help you if I catch you in the act though.

Every time I go into the city/out of town, mama begs me to take the "nice" car. "Why the berkeley would I do that!?" I say. If the integra breaks down, I'll grab my tools and call for a ride. If the 5 gets a busted window or a door ding, I'll berkeleying kill someone with my bare hands.

poopshovel wrote: 1. Goddamn, I'm glad I live in the berkeleying country. 2. TOYMAN! TELL ME MOAR! 15-ish years up here. One egg hit the front doors of the shop a few years ago, and I figure that was random. No "riff-raff" = no crime. My car is unlocked and full of tools, as always. Sometimes there's a bunch of guitar equipment in there too. If you guys need it worse than I do, please help yourselves. God help you if I catch you in the act though.

This one. Mine didn't come with the dome cameras though.

I got it at Sam's Club. It took about 1/2 a day to run the wires through the attic. It came with 8 cameras, but I only installed 6. The DVR is in the top my my closet, out of site, out of mind, and the monitor and mouse are on the computer desk in the living room. I've been very happy with the system so far. Fairly easy to set up and use. The only problem I have run into is spiders seem to LOVE the IR lighting and build webs on the cameras. They set off the motion so I have to clean the cameras every couple of weeks.

Night visibility is great too.

Glue treble hooks under the leading edge of the hood.

On a more serious note.

MOVE!

Leave the E36 M3ty neighbourhood to the hoodrats.

Where's the ir motion tracking water cannon setup again? That combined with the camera setup should be rather amusing.

Booby trapping is illegal and is an automatic loss in a civil case. You harm the thief and they sue and win. It happens all the time.

I would take the easy route and tie a bunch of these to the hood.

A LOT of noise of the type that wakes a large number of people and will scare the bejesus out of the thief.

Relocate the battery to the back, then put this where the battery should be.

Make sure you have a camera filming the vandalism that would ensue.