I know of a break in into a detectives unmarked car in my area where they stole a Motorola MTS200 loaded with everything under the sun including about 9 surrounding counties radio systems and all police talk groups. The radio was recovered when the guy who stole it was arrested a year later for breaking into cars. He had been using the radio to listen to patrol officers and avoid being caught. He was a career auto burglar and went back to prison. I never leave anything in my vehicle that can easily be snatched. My mobil units are bolted pretty good and I have a car alarm so thats about all I can do, no problems so far.
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Mobile shack security
- Thread starter als365
- Start date
- Status
jcecklund
Member
In the Kansas City 800 mhz TRS the police dispatch have the ability to disable any stolen radio from the police dept. They can also trace the unit if it is turned on.
K2KOH
Silent Key
My car is right outside my condo unit...and this is very close by
kskarma
Member
Auto theft and Scanner Security.....thoughts/ideas..!
After reading all the postings on this thread, a few things have come to mind about this whole issue. Here are my random thoughts....hope they might help someone avoid losing some gear and $$$$$...!!
First of all, when parking your car, use plenty of caution about where you leave it, what you leave in it and how easy it might be for a thief to gain access to it and for him to have the un-observed time he needs to break in and remove the goodies. I try to 'think like a thief' when I look for a parking spot or walk thru a parking lot. It should go without saying that choosing an isolated spot at the back corner of a lot next to a row of bushes might NOT be the best choice.
A dark interior color scheme coupled with tinted windows will make it very difficult for anyone to make a quick check of your equipment. Try it yourself on your own..or other cars. You have to make a very obvious move to see inside and that is something most thieves will not want to do. Remember...thieves look for the 'Easy Mark'..so they will move on to a vehicle that does not present many obstacles.
Just putting a dark cloth over your radios will help a lot. The thief might suspect that you have something of value under the cloth, but most do not want to break into a car without having some good 'information' about what they might be able to steal. A jacket or other piece of clothing will serve the same purpose. Also a cloth that is the same color as your car's interior will tend to blend in with the rest of the upholstery, floormat, etc. Anything that prevents him from doing some accurate 'window shopping' is just another line of defense against these scum...!
Be sure you have recorded the Serial Numbers of all your gear.....if it DOES get stolen AND recovered (talk about a MIRACLE!)..you will need this info to prove your ownership and for your insurance claim. It might also be advisable to use an electric pen to etch some of your personal info (but NOT your Social Security Number!!) on your radios. Your drivers license number might be a good thing to put on them. Some police depts promote "Operation ID" and provide stickers that say that all property has been marked. I am not sure I'd want to 'announce' that fact...just some FYI here.
The old trick of 'Hiding in plain sight' is a good thing to keep in mind. You want to try to make the inside of your car look VERY ordinary. There are lots of tricks to hiding your radios that can conceal the fact that your car is any different than the one next to it. Depending on how and where your radios are installed, you can put many items over or around them. Consider using very 'common' objects for this. Think about cutting out the bottom of a Kleenex box, one of those 'soft sided drink coolers', a small diaper box, a kids plastic ball, a helmet, anything that looks like it 'belongs'.....and then just setting that on top of your radios. Who would be suspicious to see anything like this?
Buying a cheap Console/CupHolder and removing the bottom section leaving only the upper part, gluing in an empty soft drink cup for 'appearances'...and then placing that over your real console might work...again...depending on your installation.
You could get several paper grocery sacks and glue one inside the other to make them 3 or 4 layers thick, glue a few cereal boxes, etc. together and in turn glue those in the top of the sack. What we are trying for is the appearance of a very 'run of the mill' sack of groceries. This could be cut out on the side and, when needed, 'hung' over radios that were side mounted to your transmission hump. This would also be useable as a 'hide' to put handy talkies or removed scanners in when you park. No one will want to break into a car to get a grocery sack of Cheerios...!!
You might want to give the 'impression' that you DO have radios in your car BUT they have all been removed. Think about installing a few 'under dash' mounts in your car and have some dummy cords, antenna cables, etc hanging from them...giving the impression that the actual radios have been removed OR already stolen....!!
If you have radios installed in your dash, you might be able to find an AC/Heater grill from another car and affix that to your radios with some velcro, magnets, etc.
J.C. Whitney used to sell a very cheap looking face plate that appeared to be from a basic AM radio...on the back side of it was an empty tape cassette. In use this was plugged into the real cassette slot of your high $$$$ Alpine, etc...thereby looking to anyone passing by as just a $29.95 AM radio...clever, eh??
I know a few people who NEVER lock their cars. They justify this by saying that it does not make sense to them to have a burglar break a window that they will have to pay a $200 deductible to replace when the item that was stolen only cost $100...!!
Do what you can to limit the number and size of antennas...(OK...I know the plural is antennae...this is a NO bashing zone please!) on your car. With all the technology today, it is not unusual for a car to have a few extras mounted on the roof for GPS, Cell phones, SatelliteRadio, etc... but keep this to a minimum if you can. For receiving you can be a bit more 'casual' about matching, bandwidth, etc., so you might be able to take advantage of a splitter or two to reduce the 'footprint'..('headprint'..?) of your antenna farm that way. Some of the scanner antennae resemble ones that might be used for a cell phone, so those would be a good choice as well.
I hope some of this has provided 'food for thought' and maybe some new ways to disguise our mobile installs. Nothing can beat an armed guard standing watch 24x7, but these might be second best.
Regards,
Kyle
After reading all the postings on this thread, a few things have come to mind about this whole issue. Here are my random thoughts....hope they might help someone avoid losing some gear and $$$$$...!!
First of all, when parking your car, use plenty of caution about where you leave it, what you leave in it and how easy it might be for a thief to gain access to it and for him to have the un-observed time he needs to break in and remove the goodies. I try to 'think like a thief' when I look for a parking spot or walk thru a parking lot. It should go without saying that choosing an isolated spot at the back corner of a lot next to a row of bushes might NOT be the best choice.
A dark interior color scheme coupled with tinted windows will make it very difficult for anyone to make a quick check of your equipment. Try it yourself on your own..or other cars. You have to make a very obvious move to see inside and that is something most thieves will not want to do. Remember...thieves look for the 'Easy Mark'..so they will move on to a vehicle that does not present many obstacles.
Just putting a dark cloth over your radios will help a lot. The thief might suspect that you have something of value under the cloth, but most do not want to break into a car without having some good 'information' about what they might be able to steal. A jacket or other piece of clothing will serve the same purpose. Also a cloth that is the same color as your car's interior will tend to blend in with the rest of the upholstery, floormat, etc. Anything that prevents him from doing some accurate 'window shopping' is just another line of defense against these scum...!
Be sure you have recorded the Serial Numbers of all your gear.....if it DOES get stolen AND recovered (talk about a MIRACLE!)..you will need this info to prove your ownership and for your insurance claim. It might also be advisable to use an electric pen to etch some of your personal info (but NOT your Social Security Number!!) on your radios. Your drivers license number might be a good thing to put on them. Some police depts promote "Operation ID" and provide stickers that say that all property has been marked. I am not sure I'd want to 'announce' that fact...just some FYI here.
The old trick of 'Hiding in plain sight' is a good thing to keep in mind. You want to try to make the inside of your car look VERY ordinary. There are lots of tricks to hiding your radios that can conceal the fact that your car is any different than the one next to it. Depending on how and where your radios are installed, you can put many items over or around them. Consider using very 'common' objects for this. Think about cutting out the bottom of a Kleenex box, one of those 'soft sided drink coolers', a small diaper box, a kids plastic ball, a helmet, anything that looks like it 'belongs'.....and then just setting that on top of your radios. Who would be suspicious to see anything like this?
Buying a cheap Console/CupHolder and removing the bottom section leaving only the upper part, gluing in an empty soft drink cup for 'appearances'...and then placing that over your real console might work...again...depending on your installation.
You could get several paper grocery sacks and glue one inside the other to make them 3 or 4 layers thick, glue a few cereal boxes, etc. together and in turn glue those in the top of the sack. What we are trying for is the appearance of a very 'run of the mill' sack of groceries. This could be cut out on the side and, when needed, 'hung' over radios that were side mounted to your transmission hump. This would also be useable as a 'hide' to put handy talkies or removed scanners in when you park. No one will want to break into a car to get a grocery sack of Cheerios...!!
You might want to give the 'impression' that you DO have radios in your car BUT they have all been removed. Think about installing a few 'under dash' mounts in your car and have some dummy cords, antenna cables, etc hanging from them...giving the impression that the actual radios have been removed OR already stolen....!!
If you have radios installed in your dash, you might be able to find an AC/Heater grill from another car and affix that to your radios with some velcro, magnets, etc.
J.C. Whitney used to sell a very cheap looking face plate that appeared to be from a basic AM radio...on the back side of it was an empty tape cassette. In use this was plugged into the real cassette slot of your high $$$$ Alpine, etc...thereby looking to anyone passing by as just a $29.95 AM radio...clever, eh??
I know a few people who NEVER lock their cars. They justify this by saying that it does not make sense to them to have a burglar break a window that they will have to pay a $200 deductible to replace when the item that was stolen only cost $100...!!
Do what you can to limit the number and size of antennas...(OK...I know the plural is antennae...this is a NO bashing zone please!) on your car. With all the technology today, it is not unusual for a car to have a few extras mounted on the roof for GPS, Cell phones, SatelliteRadio, etc... but keep this to a minimum if you can. For receiving you can be a bit more 'casual' about matching, bandwidth, etc., so you might be able to take advantage of a splitter or two to reduce the 'footprint'..('headprint'..?) of your antenna farm that way. Some of the scanner antennae resemble ones that might be used for a cell phone, so those would be a good choice as well.
I hope some of this has provided 'food for thought' and maybe some new ways to disguise our mobile installs. Nothing can beat an armed guard standing watch 24x7, but these might be second best.
Regards,
Kyle
NRA Sticker + empty holster + half empty box of ammo + car full of radio equipment and/or lightbars = one good way to get shot.
and the comment about leaving all the dna evidence behind... This is real life people not CSI. There is no magical database with everybodies DNA neatly catalogged and even if there were it would take decades to match one.
and the comment about leaving all the dna evidence behind... This is real life people not CSI. There is no magical database with everybodies DNA neatly catalogged and even if there were it would take decades to match one.
Get a Tahoe/Suburban/Expedition or similar in black or dark blue.
Tint the windows all to their max level
Load the roof with antennas
Leave a pair of handcuffs on the seat or some black SWAT-style boots on the floor
Will they try to break into? I doubt it.
Tint the windows all to their max level
Load the roof with antennas
Leave a pair of handcuffs on the seat or some black SWAT-style boots on the floor
Will they try to break into? I doubt it.
Viper43
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N467RX said:
Around here that would be the one they'ed go for because they'ed think there are automatic weapons. They have hit more than one SWAT officers vehicles in the past two years in Indy. But then here they hit marked and unmarked cars too. Heck, they even hit a US Marshalls car and FBI agents car.
V
Viper43
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jparks29 said:
Never had a problem with someone trying to break in.. dunno why though.. :shrug:..
I DID have someone spit on it, and promptly persuaded him it would in his best interest to wash the entire car, which he did....
What did you do that caused him to spit on it though? I spit on a matked car one day, the guy was off duty and perfectly healthy, there were 15 to 20 parking spots he could have parked in, but no, he had to park in the only handicapped spot, right in front of the door. He saw me do it, threatened me and when he said he was calling the cops I said go ahead, you call the cops and I'll call the newspaper, just remember your parked in a handicapped spot. About that time the manager told him to move his car or he'ed call the cops. He didn't move it and he got a $100 fine, and suspended for 3 days with no pay. I got a free meal
V
Viper43 said:
WOW....
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