Car security/defensive/evidence collecting

[VS Omega]

After reading what happened to Garth and it becoming obvious to me that destructive things done to cars are becoming a more common thing, I thought it would be smart to make a thread about Automotive security, defense and evidence collection (worst case scenario). This way we can share and get some ideas so hopefully nothing like that ever happens to us, or if it does the evidence is there for something to happen, hopefully compensation.

Obviously you can't go past an alarm, immobiliser, clublock and the basics but I was thinking more outside of the conventional.

I'll get the ball rolling..

Have you ever considered setting up a camera to constantly film your pride and joy? It's not hard at all (and pretty cheap), all you need is an oldish computer, a web camera and if you want to go that far an internet connection. I've been playing with an excellent piece of software called catspy. It's 100% free, and has some great functionality. What it does is it detects motion, and then starts recording a video until the motion goes away. You can tell it to only film a certain area of the screen (example where your car is parked), and it will always do its thing. You can use XViD codecs and what-not to make the filesizes tiny, but best of all you have video proof if something happens (get their face from the video, print it out, show the cops).. I'm currently using this and have it setup pointing to our driveway, just in case (it's happened - mums car got badged once)

Feel free to post what you're doing, and if you don't want to go into specifics it's all good

[Bax]

Good thought about having the webcam and camera.

I'll start with an obvious one, if your car is parked in the driveway outside your house, get yourself a really really bright spotlight pointed directly at it connected to a sensor light. That would aid your webcam setup, as obviously when it gets dark your going to lose alot of quality. A pixellated face isn't going to help your cause.

I'd be more inclined to have the webcam pointing at the car/ and down the street to try and catch the car they were driving at the time.

My main concern isn't when my car is at home, or at work, it is when it is parked while I'm shopping or doing something like that. Thats where its really hard to protect.

Toying with the sensor light option again, I've been told by a few people to get a sensor light and wire it to a light in your room, can be taken two ways of course, the person outside will think your awake and may not do anything, and it will/could hopefully wake you up and you'd know exactly what that particular light means.

Car covers if you park the car and want to avoid the brake fluid attacks. A car cover also stops the first initial bit of oppurtunity, if they don't see it they usually won't go for it I guess. By the time they walked over and lifted the cover for badging or b/fluiding the sensor light would be shining right on their face.

[Vs_sharlene]

I'd be more inclined to have the webcam pointing at the car/ and down the street to try and catch the car they were driving at the time.

Mates dad has a CV8Z with a camera setup as described. He says that, legally, you can't film public property (i.e. the street). Don't know if its true but thats what I heard

[Bax]

Sounds a bit weird. Millions of people would film/ take photo's of public places each day.

[minux]

Mates dad has a CV8Z with a camera setup as described. He says that, legally, you can't film public property (i.e. the street). Don't know if its true but thats what I heard

You can't by law film the criminals either unless you advertise the camera's.

Just like having high db sirens inside the car, you must post a warning.

I have friends who were successfully sued after a criminal was attacked by their dog in their backyard. Simply because they had a sign up "Dangerous dog enter at own risk".

[vt1538]

With the slap on the wrist these little bastards are getting is it worthwile. We had a case up here where a bloke was walking around with a stick smashing windscreens in broad daylight. He was already on a suspended sentence for a similar effort a month before.
He got two days in a holiday camp & the victims got no compensation.
The only way that I can see to keep your pride & joy safe is to keep it from view. When the punishment fits the crime is the only deterrent I can see that works.

[minux]

Well said there m8, it's why i drive the laser to the supermarket etc, it is just not worth the hassle that idiots can cause to a car. My suggestion also is motion enabled GPS tracking, automatically starts when it senses any motion. This way if the car is stolen, you can trace to where it is, i always suggest running it away from the alarm system so they dont know it is there.

[vt1538]

Thats a good idea.
Do you need to subscribe to a service to monitor the vehicles position?
Also is it an expensive set up cost?

[minux]

I had it setup in my last car, cost me $2600 (standard pricing is about 4k) through VDO, i was subscribed to telstra's service through work, cost me $8 month. Well worth it though.

[Bax]

Sounds like something worth looking into in the future.

[minux]

Sounds like something worth looking into in the future.

Defiantly, i had it wired to a standalone alarm which sms'd me when activated. Got to be a pain some nights when it went off for no reason. Silent alarms are alot better then noisy one's, because they dont think anyone knows.

[vt1538]

Definately a lot cheaper than replacing a car. If the insurance companies reduce the premiums if fitted it would be a great investment.
You said you had your subscription through your work. Did this mean that your boss got overspeed notifications

[minux]

Nah, it just saved me $2 a month lol. Every notification i got was sent to my home PC. When i wanted to check when my car was being serviced or something while i was at work, i'd log in to my comp and just check it was at the mechanics and not somewhere else. Come in handy many times.

Although it is an expensive outlay(alot cheaper if you dont have the alarm installed), it is well worth it, especially if you suspect your car has been flogged while leaving it to have something done. One of the guys from VDO actually has his recording all his data. So he can record speed, rpm, oil pressure, water temp, trnas temp etc etc.

[Wombat]

A mate bought one of those little CCD cameras that wire back to your PC. I think it only cost something like $100 from Dick Smith's. The picture actually isn't that bad a quality, and the "original" use for the camera is advertised as "seeing who is at your front door". However, there is no law against setting up a camera to film your own yard or driveway, so you can "see if you have any visitors arriving". If they happen to film someone trashing your car, it'll be a bonus. s for a "warning sing" if you really must, no law says it has to be huge and plain to see...look at the tiny hardly-noticeable signs at some servicestations simply saying "video monitoring on site". I would imagine a small sign on a post of your carport would suffice.

As for police never being all that concerned about attending, then kick up a stink...the damage to Garth's car would be in the region of several thousand dollars...insurance and the fact it is a car can be disregarded...this is a crime involving a large amount of property damage, and you should demand that any similar attack be investigated properly. If you get no results, go to the local paper...they absolutely love stories about severe vandalism, which pisses off everyone, not being taken seriously by Mr Plod.

[vn88calais]

i know majority would say an alarm or something, but basically i dont leave n e thing in my car since it got broken into. basically someone smashed me quarter panel on the passenger side and then opend up all doors except one, and went through the car. well...that happend in my home driveway haha the one place i thort it was safe.

what i do now is leave the centre consol and glove box down so if someone comes up to me car they can see i have nothing in there...in fact there is only 2 things i leave in my car, a street directory and a tarp in the boot cos i dont have boot carpet...and its worked for me ever since...

i know it is free and it kinda puts people off seeing i have nothing in there...maybe that can help someone out if need be...

cheers, Todd

[Bax]

Good suggestion, at least that'd stop the junkies jumping in and ripping off a few dollars.

What do you do about a cd player?

[VS Omega]

It's very troublesome and involves a lot of work but I've seen people hide CD/MP3/whatever type of head unit inside the glovebox, with the crappy factory one in the place where they usually go (or none at all), because the glovebox is lockable and you can close it and no one will ever know what's there it's pretty much fool proof, just a lot of time/fabrication to get it setup (MP3 HU/stacker HU with remote is better for this, less changing of the disc)

EDIT: Or you could just get a HU with a detatchable face, but please don't hide it under your seat or the glovebox, it kind of defeats the purpose (you honestly think they won't look there? lol).. always take the face inside with you or wherever you go (the inconvenience of a face with you everywhere you go does justify your $300 HU being safe).. if you've got a missus, put it in her handbag