I can’t understand why people would talk about using guns to defend a car battery or other property theft unless it was repeated to the point of frustration and that is subject to interpretation by legal second guessers. If you shoot someone who is attempting to steal a battery, you will have to contend with cops and then money smelling plaintiffs and trial lawyers for longer than you would want to know. I approve of guns but brave talk about using guns to protect property is for the most part, not going to work for you as you might have thought, if you fire the gun.
Times are tough right now
There are employers out there who have no sympathy about being late, no matter the reason
So a stolen battery could literally cost somebody their job
Leave the car unlocked, put a recore dead battery in the car, maybe you can by one at the parts store, with a kill switch, and reroute some cables and put the good battery in your trunk? After 2 or 3 of those get stolen they will not pick on your car anymore.
I don’t think the point is to shoot someone who is attempting to steal a battery, or even the entire car. Police should be called as a first step in any situation if there is any way possible.
There are situations sometimes in which a firearm is needed for protection; whether it’s an intruder in a home or possibly an assailant who may be on the property and threatens the property owner to the point that a firearm may be necessary to deter or flat stop the assailant.
Quote from ok4450: “Police should be called as a first step in any situation if there is any way possible.” Unquote
Maybe that works where you live but here in Milwaukee where I lived for 8 years until I could afford to move to a suburb and continued to subscribe to the Milwaukee paper, calling the cops for a car battery theft and expecting results is a nice dream. If you don’t want your battery stolen, you have to take action for yourself in a few neighborhoods but thankfully such relatively minor theft will not happen in all neighborhoods and it is not difficult to know after being here for a short time, the difference with regard to location. With drug dealing, convenience store robberies, burglaries, murders and more in the inner city, the cops have bigger fish that they care to fry in pursuit of action and promotions than a car battery theft.
If you ask Police to help with a battery theft here, they will tell you to f . . k off
I don’t expect the PD to actually care one way or the other about a battery theft. However, it does provide a track record of a request from the resident for help just in case things go sour before, and if, the PD shows up.
Several battery thefts and I’d be sitting in a lawn chair out of sight waiting for them to come back.
About 10 years ago a guy called the sheriff on me about pulling a gun (my Mossberg) on him and it was an hour and a half before they showed up to sort it out. While not going into a confession here, the only thing I told them was that no S.X.X. on the planet is coming to my house, sticking his foot in my front door, and physically threatening my wife (she was the town clerk and treasurer) because she finally had to cut his water off after 3 months of non-payment and half a dozen lying attempts about catching at least some of it up to date.
You can make the police respond. If the problem is bad enough and the police always have Better Things To Do, contact your city or county elected representative. They live for these moments. They will give the police living hell and they are In a position to make life very hard for the police. Any time the police need something from the local government, they are told to do their job before they get anything. Just make sure that it is a long term wide spread problem before getting the politicians involved.
I don’t believe that breaking into a car is out of the realm of reporting it to the police. Car break ins should be reported… If you don’t report it, you have no record of long term problems. This is especially true if the vehicle is parked on your property and not on the street. Not having them respond while still reporting it at least gives you additional reason to protect your property for yourself. I hope OP has reported both break ins. Sorry, just saying so later isn’t enough.
However there are a lot of people on another thread that feel certain laws don't apply to them so I suppose we can just make things up as we go along.
And that is a complete misinterpretation of that other thread.
There are MANY people (including myself) who do not feel that way. We HAVE to drive the interstates to commute to work or school …etc. Driving the speed limit is MORE DANGEROUS then driving the prevailing speed…PERIOD. I drive on these roads in the safest manner possible. And at the times I commute that may mean 75mph. Argue all you want…but don’t go interpreting others people action. Leave your self righteousness at home.
@Tester - I like your idea best, is this something a handy person but not a “car guy” could do? We have the guys on surveillance camera, I got the footage but the cops couldn’t care less and they aren’t identifiable.
Batteries must be easy to sell. Either to a recycling yard, or there is a black market on car batteries. Seems the latter is more likely since the thief focused on your car, a very popular car. Easy to find someone who’s car will fit that battery. That’s the only thing I can think of.
So what to do? hmmm … ok, how about this … Since the thief is so predictable, consider to put a vdo camera aimed at the car and vdo tape the car overnight. If you catch the thief on vdo tape, you could print it out and tape the photo to the car window. Might make the thief move on to a different car at least. Seems like the best way would be if the police would watch the area undercover for a night or two. That way they could actually catch the culprit.
Forty four years ago when I was a graduate student, battery thefts were common on the campus of the school I attended. Most cars did not have inside hood releases which made it easy to grab the battery and run. I think that inside hood releases may have deterred quite a bit of the battery theft.
Stealing a battery on my dad’s 1939 Chevrolet and on my 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck was made a little more difficult because the battery was under a plate on the right front passenger’s side of the vehicle. To get to the battery, you had to lift up the floor mat and then lift up an access plate to get to the battery. My son once had a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass. To get the battery out, several things had to be unbolted and moved out of the way. I thought this wasn’t a very good design, but maybe it was done that way to make it harder to steal the battery.
It’s best to have someone who knows how to read the wiring diagram for the horn system, and install the second wire to ground the horn relay, and where to put the switches.
And then you have to add the second latch so it functions with the primary latch.
But it can be done.
Tester
Yes, there’s a way to wire the hood so the horn comes on if the hood is popped. You’d have to ask around at auto security system installation places to see how much it would cost to have one installed. If you are a DIY’er with some basic electronics skills, you could probably make one yourself using a micro switch and a relay purchased from Radio Shack.
To add to @GeorgeSanJose, you also want a logic circuit that keeps the horn blowing for several minutes after the switch is triggered, then resets if the hood is down to go off again if it is raised later. More hassle, but also more effective. A neighborhood watch group to react to the horn blaring to ID the thieves will stop it for good.
Lay an inconspicuous grid around the front of the car and connect a ten mile fence charger plus a strobe and klaxon even if they have gloves some part of the anatomy will probaly connect dont forget to disarm before you touch car-Kevin( a mercury switch plus a single pole switch in the interior can make for some interesting alarm combos)
I think the OP should notifiy their employer about this ongoing problem, as a courtesy
That way, if they have to call in late because of the battery missing, it won’t be a total surprise
It might make the difference between keeping the job or not
Maybe play the" trunk Monkey"? I do not like a thief! Thieves may think they are smart.but in the Joint you find out how pathetic some of these Birds are-Kevin
"I would lay in wait inside the car with a shotgun. one blast of birdshot to the rear does wonders. "
Yeah, this is the same guy that said the following when I mentioned how his actions might incite road rage in some other driver:
“So im going down the interstate, the speed limit is 70mph, and I am going 70mph, and someone is going to shoot me? Would that be justifiable in your mind, to get shot because I was obeying the law? I hope you don’t own any firearms, If you do I beg you to hand them over to a responsible adult and get professional help. There is no shame in admitting you have a problem.”
I think we all know who everyone hopes doesn’t own or have access to a gun is around here Rick…