I’ve seen this repeatedly on cop shows: the perp has a secret stash compartment in the car. Maybe inside the passenger airbag compartment, maybe under the floor, and it is opened by some combination of regular controls. “Push the radio, the heater, and the cigarette lighter” *, and the compartment pops open.
I have no trouble with the concept of secret compartments, it’s the access that bugs me. Is this realistic, or is this just another TV contrivance with no basis in reality (like silenced revolvers) that everyone just uses over and over? More TV BS “facts”?
How does one make a secret combination from different systems? The radio and the heater and whatnot aren’t interconnected. If people appropriate switches from things like the radio or heater to make a secret stash box lock, does the radio and the heater still work?
* L&O, Everybody Loves Raimondos was on last night. The murder weapon was hidden thusly, and Lennie seemed to think such oddball combinations were common, I would have never thought of anything like that.
When I get a new car, one of the first things I do is to search for how to disable “features” I do not want. For example, to disable the seatbelt chime you turn the key to accessory, turn steering wheel to the right, pump the breaks three times, then start the car.
It seems like it would be possible to have a sequence of actions that causes a switch to be thrown, releasing a latch and having a spring loaded panel pop open.
These absolutely exist and I know a guy who makes them. They’re illegal in a lot of places. They were big in the news several years ago when jurisdictions started making examples out of people and arresting them.
I remember home burglary jewelry thieves in New York being caught after their high end car was spotted in the vicinity of several thefts, and even stopped at least once, but no sign of any stolen jewelry in the car. Once the police suspected this vehicle was involved the police stopped it following another robbery and examined the car closely enough to find the hidden compartment the jewelry was stashed in. I don’t remember many details, I think this happened in the 80s, but it’s clear the police didn’t have trouble uncovering the secret compartment once they suspected it was there.
The police don’t start trying the controls looking for hidden compartments for a routine traffic stop. If the police do have reasonable cause to believe something is hidden in the car they could get a warrant and tear it apart like was done in the French Connection. So it doesn’t take much to disguise a secret compartment that won’t have to stand up to a more serious intrusive search. Very likely the release mechanism is just hidden under the dashboard somewhere instead of making a false control mechanism that is exposed.
I remember going back further into the dim past of the 70s seeing a car that had a secret trunk compartment that was sort of a false back on the rear seats. It was used to bring low cost liquor from adjoining states into Pennsylvania where all liquor had to be purchased from a State Store. The cocktail type drinking culture was still going strong back then and the savings must have been worth it to some people.
I was in a meeting once where a perp, who had decided to cooperate, was explaining such a thing to law enforcement officers. I seem to recall some sort of magnet configuration that allowed him to open a compartment in the vehicle, which was used to store/transport drugs. So, yes, they do exist.
The elaborate mechanisms do exist assuming that you call turn on the right blinker while turning up the radio volume to release a magnet elaborate. The car mod guy that I know does all sorts of cool things. His main specialty is things like hiding the controls for a nice stereo system behind the cover for the old AM radio in a vintage Mustang. Those just flip down. The other stuff can get very ingenious.
I do. My point its, the blinker isn’t connected to the radio, and the radio is independent of everything (in older cars). Same with the heater, So you have to take the radio apart, add some new wires, get them out of the radio case. The turn signal is easy, but, per my OP, does the radio and the turn signals still work? Or is that the cost of having a trap?
Nice article, but it doesn’t “explore the tech”. Yes, you hit this button, move that seat, taillight pops open. But HOW? Are they writing new software? What “feature” are they exploiting?
Like that. The article should mention that. They promised! That’s what I want to know. The details. (No I’m not going to build one.)
My first car was a 1969 Falcon station wagon. The compartment for the spare tire was on one side of the cargo area. On the other, just a bare panel. I don’t know that anyone at Ford ever had any intent of intentionally engineering a hidden compartment into this car, but there it was. You just needed a common Phillips screwdriver to remove the screws, to remove that panel, and there was a very roomy compartment there, great for hiding anything that would fit in it.
It’s easy enough to do. Cars use several devices that turn on and off by simply switching voltage to the device on and off. Any of your lights, windows, door locks, ac/heat blower motor might be tapped to trigger some other device. You would probably add some simple circuitry so that the door to your secret compartment doesn’t spring open whenever you make a left turn. So you detect when both the left turn signal is on at the same time you are rolling down the right side window. If you can’t design electronic circuits you could use something like an Arduino that can be programmed, although it seems like overkill. Once you detect the required conditions you trigger a solenoid switch through appropriate circuit isolation to spring a latch.
For more details look at the fuse and relay documentation for your car to see which controls you can use. Find the wiring diagrams to see where they can be tapped at convenient places, like under the dashboard as opposed to someplace under a door panel. Attach wires to those locations and run them along with some power to your circuitry which you will keep inside your hidden compartment. Use a trunk latch release mechanism to spring the latch. The trunk latch itself is going to be big and bulky, but you could use that if you want your hidden compartment to resist attempts to pry it open.
Do you need more specifics?
One must wonder about the practicality of these elaborate opening procedures. On the one hand, you might have a cop shining a flashlight through the window of the car and looking around. Here, a secret compartment that opens when you put your fingernails under the edge of a panel and pull will work just fine. On the other hand, you might have someone so determined to find things that they completely disassemble the vehicle. In that case, the “just pull” compartment won’t stay hidden, but neither will the elaborate mechanism one. How common is it for anyone to do a level of search in between, that would be fooled by the elaborate mechanism but wouldn’t be by the pry-the-panel?
I recall some article about these traps (and the law that any hidden compartment not part of the car’s manufacture is illegal). It mentioned the less clever ones, there was sometimes a wire visible sort of tucked into the edge of the upholstery leading from the dashboard down the center hump - pry the carpet up and push the wire in. If the carpet was not properly pushed back down, it was a little obvious. I think Rolling Sone had a more in depth article about the guy sent to jail for traps. Basically they tried to flip him, but he feared for his family’s safety. He claimed not to know specifically what the traps were for, but they got him on conspiracy anyway.
I’ve certainly had cops do everything short of opening compartments during a traffic stop. My understanding is that without probable cause, they can search for anything in plain sight, but opening even your glove box goes beyond that.
It’s actually reasonably simple theses days. Most modern cars use a networking standard called CANbus to communicate information across the various computer modules in the car. For a few bucks, you can buy an Arduino-type device that has CANbus hardware built-in that can join the conversation. It’s relatively easy to program and you could probably reuse code from any number of projects on GitHub to get started.
Think about what happens when you turn the volume up on the radio. In an old car, that knob directly controls the signal from an amplifier to adjust what you hear. In a modern car, there’s a bunch of ways to control volume. The knob on the stereo, a button on the steering wheel, voice command, an incoming call on your cell phone can mute the radio, whatever. None of those controls, even the main knob on the dash, control the amplifier directly any more. They just all issue digital commands across the network and the appropriate controller reacts as desired.
Same with a power seat. You can adjust the seat with the controls by your hip, but the seat will automatically adjust when unlocked with a specific fob, or when you select a user on the touchscreen, and probably other ways I’m forgetting. Again, all digital commands to the seat motor controller somewhere on the network.
So now, think about your cheap hardware device you added to the car’s network. It just sits there, eavesdropping on the control signals flying by, waiting and watching for the one improbable sequence that triggers it to do its thing. Whatever that thing may be.
That’s what I want to know. The details. (No I’m not going to build one.)