I nor anyone I’ve talked to have ever seen a car alarm actually stop a theft. In fact, I assume that it’s an owner who accidentally triggered it and can’t get their groceries or baby out of their hands to stop it. Either that, or they’re completely away and unaware of it. I’ve stopped looking at them. Have you known one that paid for itself?
As long ago as '01 I was saying "I know how to break into a car. Just break in. Let the dang car alarm shriek. When people step out to glare at you, shrug and shout at them (not untruthfully), ‘I’m sorry…it’s not my car’ and start dismantling wires (no effort to hide what you’re doing being necessary here) until you get it shut off. People will nod and cut you some slack for at least trying to get the stupid noise to stop.
How would you know whether it worked successfully or not? They still need to break in to activate it, and just because they didn’t steal anything, could just mean you didn’t have anything worthwhile. I think car alarms are more of a passive resistance, in that it just causes thieves to avoid the car altogether in the first place in favor of easier targets. Some people like you might not pay high amounts of attention to them, but they still do draw quite a lot of unwanted heat that your typical car thief would want to avoid just in case there’s witnesses. Unless you’re one of the idiots that keeps a laptop in the seat or a gps on the dash, then they’re not going to risk it.
I’ve seen cops sanding near car alarms when they activated and never saw one so much as glance in that direction.
Useless fucking noise pollution. I am so tempted to smash the windshield so the alarm will- for once- actually go off for a reason. :mad: :mad:
Yes, mine. I had a transmitter in the glove compartment (for a remote) and when they saw it they left everything untouched.
I recall that many years ago, some car alarm went off in NYC in the middle of the night and the neighbors came out screaming - for the owner of the car to come out and shut the damned thing off!
When the owner never showed up, they totally demolished the car until the alarm finally stopped.
Hey, New Yorkers are like Torontonians!
One went off in the parking lot next to me. It was malfunctioning and went off every ten minutes… all night long. I called the cops and they said there’s nothing they could could do, but I can file a complaint against the car owner and it might set a court date for a noise bylaw complaint, or some other such bullshit, I don’t even remember it was so lame. Basically, they recommended going to a hotel for the night and then filing a complaint in the morning. They said they couldn’t even tow it away or anything.
About 20 minutes later, I heard smashing. Some neighbors bashed in the driver’s side window to pop the hood and rip out the battery.
I’m pretty sure that mine saved me worse damage last week - somebody jimmied the lock open with a screwdriver. There was no damage to the interior, absolutely nothing missing and none of the storage compartments were opened. I’m pretty sure that as soon as they opened the door the alarm went off, they shut the door and took off.
Almost as bad as a car alarm blaring are the ones that honk the horn every time they get activated and deactivated. Whatever happened to the nice little chirp?
Well, my boyfriend’s car alarm (which stopped when the door was closed) got me to look out the window, see it was his car, and call and see if he’d come back for something Just In Case. He hadn’t. He turned around (he had just dropped me off) and came back to find a homeless woman sleeping in his car. So the alarm didn’t scare her off, and it only went off for less than a minute, but it did actually work.
And the related question, “Has the panic button ever been pushed on purpose?”
I HATE the panic button. I will push it on accident and can’t remember how to shut it off.
Useless waste. The same as car alarms. The only people they may stop are complete amateurs such as very young kids playing a prank.
Yup. To try and find a red rental car in a parking lot full of red rental cars.
Pretty much the same – to find my car in a big parking ramp.
For the sake of fighting ignorance, it should be pointed out that the alarm blaring isn’t what stops a theft. Carjackers avoid cars that will be a hassle. If you look at car robbery statistics, it’s not BMWs and Mercedes Benz that get ripped off the most. Usually its old, beat-up Hondas and other cheapo cars from a decade ago–because they’re easy to break into and they don’t have an alarm. Crooks are like water, they flow down the path of least resistance. If they were industrious, they wouldn’t be crooks.
So if you have the option, opt for the car with the car alarm.
That reminds me. My keys pushed my panic button about every other day until I superglued it.
I popped my key fob open and took out the little device underneath the button, disabling it.
No, they don’t. Think about all the times you’ve heard car alarms going off. Do you honestly think each of those times was because somebody actually broke into the car? Hell, thunder sets off alarms that have too sensitive settings. I think a camera or eyewitness would be sufficient evidence of an attempted break in being foiled when the alarm was activated.
Could you explain this? I can’t figure out what you’re talking about.