I was bored and watching some CNN news clip late one night, roughly around 3 in the morning, after everything on cable had turned to crap. There came an article about some country, Brazil I think, where car thefts and car jackings are much more numerous than here in the States, so the people have come up with some cool concepts.
They arm their cars.
One version, the least harmful, is a tear gas bomb that, unless disarmed by the driver, detonates when someone tries to steal the car.
Another version – which I approve of – consists of a shotgun hidden under the dash (Probably a stripped down, custom version) that unless disarmed, fires when the car is started and kind of rips out a large chunk of the thief.
Some, being kinder, rig air bags in the roof and when an unauthorized person hops in the car and starts it, the thing detonates directly down on the head of the thief, knocking him cold.
Apparently some rig small explosive charges under the seat, some choose pepper sprays, some use poison gas, but the general feeling is, get the SOBs any way possible and if they are maimed or die in the process, so what?
After having two cars vandalized by would be thieves – I had installed secret cut off switches, and having to pay for expensive repairs, plus having acquaintances who have had their beloved cars stolen and either recovered stripped down or never recovered at all, I tend to think that mantrapping a car is a viable alternative.
Arm the car with a lethal device that operates on a key ring sending unit and if you get jacked, as the bugger drives off, trigger it and blow him out of the drivers door.
A friend of mine, having lost two expensive cars, asked me to help him design a security device and a defensive trap. (He had been jacked in broad daylight twice also. Lojack recovered the cars but the experience was unnerving and the jackers had trashed the insides.)
We worked out a system consisting of two tear gas bombs. One under the dash and one in the bottom of a rear passenger door. If you did not click off a hidden switch, once you started the car, both would detonate.
Then we designed a series of 4 .12 gauge shotgun shells to fit into the drivers side door. (We had some problems getting the window to work.) I won’t go into detail, but detonators were rigged to operate electronically and a secured button was installed within easy reach. The plan was if a jacker came to the door and tried to take the car, the button when pushed, would trigger the shells, blowing through a custom installed fiberglas panel and kind of removing the jacker. (We were working on a salvaged door from a junkyard to test the thing out.)
Pleased with our success, we started designing passenger side traps, in case one was kidnapped in one’s car. It is much easier to hide shotgun type emitters in the dash. We experimented with various forms of shot, from hard, rubber pellets, to rabbit shot to those lovely explosive tipped shells.
We even started working on plans for taxi cabs in New York City, with a protective, bullet proof barrier and gas canisters.
Then we discussed everything with a lawyer friend, who admired our ideas and concepts, but politely informed us that if we used any of the more lethal ones, we would go to jail for manslaughter! Plus, arming the door of the car was akin to carrying a concealed weapon. Someone would wind up using it on a cop and it would go the way of the beeper gun. If we produced and installed the items, we could be sued. He also pointed out the very real possibility of the door defense being used in road rage.
Killing a car thief is against the law – I don’t know why. If he does not endanger anyone while stealing your car, you may not blow him up with an explosive trap. He also pointed out that the car would probably have to be clearly marked with warning signs in English and Spanish. Non-lethal traps can be used but some thief somewhere after getting a belt of tear gas would probably file suite against the owner.
(There have been recorded cases of farmers owning old houses, unused, with antiques in them and, growing weary of having them pilfered, rigged up shotguns to blast any thieves back out of the door. Some of the surviving thieves pressed charges, sued and won. Go figure!)
OK. Lethal traps aside, do you wise and somewhat insane SDMBers think it should be allowed to seriously mantrap your expensive and cherished car against thieves? Tear gas or pepper sprays are good. You can even rig up a key ring sending unit to activate an ignition cut off, lock the doors and seal the windows. (The entrapment car being used in some places is an example.)
Any ideas or opinions? How about remote detonation of the air bags? That should bother a car jacker as he tries to drive off. (It’s so easy to rig up a hidden cut off switch that kills the power to any devices to make them owner safe.)
How about, along with the barrier in Taxis, locking doors? Violent passengers can be secured inside and rapidly driven to a police station.
I read once where a guy caught a car thief breaking into his car and beat him nearly into a pulp. The police accepted the lame story that the guy attacked the owner
and he had to defend himself, ignoring the shrill complaints from a neighbor – who knew the thief – that he had done no such thing. That story cheered me up.
So, what do you think?
(Years ago, it was considered ‘fun’ to get a model T coil from a junk yard, charge it up and wire it into the frame of a car. The ground was soaked on the desired side and anyone who strolled up, stood in the wet and leaned on the car obtained a somewhat unnerving shock as the coil discharged. I don’t think today’s coils will do that.)
CAREFUL! We don’t want to learn from this!(Calvin and Hobbs)