If I Suspect Someone Is Trying To Kill Me (Don't need answer fast)

Factual Questions
1

In the movies and TV (and I’m assuming, in real life), sometimes someone who has run afoul of organized crime, or an enemy government, or whatever, will find themselves getting into their car for what they assume is a mundane trip, only to have it explode because a bomb had been placed in it.

Another method of death-by-car-tampering is cutting the brake lines, so the victim can’t stop their out-of-control car* and will die because of it.

Would a quick inspection reveal that my car had been tampered with? If there were a bomb under the hood, would it be big enough and obvious enough for me to see if I simply popped the hood and looked around before starting the engine? Similarly, if I knew where to look, would I notice tampered brake lines with a simple visual inspection?

*If your brake lines are cut, can’t you just pull the emergency brake and/or put the car into park?

2

They do love those car bombs in films don’t they. Certainly terrorists like the IRA have used them, but there are much easier ways to kill someone. They don’t usually want collateral damage either.

I guess the answer to the “quick inspection” question would depend on how cleverly it was done. There is hardly any spare room under the ‘hood’ of my car. I have seem people using mirrors on sticks to check underneath - I think that most of the explosive that terrorists have is not that small, so would be fairly easy to spot.

I have always doubted the cut brake lines scenario. If you make a small cut so the fluid escapes each time the pedal is pressed, you would notice the deterioration. My car needs a foot on the brake when it is started - if my foot went straight to the floor…:frowning:

The premise in the films, is usually that the brakes work a couple of times, enough to get you onto the main road - you then speed up until you need them to negotiate a hazard, and they have now failed. Never in a film have I seen anyone ram it into a low gear (it wouldn’t go into park) and yank on the emergency/secondary/parking brake. Usually they fly off the side of the road and burst into flames (itself a rare occurrence)

3

If you are truly concerned about someone doing something nasty to your car you could hire a driver and have it parked far enough away so that your driver would have to drive it 5-10 minutes before he picked you up. That way if the car was rigged to blow up when it was started the driver would be killed and not you, and if the brakes were tampered with the driver would notice that before you risked your life.

Of course the bad guys could put a remote control detonator on the bomb and simply wait for you to drive by, but you could change the route you use every day so you never drove the exactly same route twice, or you could rent a different random car every day so they wouldn’t know which car you would be using on any given day.

In other words, in real life there are ways to get around this kind of sabotage and if someone really wanted you dead there are much easier and simpler ways to kill you then sabotaging your car. Don’t believe everything you see in film or on TV.

4

A switch actuated by the hood so that when you raise it to check, the bomb goes off.

5

Parking brakes will slow you down eventually, but not quickly. Putting it in Park won’t do much good. Downshifting into lower gears will slow you down to where you can probably survive a crash.

If someone cuts the brake lines, you should notice fairly quickly. The pedal should go to the floor. Given that most cars now require that you have the brakes on to start the car, you might notice before you even get moving. Whoops! Looks like bob++ already made this point.

6

Assassins don’t cut brake lines to kill someone – too random, too uncertain. Tampering with brakes is more the domain of jilted lovers or a domestic custody dispute.

Pretty sure that car bombs (the turn-key-to-explode type, not general IED’s) are also fairly rare, although they do look really cool in the movies.

If somebody really truly wants you dead, and pays to make it happen, all it takes is a bullet in the head while no one’s watching. Simple, efficient, easy to get away with. Anything more complex or esoteric is almost certain to fail, or get discovered.

7

One might also advise that, if you suspect someone is trying to kill you, you need answer fast!

8

I’m not sure that it is easy to get away with.

9

Not sure about turn-the-key bombings ( I believe most were remote-detonated bombs ) and I’m not sure what you consider rare, but in 1976 alone there were 21 car bombings in Cleveland proper ( aka “Bomb City, U.S.A.” ), 37 total in Greater Cuayhoga county as a whole during a mob war. Between 1953-1963 there were purportedly 75 car bombing in and around Youngstown, Ohio for the same reasons. And there plenty of other bombings in Ohio sprinkled throughout this period.

The Ohio mobsters loved them some car bombs.

10

“You could have a bomb accident.”

11

ISTR one, forget which state, where the ignition was rigged to a pipe containing a shotgun shell under the steering column. Shotgun blast at 2 feet? Ouch time.

12

While I have no personal experience with this matter, proceeding from logic, the two most likely places to put a bomb would either be near the battery (as a power source) or under the driver’s seat (to maximise kill potential). If the latter, literally under the seat would be the best, but breaking into the car without leaving any marks is harder so most people would probably put it under the car, beneath the seat.

Check those three spots and you should find the majority of bombs.

13

A bomb is a fairly extravagant method of assassination. Sniping would be much easier. Haven’t you seen the movie Leon, the professional?

14

What would likely happen if someone removed the wire leading to the distributor cap and put it into the carburetor.

The car would have to be an older model - at least old enough to have both a distributor and a carburetor.

15

Have you never heard the old saying (attributed to organized crime), “Two in the head and you’re sure they’re dead.”?

I’m not certain, but I believe I may have heard that in an episode of The Sopranos.
Here is a link that seems to say the same thing:

I remember that from the movie “Zombieland”.

16

There are advantages to the bomb. Take the point of view of the assassin. You could walk up to the car while it is unattended, wearing a disguise to hide your face. You’d superglue your fingertips to avoid leaving prints (without it looking obvious like wearing gloves) If the car is parked in a public area (parking lot, garage, whatever), there is nothing illegal or noteworthy about walking around such a place.

If no one is looking your way, duck down and plant the bomb. You don’t want to set off a car alarm, and you don’t have time to use a lift and shop tools to really hide the bomb. So it almost has to be in a place that is visible from underneath, at least if someone were using a mirror to check.

On the other hand, a cleverly made bomb could be encased and covered with grease, such that only an expert would know that it was not part of the car. Wiring it to the ignition would take too long - I think a cell phone remote detonator is a better idea, and it’s not very expensive for the would be bomber to buy a couple disposable phones.

On CSI, they always find the suspect’s bomb lab and match tool marks or some shit. A smart assassin would destroy any tools used to make the bomb after the fact. (and actually destroy them with a blowtorch or something, not just dump them somewhere to be found)

Anyways, it sounds like a bombing could be done in a way that the assassin gets away with it. No direct evidence would be traced back to him. Of course, in real life, what would happen is that he would have committed the crime under orders from someone else (say a crime boss) and a half dozen people would know he did it. Inevitably, the cops would bust one of those folks and they would rat out the assassin.

Compare this to using a gun. Suppressed gunshots are still pretty noisy. The assassin is right there when the crime occurs (instead of long gone hours ago), and so there are tons of opportunities for witnesses to see him or her. Now the assassin has to actually find the target, which means he has to hang around for hours waiting for him or her. When the target shows, it could easily be at a time when there are crowds of people (and potential witnesses) everywhere. For someone important enough to be “worth” assassinating, that person is probably important enough that he or she is never alone.

As for making sure the victim is dead, well, obviously that’s just a matter of explosive power.

17

Car bombs have become almost extinct as a method to kill people in the US (assuming that the OP IS in the US) as the penalties for the assassin are far greater than they might be if they simply used easier methods to do so. Since 9/11, a car bombing would be viewed as an act of terrorism and earn the person who utilized it the death penalty in most states and the federal court system.

Besides, as the IRA and ETA (the former Basque separatist group who detonated bombs in Spain and France) found it to be far easier to plant a bomb in the car next to your as it will have the same effect as planting one in yours. It will also be almost impossible to detect.

Or…they could do as the Sicilian Mafia did and bury a giant bomb in the road along a route that you travel and detonate underneath your vehicle. Or…they could simply do what the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents learned to do and plant a shaped-charge IED (improvised explosive device) somewhere along your route of travel and detonate it when you pass by. The focused blast of the shaped charge will actually kill you by turning your windows and car doors into shrapnel and white hot plasma focused directly at your body.

Nice huh?

Anyway, car bombs require a great deal of skill to use and most killers lack the technical ability. Walk up behind you and stabbing you twice in the lower back with a double-edged knife thus severing your renal arteries will do the job in minutes and allow the killer to simply walk away while you bleed out.

Sweet dreams.:wink:

18

Problem is the availability of explosives and detonators versus a high-powered rifle, which is easily obtained. Explosives are laced with tracers that identify the source and all of the clients that purchased from it. I think ballistics match on a slug is only an issue in identifying multiple victims for a single weapon.

19

Here in Alabama, we blow up lawnmowers. :wink:

20

Not if the bad guys actually followed you around in a van and waited to make sure you were in the car when they blew it up.