Vehicle Security

[jonnyflash]

First let's do a survey.
I know most of the colleagues I know have had their vehicles burglarized and lost major gear at least once.
Who else had been broken into, how many times, and what did you lose?

Most impotently, what steps did you take to try to prevent re-occurrance?

All participants will recieve a sucker at the end of the class.
Love, Jonny

[Pokie-Poke]

I drive a soft top jeep with no door locks, so I normaly dont leave anything in it. one day we got in late and only had a back pack filled with balloons, we left it in the jeep over night only to find some ass BROKE IN. (did I Mention that i have NO DOOR LOCKS!!!!)
thay started to un zip the back window grabed the bag and yanked the window out. rippp. About 100$ of balloons + a new back pack + 500$ roof (I stiched up the roof for now.)

[jonnyflash]

Wow, Pokie
sounds like glass or no glass, either way it's still expensive.
I'm going to get my welder friend to make brackets to which I can affix those accordioning bars that are in all the store windows these days.With the body of the van completely secured in that way, I'll feel comfortable leaving my crap in it.I think the ignition disabler switch is also a good idea.While we practice so hard at performing, other people are putting the time into auto theft, and after a few years they get pretty top notch I think. I'll be leaving like four grand worth of equipment in there so I'm gonna be stategic.

[Scot Free]

[quote]Originally posted by jonnyflash:
[ I'll be leaving like four grand worth of equipment in there so I'm gonna be stategic.[/QB]<hr></blockquote>

where did you say your van was parked?

[Jim]

The only time my car was ever broken into was in Ottawa in 1998 in a hotel parking garage.

I arrived at the Buskers Fest late one night (after an 8 hour drive from Boston), grabbed my personal bag out of the car and, being quite exhausted, simply walked into the hotel, checked in and crashed. I left my props, sound system, etc. in the back of my car (it was a Honda Civic Hatchback.) You could see into the car if you really looked, but I had everything covered with one large, non-attention grabbing black blanket. Glancing at the car from 10 feet, it appeared to be empty. I'd left my stuff like that for 7 years at various locations all over the country (including downton Boston regularly) without any problems, ever. I figured... "I'm in a hotel parking garage with security everywhere in CANADA... what could possible happen?"

Anyway, I got up the next morning, went to my car and noticed the black blanket wasn't covering anything and everything looked sort of disheveled. My first thought was that I had carelessly left it that way the night before in a sleep-deprived stupor. Then I got to the drivers side door and noticed it was unlocked. And that things weren't "disheveled," they were ransacked. No windows were broken, but all the doors were unlocked. Somehow they picked the lock.

I frantically looked through everything that was left in the car:

Props for show... check.
Long Ranger sound system... check.
Mics for sound system... check.
Car Stereo... check.
Portable CD player... Gone.
Portable Minidisc... Gone.
Edited Show Music on Minidiscs... Gone.
Bag of about 40 CDs... Gone
Bag of about 25 Minidiscs ... Gone
Backpack that held Long Ranger... Gone.

So I didn't lose the valuable stuff and the stupid robber actually removed the Long Ranger from it's carrying bag and LEFT the System behind... apparently to just use the bag for his loot.

I reported the robbery to the hotel and the RCMP (Canadian Cops) and had to go out and do my shows for the first day of the fest. I was in a totally $#!+ty mood and had no show music and I let the entire crowd know I had been robbed. It's such a violated feeling. I did my shows for the day, went back to the hotel and tried to accept my fate and have the best time I could with the remaining days of the fest.

The next morning I got a call from the police. (This is where it gets good...)

They asked me to come down to the station because they think they had a "lead" in my case and wanted to ask me some questions. They wouldn't tell me anything but said I should come down to see them. I had just written the whole thing off as a loss and a lesson learned and was already feeling a bit better the next day, but I decided to go down anyway.

I arrived at the station and a friendly officer asked me if I could tell him again what had been taken out of my car. I said, "Blue backpack, black case of 40 CDs, minidisc player, cd player, red minidisc case with 25 minidiscs, etc..." It was all very detailed. He said, "Come with me, I think we have your stuff."

We went down the hall to a room with shelves and shelves of impounded stuff and what looked like evidence all sealed off behind chainlink fence. The officer walked in and came out with a box of stuff including ALL of my stuff, plus a bunch of other random things like flashlights and jacknives and odds and ends. He said the security guards at the hotel had stopped a guy and arrested him the night before AT the hotel because he was suspicious looking and carrying a big bag of stuff and a screwdriver. (He'd hit 4 other cars, too, but they didn't know it at the time.)

They had the guy in custody and were waiting for someone to come forward to press charges and claim the goods because they totally knew he was a crook. So I filed a complaint, took my stuff and apparently they nailed the guy.

I talked to the officer about how he could have broken into my car without breaking any windows. He asked what kind of car I had and when I said "1991 Honda Civic," he said, "Ha! all you need is a flat head screwdriver and you can be inside in 5 seconds!" He showed me how to do it. He also said something interesting... that Honda only has something like 15 different keys they use for their cars. Meaning, if you tried your Honda Civic key in 15 different Honda Civics, there's a good chance you'd open one of them. And if you somehow obtained all 15 variations of the key, you could open ANY Honda Civic you came across. Apparently my robber used the screw driver method. We could tell by the small scrape off the paint right above the door handle.

So the story had a happy ending. I got everything back and didn't have to replace any broken windows. And it all happened in about 24 hours. Thanks to the crack team of the Ottawa RCMP and the stupidity of my robber.

And I learned my lesson. I now drive a Toyota minivan with an alarm and a location tracking device in case the whole van gets nabbed. And the best advice I can give is to take irreplacable things out of your vehicle whenever it's possible. Don't leave things you can't live without in your vehicle overnight... or even for extended periods in the day. Even if you're in Canada. And remember... out of state/country liscense plates are a target for crooks.

Jim

[em]

rental car in barcelona parked in secure car park.... HA.
nicked : all our costumes (pink ballroom gear, bags of shitty but glitzy ear rings)

after a walk around the car park furious we found the trunk. Everything was in it apart from the earings, HA, and they had substituted a pair of their perfectly good shoes for a pair of dance shoes with suade bottoms. Double HA!

now dont leave our stuff in rental cars.

Leyland terrier truck. parked outside my house, got back late from a gig, too knackered to take all the props out. (twats)
Nicked: one generator and all our sound gear (amps, speakers etc) got insurance money though.

sold the truck.

sometimes there is nowhere to put your gear! actaully i don't mind so much about electrical stuff, but if my costumes go, thats shitty!!

stay safe you lot....
x

[jonnyflash]

My big tankish van may soon be traded, but should I keep it I'll be getting some of these nifty things I saw on a tradeworker's vehicle.
They are essentially bolt-on units that enable you to have a padlock
on the outside of your door. The units are protected from prying and boltcutters due to the thick steel sheild almost completely surrounding the padlock.
2 thumbs up from my corner,

Love, jonny

[jonnyflash]

Also...a tip from a good friend, which he used extensively before he got his big tuff dogs....
Stick an NRA bumper sticker on your vehicle.
I think this would work best for vans where the interior is not so visible.

[grOmmet]

Jonny.....have you got any urls of websites which might supply those lock-covers??
My van will have a fair bit of kit in it over the coming season!

cheers!
grOmmet

[ 02-09-2003: Message edited by: grOmmet the Balloon Wyzzyrd ]</p>

[jonnyflash]

http://www.covert-installations.co.uk/commvehi.html

http://www.vangadgets.co.uk/index.html?security_door_locks_for_commercial_vehicles.htm

http://www.saundersonsecurity.co.uk/doorlocks.shtml

Heres a start,

[ 04-15-2003: Message edited by: Jim ]</p>

[Malvina Cherry]

re

I just installed theft alarm in my car not an ordinary alarm it integrated with artificial Intelligence connected to my home computer. and it provides full security to me.
MSP airport taxi

[dave walbridge]

Had my car stolen once, with the full show in the trunk. Replaced everything and the car
(and show) was recovered in 2 days. Now I have 2 sets of everything.

[Doctor Eric]

Padlocks on the van are the simplest and easiest way to go about it, in the 4 tours our circus did, with a 1978 chevy van outfitted with padlocks, the only times the van ever got broken into were the times it wasn't padlocked. This amounted to two different times, once, when I drove the van down to the french quarter (during the winter, when we weren't on tour), to see a metal show. The guy broke in, ransacked the van, cut the wires on my speakers, then realized nothing in it was worth anything, and left emptyhanded, and another time in Dallas, when Micki (my lady/con-conspirator at the time) and myself were sleeping in it, along with our dog (useless bastard), some crackhead managed to get the driver's side door open, find the circus money stashed away under the front seat and swipe it, but all the equipment was fine.

[Doctor Eric]

And just to further endorse padlocks, during those 4 tours, the van was consistently being parked in some of the worst neighborhoods in America, Detroit, Brooklyn, Baltimore, L.A., etc. It got covered in graffiti every year, but never broken into.