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I was in Austin the other night at a friends graduation get together (about 7 people, not really a party) standing on his 3rd floor apartment balcony when I noticed some suspicious characters. 5 thuglets walked up to a car diagonally across the street from the apartment and promptly managed to set off the alarm. Then they scattered like a bunch of illegals after a car wreck. It was pretty funny, except that I wasn't carrying because I was drinking. The area was crawling with LEOs for the next 30 minutes or so, but I never saw the guys again.

Ironically, my friend had just told me how safe it was there and how nothing ever happens and he sees no reason for him to get a CHL.

Also, having 5 guys trying to break into my car isn't the first thing I would think of if I went to go check on my car alarm.

A car alarm went off and the owner showed up? Now that's news.

I've had car alarms go off all night nearby, and no one who could do anything about the situation seemed to care.

- Jim

It really doesn't seem to deter car thieves any more, the car alarms. We have gotten so used to hearing them going off it's like someone sneezing. We say, "God bless you or gah-soon-hight and go along our merry way. The alarm makers need to come up with something different in way of sounds - like maybe a shot gun going off a few times; that sound might make people start looking around and probably ducking for cover. Course that would only work a couple times then that would become common place as well. I would like to have an alarm system that actually spoke if someone were trying to jimmy my door, trunk, hatchback, etc. "STEP AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE!" Then, the sound of a shotgun racking.

seamusTX wrote:A car alarm went off and the owner showed up? Now that's news.

I've had car alarms go off all night nearby, and no one who could do anything about the situation seemed to care.

- Jim

I used to live in a 3rd or 4th floor appartment about two blocks off Redondo Beach, on a street that led straight to the beach. Every decent weekend loads of people parked on all these streets and walked to the beach. One Saturday some clown with a proximity alarm parked his car right under my apartment and left for the day. Everytime one of the dozens of other beach goers walked by, the alarm would go off. I called the Redondo Beach Police and of course they took some info and didn't do squat. By the end of the day I was ready to drop a flowerpot thru the guy's windshield to give his alarm something to squawk about.

An LRAD (Long Range Acoustical Device) is the loud, directable
sound weapon that is used on large ships to scare away pirates.
It's made in San Diego, CA.

They should make a SRAD (Short Range Acoustical Device)to be
mounted in vehicles. It would make such a piercing roar that the
thief would not be able to stay in the vehicle to complete his theft.

You heard it first here.

SIA

By the end of the day I was ready to drop a flowerpot thru the guy's windshield to give his alarm something to squawk about.

If you shove a large, raw potato up the tailpipe of a car, it will start, and then the engine will die a few seconds later. If the driver is not savvy to this prank, he'll end up paying for a tow and giving some mechanics a belly laugh.

I would never do this, of course. This is purely a theoretical discussion.

- Jim

Fangs wrote:I was in Austin the other night at a friends graduation get together (about 7 people, not really a party) standing on his 3rd floor apartment balcony when I noticed some suspicious characters. 5 thuglets walked up to a car diagonally across the street from the apartment and promptly managed to set off the alarm. Then they scattered like a bunch of illegals after a car wreck. It was pretty funny, except that I wasn't carrying because I was drinking. The area was crawling with LEOs for the next 30 minutes or so, but I never saw the guys again.

Ironically, my friend had just told me how safe it was there and how nothing ever happens and he sees no reason for him to get a CHL.

Also, having 5 guys trying to break into my car isn't the first thing I would think of if I went to go check on my car alarm.

Did you think about going and putting the Kung-Fu thing on a couple or three of 'em while waiting on the LEO's or the siren master?

One of these thuglets could have been the spawn of the evil one who had previously put out his cigarette on your cell phone in a honky-tonk in San Marcos. You should have eliminated that bad boy when you had the chance.

seamusTX wrote:..If you shove a large, raw potato up the tailpipe of a car, it will start, and then the engine will die a few seconds later. If the driver is not savvy to this prank, he'll end up paying for a tow and giving some mechanics a belly laugh...

- Jim

That would've been too subtle for me...

I think an alarm system should page or SMS the owner, so they can deal with the problem.

ELB wrote:I used to live in a 3rd or 4th floor appartment about two blocks off Redondo Beach, on a street that led straight to the beach. Every decent weekend loads of people parked on all these streets and walked to the beach. One Saturday some clown with a proximity alarm parked his car right under my apartment and left for the day. Everytime one of the dozens of other beach goers walked by, the alarm would go off. I called the Redondo Beach Police and of course they took some info and didn't do squat. By the end of the day I was ready to drop a flowerpot thru the guy's windshield to give his alarm something to squawk about.

One of the few things Dallas ever got right was their noise ordinance; after a few obvious false alarms with no owner present to ticket/arrest (I forget what the exact criteria are, but a second offense within a certain amount of time after the ticket will get you the ride) they just tow the car.

I had an upstairs neighbor who was a pretty good golfer, and could hit a car at 50 yards every time. When he got tired, he'd call in the noise complaint.

Best alarm would be an amplified .mp3 file that loops saying

"the alarm feature on this vehicle has been activated. This vehicle is wired up with cell phone connectivity and outgoing calls have been placed to local police department, and to the owner of the vehicle who is heavily armed and worked hard to buy this stuff. Please remain where you are and both parties will be here soon to take care of you. Repeating...."

Fangs wrote:... Ironically, my friend had just told me how safe it was there and how nothing ever happens and he sees no reason for him to get a CHL. ...

Heh, that's my old stomping grounds, around the corner on Manchaca Street. I moved there in 1994 and stayed about 8 years. Then I moved out by the lake.

IMHO, it was starting to get a little ghetto back when I left 8 years ago. There's no way I'd stay very long in that area now without having my CCW.

Before I moved away, my car was almost stolen from the parking lot of my apartment. I came home from work one evening, and noticed that someone had broken the small rear window. Well, I went in to call the cops, and when I came back out, I caught them red-handed, sitting in my car, with the radio and wipers going, just about ready to start it!!!

Apparently, I interrupted them right after breaking the window. They must have hidden behind another car as I initially surveyed the window, then resumed their thievery as I called the cops. I didn't have my CHL then. If I had, I'm pretty sure at least one of them would've been hurtin'. As I came up and surprised them, the 'driver' had to charge right toward me, screwdriver in hand, as he was blocked in by a fence. Wouldn't have been a pretty outcome. As it was, I just backpedaled a bit, then got into a foot chase to witness his getaway car and report to police. (The cops DID catch them later that night!!)

So, no... I don't make trips to that area without being sure I'm carrying nowadays.

I used to live on a fairly new subdivision in East ft Worth, of John T White East of 820.
We had a 2-story house and liked to sleep upstairs with the windows open, weather permitting.
Normally it was real quiet at night. But one night the wife woke me up with "I heard something outside".
We peered out the window and saw, 3 houses down (small lots) and across the street, two men crouched beside the drivers door of a neighbor's truck, parked at the curb. As we watched, we heard glass break as they forced the vent window.
I'm in my white bathrobe, walk downstairs and out onto the front porch while wife dials 911. It looked like they were on schedule to be gone before the cops arrived, so I Gave them a quick whistle to let them know I was watching.
Their heads swiveled toward me, and they began a quick half-run up the street TOWARD me! Their car was parked right across the street.
The apparent leader looked at me the whole way, then both got in their car and left.
Police showed up 5 minutes later. The neighbor came down the next day and thanked me profusely.

I don't know what i'd have done if they had come onto my property.
But that day, I started keeping a loaded shotgun by the bed.

Oldgringo wrote:

Fangs wrote:I was in Austin the other night at a friends graduation get together (about 7 people, not really a party) standing on his 3rd floor apartment balcony when I noticed some suspicious characters. 5 thuglets walked up to a car diagonally across the street from the apartment and promptly managed to set off the alarm. Then they scattered like a bunch of illegals after a car wreck. It was pretty funny, except that I wasn't carrying because I was drinking. The area was crawling with LEOs for the next 30 minutes or so, but I never saw the guys again.

Ironically, my friend had just told me how safe it was there and how nothing ever happens and he sees no reason for him to get a CHL.

Also, having 5 guys trying to break into my car isn't the first thing I would think of if I went to go check on my car alarm.

Did you think about going and putting the Kung-Fu thing on a couple or three of 'em while waiting on the LEO's or the siren master?

One of these thuglets could have been the spawn of the evil one who had previously put out his cigarette on your cell phone in a honky-tonk in San Marcos. You should have eliminated that bad boy when you had the chance.

Nah, wasn't him. I ran into that guy a while back, put the Kung-Fu on him and took his phone that I'm typing this on right now. Figured turn about is fair play.