Someone tried to open my fiancee's hood

arcenite

Lifer
Dec 9, 2001
10,660
7
81
My fiancee has a 2010 Ford Fusion. Why would someone want to access her engine bay? Steal parts?

We're moving in 10 days so we won't have to deal with this crap much longer, but anything we can do in the meantime? Anyone have any recommendations for car security cameras?
 

amdhunter

Lifer
May 19, 2003
23,332
249
106
Probably to get the headlights or battery. Around where I live, battery theft is still quite common.
 

SparkyJJO

Lifer
May 16, 2002
13,357
7
81
Attach the battery to an inverter with a remote on/off, and attach the inverter to the chassis of the car. Park the car, lock it, turn on inverter. Anyone touches it and they get a nice jolt :D
 

Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
18,378
1
0
When mazda failed to issue a recall for the PS pump, I was always tempted to "trade" with the other mazda 3's in my area ;)
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Maybe they were trying to steal the catalytic converter? lol
 

The J

Senior member
Aug 30, 2004
755
0
76
Disconnect the battery so that the alarm doesn't sound when the thief breaks into the cabin?
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
Attach the battery to an inverter with a remote on/off, and attach the inverter to the chassis of the car. Park the car, lock it, turn on inverter. Anyone touches it and they get a nice jolt :D
???

The chassis of the car is 1 solidly connected electrical piece. If you hook both terminals to the chassis, that's basically a dead short. Hopefully the inverter will break down before the battery explodes.
 

SparkyJJO

Lifer
May 16, 2002
13,357
7
81
???

The chassis of the car is 1 solidly connected electrical piece. If you hook both terminals to the chassis, that's basically a dead short. Hopefully the inverter will break down before the battery explodes.

Did you really think I was being serious :|
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Disconnect the battery so that the alarm doesn't sound when the thief breaks into the cabin?

are you kidding? even cheap ass $100 alarms have a hood sensor that triggers the alarm if the hood is open.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
Did you really think I was being serious :|
Jokes are only funny when they make sense. There's no such thing as a jerk store.


One thing I've always wanted to do was put iron bars in front of my window then electrically isolate odd bars from the even bars and tie both of them to some power source. The bars would be like this:
+ - + - + - + - + -
Touching an odd bar and an even bar at the same time would knock you on your ass.
To make sure it's effective, it would be jacked up to 480V by running it through a transformer. It would be protected from short circuit current by putting a strong inductor in series with it, similar to how a fluorescent light works. Having an inductor limit it to 0.25 amps would prevent it from starting a fire or tripping the breaker, but at the same time 0.25 amps is more than enough to kill a robber or a dog or that annoying kid that lives next door.

If you can figure out how to make such a system work for a car, my hat goes off to you :biggrin:
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Maybe they were trying to steal the catalytic converter? lol

We got an e-mail sent to everyone at work about six months ago about people stealing catalytic converters from cars sitting in the parking lot :eek:. I was quite glad that I drive a car and not something higher up like a SUV.
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
10
81
Jokes are only funny when they make sense. There's no such thing as a jerk store.


One thing I've always wanted to do was put iron bars in front of my window then electrically isolate odd bars from the even bars and tie both of them to some power source. The bars would be like this:
+ - + - + - + - + -
Touching an odd bar and an even bar at the same time would knock you on your ass.
To make sure it's effective, it would be jacked up to 480V by running it through a transformer. It would be protected from short circuit current by putting a strong inductor in series with it, similar to how a fluorescent light works. Having an inductor limit it to 0.25 amps would prevent it from starting a fire or tripping the breaker, but at the same time 0.25 amps is more than enough to kill a robber or a dog or that annoying kid that lives next door.

If you can figure out how to make such a system work for a car, my hat goes off to you :biggrin:
Booby traps are pretty illegal in most places.
 

hanoverphist

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2006
9,867
23
76
Attach the battery to an inverter with a remote on/off, and attach the inverter to the chassis of the car. Park the car, lock it, turn on inverter. Anyone touches it and they get a nice jolt :D

i did that back when i was in HS. had a problem with a few homeless guys getting into my car. when they touched it and got shocked, the guy passed out halfway in my car. the cops arrested him, and gave me a huge lecture on how illegal it was for me to rig it that way. alert systems are OK, systems that could injure people are not. when i pointed out that the only wayy to be affected by my system was to try to break into my property, they said it didnt matter. it also shorted out some parts of my system i hadnt anticipated, lol.

about 2 months ago i went outside to go to work and my hood was popped on my truck. nothing was missing, but it really made me paranoid for a while. last year some assnuts towed (stole) my cadillac away on a flatbed in broad daylight so im still a bit pissed.
 

hanoverphist

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2006
9,867
23
76
Jokes are only funny when they make sense. There's no such thing as a jerk store.


One thing I've always wanted to do was put iron bars in front of my window then electrically isolate odd bars from the even bars and tie both of them to some power source. The bars would be like this:
+ - + - + - + - + -
Touching an odd bar and an even bar at the same time would knock you on your ass.
To make sure it's effective, it would be jacked up to 480V by running it through a transformer. It would be protected from short circuit current by putting a strong inductor in series with it, similar to how a fluorescent light works. Having an inductor limit it to 0.25 amps would prevent it from starting a fire or tripping the breaker, but at the same time 0.25 amps is more than enough to kill a robber or a dog or that annoying kid that lives next door.

If you can figure out how to make such a system work for a car, my hat goes off to you :biggrin:

just like the old 9V shockers we used to make in HS. an isolated pad under the door handle hooked up to a secondary battery under the hood. i tried to make mine a separate system using the chassis ground, but it didnt work fully. it still worked, but as soon as it tripped it took out a bunch of fuses i hadnt counted on. 15 yr olds engineering skills ftl hehe