Why are car alarms so easy to bypass?

[StageLeft]

Friend of mine had his stereo stolen last night and I know they had a good car alarm for it, but it definitely never went off. They said the door handle was ripped off and dashboard ruined a bit minus stereo. I've heard of skilled theives getting around car alarms with various electrical tricks, but can the average scummy mindless theif get by one as easily?

 

[iamwiz82]

they are easy to break. A friend of mine is a police officer, and showed me. Most of them have the alarm horn at or near the front bumper. It onl takes a second of feeling aorund to find it. Cut the wires, and the horn wont sound when the alarm is tripped.

 

[bigbootydaddy]

mines deep behind the engine, someone call stretch armstrong.

 

[iamwiz82]

i guess i should say cheap ones are right by the bumper =].

 

[StageLeft]

my gf was on phone with his gf and I heard the lines "cut the wires" so maybe thats what happened...well, I thought it was a good alarm

 

[iamwiz82]

Skoorb, just bury the horn deep in the engine well. By the firewall, preferrably.

 

[StageLeft]

Isn't there a trick with busting a taillight and doing some funky thing, it shorts the battery (?) then the alarm won't go also ?

 

[iamwiz82]

if you screw around with wires, yeah, you can short it out by touching the ground and the live wire. That would be kinda dangerous, though.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Beh, they just don't know how to design alarms correctly. They should have a nicad battery backup and a well placed loudspeaker, not just use what's there. Although shorting out a tail light should blow the fuse and not kill the alarm (unless the installer wasn't too bright).

 

[Antisocial Virge]

I had a cheap ass one I installed myself and with the battery backup I think it would be next to impossible to get around.

 

[StageLeft]

Are they really easy to setup? I would feel competant enough to run a wire from the battery to something but thats about it.