My friend had a nice stereo in an older car. When asked why he wasn’t worried about his car being broken into (or even why he often didn’t bother to lock his cars’ doors) he told me about his security system which he swore was more powerful than any car alarm: filth.
Basically, by covering the interior of his car in garbage, and by stubbornly refusing to wash the exterior, his car looked so dirty that prowlers assumed that there was no way that the car contained anything of value.
He’s clearly onto something. I suspect it might even be more than a good rationalization for not cleaning ones car.
My wife and I employ a similar strategy, however last year our car was stolen in Providence, from a parking lot on the other side of town. It turned up a week or so later, two blocks from our house, nicely cleaned up, missing a few parts, but with a collection of salsa on minidisks.
Two times when my brother kept my car in Manhattan, it was broken into through the same window to attempt to steal the radio/CD player. It’s an ’82 volvo and the stereo couldn’t have been more than $120.
I guess that’s same story why noone wants to steal from me. ;-)
For the same concept, try looking here (http://www.shomer-tec.com) for the “brief safe”… =)
This anti-theft solution is even adviced by some motorcycle travel guidebooks.
I’ve used the same strategy with my motorcycle, as can be seen:
http://www.routamc.org/gallery/black-sea-2004/IMG_5590.html
This strategy may vary in effectiveness from neighborhood to neighborhood. This approach has not helped me in the some of the more dank parts of San Francisco’s Mission district where my car has been broken into 4 times, DESPITE meticolously placing half drunk water bottles and empty plastic bags all over my valued protections.
Also an AnL commercial skit voiced and starred in by the late Phil Hartman with a ‘junker’ exterior car with a lexus like interior. It satirized the pinball rolling down the seams of the car ads by having the pinball going over lots of rough terrain and eventually spiralling down some sort of mystery hole in the car.
AnL meaning SNL not argonne national labs or whatever.