Fighting back against car thiefs

Sounds like a great idea. Are even the cheap cell phones capable of GPS tracking, or do you have to get a certain phone?

 

Brilliant idea, very clever and low cost!

 

You will need a phone that is GPS capable. You will need to activate another phone on your plan, $10-$20, and then buy a tracking service which sprint charges $5 a month for.

I'm liking this idea.....................

 

i think the phone idea is a good one, but why be soo cheap on a pretty expensive investment? i mean im all for saving money, but when my car is done and on the road, you bet your ass im going to spend on making sure i could, or at least have a fighting chance on getting it back! but that is just me.

 

Please clarify. The $10 a month is the cost of the GPS application subscription? Since you said you don't use any of the 100 minutes the 'emergency' plan comes with, then I assume that the GPS communication is via a data plan. I would imagine that you are using a lot of data if that phone is continually broadcasting its location to whatever is at the other end of that GPS connection (I guess that is your PC or laptop). Or, is the phone off line and only broadcasts location when you dial it.

I am just trying to figure out how the cost for the monthly plan (100 voice minutes) plus the subscription to the GPS application plus whatever data is transferred equates to $10 a month. Seems like it would be more.

This is a really good idea. Trying to understand the particulars to be able to replicate at that cost.

BTW this provides a good use for older cell phones.

 

Brian Fuller mentioned this on 2guys.. A type of 'only pay for what you use' plan. I don't know if that type of plan exist. Maybe use one of those pay as you go type phones. Being that you won't be using any minutes, seems like an option!?

 

As it was explained to me by the sprint salesperson, different plans in different markets. The "emergency" plan I got two years ago may not be available in So-cal, or Pig-poke Nebraska... On the flip side of that, there may be a $5 plan available in Chicago... [???]

Digital cell phones constantly communicate with cell towers, and if the phone can see three towers, a simple program can tri-angulate it's location down to a few yards. It's not true GPS technology that communicates with sattelites in outer space, sort of like a "GPS-lite".

It's my understanding [not confirmed] that all cell phones sold today have this capacity, so I'm guessing [again, not confirming] that this trick could be used on the el-cheapo pay as you go phones at wally-world. If that's the case, you can buy a tracfone for as low as $14.98, and get a 1 year service card for $99

 

6 volt power converter mounted under the dash,some run on as low as 3 volts and put out 14 + volts.they are available in pos ground or neg ground also...just an idea

 

Why do you even have to hardwire it? If you have two phones you could just put in the car (in a number of places) and switch them out every week or so.
Either way it's a good idea........

 

Sounds like a great idea but what about crooks with tracker device sensors ?Just did a quick google and found them readily available.

 

cool...lock 'em up...d32

 

No system is absolutely fool proof. As for thiefs with tracking sensors, I'm guessing they use the sensors to find which vehicles they should avoid stealing in the first place. They could spend over an hour finding where the tracker is hidden... Too much exposure as the cops could be on scene in 15 minutes

 

Big Dog and 9MM and a throw down

 

and thats just enough deterrent to keep them off some of the cars..and if they aint pro's a great way to nab them before they do become pro's or have the tools to sniff out the tracked vehicles

I dig this idea, and plan on using it

 

In New York City the car thieves use jammers to shunt the cell/lojack/onstar signal until they find all power sources to disable them. I have lost cell signal when next to one of these chaser type tow trucks with recovery company markings on them and wondered if they are doing a legal repo or something else.

 

I have sprint service as well. Our plan allows us to add several phones at $10 per month each and share calling minutes. Last year I tried out the "Family Finder" option, which costs me $5 per month more for up to 4 phones. It does not use the data plan at all. I have only used the sprint system online to track my phones, but basically you go to their website and "ping" the phone, at which time it returns a location. You should not get charged any more than the $15 per month to do this and no other fees should apply.

As said the biggest drawback I found was service related, when I needed the service the most, it could only be accurate to a mile radius and that is a heck of a lot of territory to cover at night, especially when it can be in a garage. This loss of "reception" was about 30 miles west of Minneapolis.

 

I talked with some of the vendors at SEMA that were selling tracking devices. They all told me that when you install the device, it needs to have a window in the sight plane in order to be fully effective. I know that sometimes my Garmen or cell phone can't get a signal if I am in a covered parking or underground garage. This sounds like a good idea but it isn't 100%. I like a hidden fuel switch that causes the engine to die after a couple of minutes. But even that won't work if somebody is towing the car.

 

I personally have done this in a few cars at work. I used it in a motorcycle trailer as well.

It works very well but if the battery is dead for any long period of time you need to reset things and if it is buried then you tend to let it go. His idea behind a speaker is right on. If it installed covertly your kinda screwed.

Now we use a company called Brickhouse Security for GPS location stuff. They do the kid locater commercials on TV. The device goes to sleep if it doesnt travel x feet in y time to conserve juice. The can go soley on a lithium battery pack for about ten days depending on frequency of movement and are nearly maint free when hard wired. I have used the high dollar gear ($1600-$2000) that is out there and find Brickhouse ($400) to be just as reliable and really stress free beyond installation.

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/small-real-time-gps-tracking.html

 

AND....it does not need to see the sky like some others. Sorry, left that out.

 

If your phone supports the Google Mobile App, you can turn on a location-sharing capability that shows your location on Google Maps for free. However, it will be sending data. So I guess one question is whether your carrier offers a low-priced data plan. Now if you could share bandwidth with another phone on your account, you might be all set, but I doubt if any carrier offers that.

 

Just to clarify, GPS itself does not use your data plan. I have no data plan and my GPS works just fine. GPS is a service provided by the US government and is free to everyone, all you need is a receiver. So if its built into your phone it should work fine, I had to download a program for it to work on my phone. The program that came with my phone required the data plan, presumably so the company can charge me money.

 

sounds cheaper than theft insurance us young cats are all into that stuff thats like setting points for you "experienced" gentlemen bwahahahahahhahaha i cant even afford theft on my daily lmao

 

Yeah! Most of those crackheads ain't too bright! Mine is a manual trans car...

 

Unfortunately, some thieves use a rollback as well.

I think anything you can do is better than nothing at all. If someone really wants your car, they will find a way around anything.

Small things will stop casual thieves nicely and there are more casual thieves than guys filling orders.

Shawn

 

GPS is free and is just a signal received from the satellites. But, the phone will need to send out a cell phone data signal in order for you to log on to the internet and track it. That is why some type of phone plan is required.

 

If they want it that bad they'd be better off with the hearse.

 

What program did you download? There's one on my phone but it's the same deal, requires a subscription + data plan.

 

GPS is just a one way signal from the satellites to your phone. In order to find where your phone is, you will need cell service to talk to it and get information from it. That requires some sort of cell phone plan. No freebies on that.

If your phone is capable of GPS, it is built in. No way to just download software and make it happen. That is a hardware thing.

Yes, GPS can work independent of a cell plan, but kind of hard to communicate with the phone without some plan. And if the plan doesn't support GPS capabilities, it won't do you much good. But, if it is just a voice plan, you can always call the thieves and listen in to see if they will give some hints where it is. Or just ask them to please return your car if nothing else. Maybe apologize for not being able to take care of the bedbug infestation before they got it.

 

Just one more good reason to live in Wyoming. If anyone steals your car, it'll be parked at the liquor store at the end of the street. Come get it, the keys are always in the ignition.

 

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