History Automobile Protective & Information Bureau

Anyone ever heard of it or have information about it?

Maybe a year ago I bought a small circular badge (about 3" round made of br*** I believe) for my car that says "THIS CAR PROTECTED 1933-34" by the Automobile Protective & Information Bureau, Chicago.

Neat little item. Also curious if anyone else has one for other year cars.

 

You can read the first page of an article written by the ***istant manager regarding automobile arson at http://www.jstor.org/pss/1138685

The information about him cites his expertise but doesn't describe the organization's purpose.

Perhaps the badge was to be affixed to a car to show that the owner has joined an organization that investigates auto crime. Seeing the badge might cause a potential thief to move on to a different car.

 

I have a decal I got this past year while at a Chicago event.

Protected by the Pinkerton Detective Agency Inc.
for Chicago Motor Club. The forerunner of Triple AAA.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pinkerton/trivia_pinkerton_signs.htm

Yours is the forerunner of the largest automobile theft register formerly the NATB its now the NICB

Auto theft​

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In the summer of 1912, the theft of a single five-p***enger Chalmers automobile from a Chicago street set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the creation of the Automobile Protective and Information Bureau and, ultimately, today’s National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The vehicle was insured by the Boston Insurance Co., and it wanted the automobile back. The task fell to Fred J. Sauter, Boston’s man in Chicago. With no rapid communications or glossy color photo capability in those days, Sauter’s first task was to obtain a woodcut of the auto from the local Chalmers dealer. While that was being prepared, word arrived that two additional Chalmers had been stolen and their insurers also wanted a woodcut from that same Chalmers dealer. Sauter suggested to the others, John Gallagher of Aetna Insurance and Frank Meinel of London and Lancashire Insurance, that it would be more economical and efficient to include their loss data on his "reward card," which would be mailed to surrounding law enforcement agencies.

Shortly after this episode, the three men agreed that communication, cooperation and collaboration were going to be essential elements for insurance investigators and they formed the Automobile Protective and Information Bureau.

http://www.agentandbroker.com/Issues/2010/December-2010/Pages/The-usual-suspects.aspx

 

Very informative....thanks guys, I appreciate it. Can't wait to mount it on my car someday when finished. The good thing...it is in great condition.

 

I'm putting the one I got on in the spring.