I live in Houston too. About 5 years ago a turd snuck up on me in the parking lot of Trailer Wheel and Frame on I-45 north. I was driving my worn pile of a Dodge truck with the windows down. As I pulled into the parking spot, the dude came up to my window and stuck a knife to my neck and wanted my truck. I was freaked out needless to say and caught off guard. But in a flash, I pulled my pistol and put it to his forehead and got the edge on him. Another customer saw it and people came out of the store and tackled the nut job. We held him until the cops got there and all ended well. I still can't believe I was able to do that without getting stuck in the neck. I had a pretty good case of the shakes during and afterwards. Little did the attempted truck thief know, but I had been out shooting an 1850's Colt .44 Dragoon percussion revolver earlier that day and that it was still loaded in the front seat with me. I'm fortunate that I didn't have to actually have to fire that misfiring son of a bitch pistol. I keep a more reliable piece with me at all times now. Last year a good friend of mine had a guy try to car jack him and his girlfriend at a red light near Downtown Houston. She was driving and the guy opened the door and started pulling her out. My buddy was sitting in the passenger seat and put a bullet in that guy's head. He doesn't have a license to carry and the cops didn't seem to care. I've learned to drive with my doors locked and my windows never to far down.
Just a question here. I sure don't want anyone stealing our roadster. We live in a small town not a big urban area but it still it happens... Other than open car jacking while you are behind the wheel, how are most vehicles stolen?? 1. How many thiefs get the vehicle started and drive it off?? or.. 2. How many thiefs grab the vehicle and drag it off?? It is usually easy to rig the car so it can't be started. But if some clown hooks up and drags it away under cover of darkness ....
when parking in a sketchy area I just pull the rotor from the straight 8, put it in my pocket and off I go. granted most people don't know how to start a stock buick these days. Posted from Jalopyjournal.com App for Android
Hell, Toad was gonna steal back Steve's car with a foot long piece of wire. It's easy on old cars. Plus, you can get a remote starter at the auto parts store for $14.99
Sometimes you have to choose. I'm 67 I get more use from my hot rod than from my dick. Once in the Mother Lode country I stopped to help a lady that I thought was having car trouble. When I started to get out of my car two guys came at me one one each side of my car. I got back in and was able to close and lock the driver door as one of them was climbing in the passenger door. I too had been out shooting my old Colt 45. It was on the seat. I grabbed it and hit the guy in the face as hard as I could. He got out. I cocked it and pointed it his partner's belly and drove off. A week or so later I was cleaning the car and found two teeth on the floor by the passenger seat. I have no doubt that they would have killed me and stolen my Morris Minor Woody. You can not always react as you wish you could but you can always have the shit you need to make your efforts meaningful. The sad thing is that I grew up in a house in Texas that didn't even have locks on the doors.
There's plenty of things you can also do to the car itself to make it almost impossible to start, hidden switches for necessary components like the starter solenoid, power wire to the coil, power wire to the voltage regulator if you have one. just run the wire inside the car, through a switch, and mount the switch somewhere nobody will ever find it. If a thief gets into the car and it wont start right away, chances are they aren't gonna sit there cranking it over pumping the gas for a half hour drawing attention to themselves. if the car is in your driveway you would hear them trying to start it, and a thief would never spend an hour with a test light trying to figure out why the car doesn't have spark. On my 55 chevy pickup I'm gonna shave the door handles and put a starter style push button for the popper solenoid right by back of the door in plain sight... the catch is, I'm gonna put 5 toggle switches where the door handle used to be, set up in sequence like a code, like up up down up down... and the popper button will be hooked up to the horn so if somebody thinks they're gonna figure out the code, EVERY TIME they push the button the horn will honk. I had to put in new side windows so I used lexan which is very hard to break. So I think I'll be pretty safe with the door code, lexan, and 3 or more vital engine functions turned off with hidden switches.
I do live in montana though, so not much threat of stoplight car jacking, just punk kids tryin to joyride
The Jalopy Journal
