security system install instructions

Not quite what you're asking for, but one of my roommates installed a home-made "security" system on his car. He went to Radio Shack and bought a few electronics (a timer and an LED, basically) and made a flashing light to put on the dash. It -looks- (certainly at night) like the car has an alarm. The thinking is that it will be enough to deter a thief or vandal and they'll pass by to the next car instead. A lot cheaper than a real system too :-).

-D

Am I the only one?

...that when I hear a car alarm, look the other way and hope it really-is being stolen? :)

Alvin in AZ

I've never done that. I have heard car alarms go off falsely when someone walks too close in the parking lot at the grocery store. IMO they're mostly just a battery drain.

I stayed in Philadelphia for two weeks, back in the summer of '96. The place I was at was right next ot a T-intersection. A van (full-sized) was usually parked on the corner of the T-intersection, and its alarm would go off every time a car drove around the corner. No one paid any attention to it, as a result. No one would have noticed if it actually was being stolen.

Oh, the other funny story with car alarms was during an airshow at the local airport. An F-14 (or was it an F-18?) was doing low-altitude fly-bys. The air pressure from the shockwave caused various car alarms to go off each at each pass. (I was standing in a nearby parking lot, at a warehouse I worked at that summer)

-D

I had an alarm, warning stickers, flashing LED...but had it disabled one day when I was living at an apartment complex. Next morning - destroyed dash, no stereo, missing items, - but they were kind enought to leave the alarm. Thanks! :(

-Skramblr