Last week, Toronto Police were criticized around the world for suggesting people should leave keys to their cars near the front door of their houses to make it easier for thieves to steal. In reality, the cop was suggesting how to avoid a violent confrontation with a robber. Yet Torontonians started posting silly videos of themselves on social media, leaving cookies and milk plus their car keys out for car thieves.
This week, the local news ran a story about ways to protect against cars theft. Tips like parking vehicles in a locked garage, or installing a retractable steel bollard (parking post) to prevent a car from being backed out the driveway. Nice idea, but expensive. Then, journalist Alex Arsenych’s interviewed a backyard mechanic who suggested a $5 ‘kill switch’ will prevent a car from being stolen, by cutting power to the fuel pump. You know…exactly what Biff had on his 1946 Ford in Back to the Future Part II. Remember the scene?
Old Biff travelled back in time to 1955 to give advice to the younger version of himself. Old Biff relived his youth a little by sitting in young Biff’s car, then young Biff started shouting at the unrecognized old timer sitting in the driver’s seat. Then old Biff activated the hidden kill switch and started the Ford Super De Luxe convertible. Young Biff was shocked, and asks how the old man how he knew how to start the car, since only young Biff knows about the hidden kill switch .
And that’s the $5 solution to Toronto’s car theft problem. A simple 12V automotive switch can be secretly installed on any car. It can be built-in to an unused switch already on the dashboard, or hidden somewhere out of sight, like next to the seat. When switch is off, there is no power to the fuel pump, preventing the engine from running.
The interior lights will still turn on, and the presets on the radio will remain programmed. But even if a thief (or unauthorized teenager in the family) has the key to the car, they still won’t be able to start it. It’ll just crank until the battery dies. The vehicle is totally immobilized.
Well that right there is a PRO PRO TIP.
To help fight car theft, the Ontario Provincial Police (like state police over here) are buying four helicopters at a cost of $36,000,000. The logic is that if the police have helicopters they can follow the criminals on the highway; like calling in air support in a war movie.
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But with a $5 kill switch on a car, none of that is needed.
nothing like a little overkill on the part of the government. wow.
Back in the days of carburetor cars in Brazil, we used a similar switch to cut the 12-volt juice to the ignition coil, an affordable and effective solution to avoid being robbed.
Exactly!
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A simple, affordable solution like a switch cutting power to the ignition coil would do the trick. And you could get creative about where to mount the switch so NOBODY could figure it out.
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I feel sad about modern society’s obsession with convenience through technology. Sure, I like remote start in the winter, but not if it means that hackers can steal my car with such ease. But if you asked most people today they would say that access to high-speed internet should be included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Everyone is so obsessed with technology.
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P.S. I love your tales of motoring in Brazil, bro.
Thanks, Chris.
I will try to keep those tales coming.