According to You: How to protect your classic from being stolen
Your answers to our question about ways to prevent the theft of classic vehicles went above and beyond; they not only taught others interesting tricks but kept us all grounded. That’s because car thieves are likely to never tire, and if at first they don’t succeed, they shall try again. However, the harder you make it, the less likely they are to remain motivated. Or, as Hagerty Community member @David said:
You know, despite our best efforts, if some nefarious person(s) want what you have, they’re probably going to figure out how to get it. Kill switches and other such devices are fine, but the determined thief will just roll up with a tow truck and drive off if they have zeroed in on your car.
I mainly want to deter the opportunistic thieves out there. So, I keep my cars locked when not in use and in public and I make sure my insurance is active and the value up-to-date.
How do we lower the chances of a vehicular tragedy? Let’s learn more from your answers.
Losing that spark
@Jeepcj5: On one of my vehicles I have a hidden switch that kills the spark. This kill switch allows the starter to still turn, it just won’t fire up. Hopefully [thieves] get discouraged quick enough when it just sits there and spins over, or they draw enough attention to walk away before they troubleshoot the wiring.
@brian: I put a two-prong turn-signal flasher in line with [the] ignition-circuit motor. It starts, it will rev up, but when put in drive [it] won’t pull itself!
@vette guy: How about running a wire from the hot side of the coil to a switch, then to a loud horn? There are many ways to alert you; just use your imagination!
@Walter: A friend of mine had a 1968 Dodge Super Bee. He wired the high beam switch (which was on the floor) as the ignition cutoff switch and mounted a switch under the dash to activate the high beams.
I myself had a 1969 Roadrunner that someone tried to steal three times. First time they pushed in the small vent window, then cranked down the window and opened the door. They removed the bezel around the ignition switch but tried to remove the switch by pulling it forward, when all they had to do was push it and it would have fallen out the back. I then installed an alarm, so the second time the alarm went off and they were gone. The third time they knew there was an alarm, so they pushed in the vent window again, rolled down the window, and climbed through. What they didn’t know is that there were two ignition-cutoff switches under the dash. Unsuccessful again.
@Malcolm: Battery disconnects work well.
Own a “difficult” vehicle
@Jeff: I use the standard features my 1954 Austin-Healey came with as standard features: no exterior door handles, a battery disconnect switch, a starter button, and a manual transmission.
@Michael: 1938 Chevrolet—first level is a manual transmission and a floor-mounted starter—would probably slow down some of the bad guys. A battery disconnect (with the battery under the floorboard) may slow down the next level [of thief].
@Headturner: My van has the best deterrent straight from the factory: a three-on-the-tree will keep them occupied. My ’57 Chevy is a four-speed but I leave the key in it while it is in the garage. If they steal it, I’d rather not have them cut up a 65-year-old harness to hot-wire it.
A bypass switch is like “fuels” gold?
@Mike: I have a kill switch hidden in plain sight: An unused blower switch on the dashboard, rewired to the electric fuel-pump hot line.
@Mike, but not the same one as above: I’ve pulled the fuel pump fuse before. I’ve even cable-locked around a coil spring before. Anything to make a thief have to spend more time.
Steering-wheel locks
@Jeff: Nothing is more satisfying than a cross-country trip in a classic car. Yes, I use a steering wheel club and always turn the wheels all the way to one side so it can’t be towed. I guess the best suggestion is to stay in a nice hotel in a nice suburb and park under a street lamp as close to the front door of the hotel as possible. If there is a security camera on the building I park under that as well. But I still worry about the car. I’m looking forward to reading other’s replies.
@Jim: I think thieves will usually get a car if they want it bad enough, but the idea is to make it inconvenient for them. That’s the reason I use steering wheel clubs, especially when an overnight parking place looks iffy. They’re cheap and only take seconds to put on the wheel.
@Bernd: I use a club since the airbag in the steering wheel of my daily driver was stolen twice. (Now it’s a quite an old model, thieves get them at the scrap yard.)
@Blu: A club can be defeated with big bolt cutters: [You] cut the steering wheel beside the club and take it off. A hidden battery disconnect works well.
Tracking devices
@greg: I have a Viper alarm on one, and Carlock on my other two. All have instant phone app notifications (including my ’31 Model A). I sleep well at night, even if staying in a hotel on the road; and no, I have no stake in either company.
@Arrow: Just put mine away for Christmas, but I’m going to put an Apple AirTag in my classic when it’s out of the garage.
Balloons
@DUB6: We once went on a road trip with friends. Two classics in a motel parking lot in unknown (for crime) areas was a bit scary. We bought two balloons that had blinking mini-lights inside them (it was nearing Halloween). Deflated the balloons and placed the tiny, blinking lights down in the speedometer wells. In the dark, it looked like both cars had activated security systems. A thorough thief shoulda/coulda/woulda figured it out, but at least we all slept easier!
Bunka’s Bunker?
@Bunka: I keep my Porsche 356 in the garage. It is a one-car garage. The car outside in the driveway abutting the street is my daily driver. A thief first has to get it out of the way. It is always locked. Then there is my wife’s car which also needs to be removed; it is also locked. Then there is the garage door: No handle on the outside so you need to know the code in order to open it. Then the trash cans and soon-to-be snowblower have to be removed from in front of the 356, which is in the back.
All of the work and time involved to steal the car is bound to draw someone’s attention. I feel very confident that the car is secure. On the flip side, I have to plan an extra 30 minutes in advance when I want to go to a car show or rally. As far as security is concerned when the car is out, I have the factory-installed shift lock and the factory-installed interior gas shut off. The various positions of the gas shut off are all written in German so that makes it a time-consuming, trial-and-error thing.
Do it all?
@DrivingHy: Everything said here is true. There’s no defense for a determined thief. Given enough time any car can be stolen. That said, I do agree many devices and clubs are better than none and will slow [thieves] down or divert them elsewhere, but it’s best to be proactive. I’ll do the club just for something obvious but also remove something essential that prevents a thief from getting away quickly.
I’ve known people who’ve removed all the lug nuts from one wheel. It’s rarely noticed and can stop a thief fairly quick when a wheel comes off. I suppose it’s better to have a damaged and abandoned car than one that’s stolen.
In my case, I’ll pull the distributor cap and wires. Park in an “ender” preferably next to a fixed barrier like a wall and turn the wheels in a direction that makes backing out straight impossible. Naturally I always set the handbrake so if they try to tow the car it’s way harder to go unnoticed and pull it out straight and onto a flatbed.
Naturally an AirTag (or similar) couldn’t hurt. And take lots of car pics after parking it—just in case the police need to ID it …
If I go [a] long distance and am not comfortable with the area, I’ll sleep in my car before leaving it out of sight!
Keep it a secret
@DUB6: Well frankly, I’m not inclined to publicize any details, but suffice [it] to say that through various electronic and mechanical means, I feel pretty—well, fairly—confident. I will say that one should not rely on one tactic only, but combine two or more so you have backup. And then, tell/show no one—NO ONE—what your secrets are. If you are not a “wrencher” or DIYer, you may indeed have to pay someone to install some sort of system(s), so please be sure you know your installer well.
@TooFast4Me: You make a very good point which a lot of people miss. Know your installer! About 30 years ago there was a place that installed car stereos, alarms, and auto-start systems. They would install and collected everyone’s info, wait awhile, then start stealing back—car stereos, at first. Then entire cars, since they knew the alarm-system codes by having a spare remote made. The business did not do the thefts themselves but sold the info to others. It was only when some very high-value vehicles went missing that they caught the culprits and they admitted they bought the info from the business. That business in particular had not only a great reputation but [had] in business for over 35 years. Needless to say, the business is gone.
If you can’t install it yourself then ask other owners of high-value vehicles to recommend someone. GPS/cell trackers work well but [they are] ongoing expenses. But again, [as] a lot of good points stated in these replies: keep your insurance up to date, know your environment, and a gut feeling is usually right!
@don: Yup, the club is great, but then add a hidden kill switch (that stops most people) and I keep the vehicle in a locked garage with my daily driver in front of it. My “collector” cars are not extremely high value so I think I don’t need much else, so just keep your secrets, secret.
@Sajeev Mehta: I keep a few secrets for this reason too, because some of my vehicles have hidden theft deterrents and automotive journalists are easily googleable by anyone. I love my silly Fords too much to have it any other way. (Even if they are mostly value-less to most any thief.)
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It wouldn’t be a great idea to depend solely on an AirTag for tracking/deterrence because if a thief has an iphone or an android phone with the Tracker Detect app, it will detect an AirTag that doesn’t belong to the thief. If the thief is in a hurry and/or is inexperienced, knowing there is an AirTag would be a deterrent, but another thief may find the AirTag and toss it. If it’s a high-value vehicle, and the AirTag is in a place in the vehicle that would require substantial time to remove, they could conceivably return with a Faraday tent or an enclosed truck whose cargo area is a Faraday cage. But combined with other measures, an AirTag would definitely add to the deterrence.
On one of my cars, a 1965 sedan, I moved the battery to the lockable trunk and installed a Battery Brain disconnect switch that comes with a key fob. Click to power off, click to power on, simple. On my AH Sprite with no door handles, I have an electric fuel pump cut-off switch under the dash and a second battery power cutoff elsewhere in the compartment.
Some of the comments on here are funny. I work at a Police impound lot. You know how many comments I’ve heard from owners of stolen cars like: “we live in a good neighborhood” or “how’d they steal it, it’s got this, that, the other on it”?
If somebody really wants it, they’ll take it. Unless it’s watched or guarded by you 24/7. Even then you could be working on it and somebody posses as a salesman or whatever and they pull a gun on you, heard about that first hand from a guy that it happened to. What you doing then? I’ve literally seen it all. From garages being raided when people are home, sleep, or on vacation, even moving multiple cars to get at what they want which is buried in the back, to multiple classic cars stolen from hotels during Back to the 50’s or stolen form garage repair shops with flatbed tow trucks or wreckers. Seen plenty of Honda’s come in that were completely stripped of the engine/trans/interior but the thieves left the club sitting there either attached or detached from the steering wheel, almost like a joke. Obviously doing something to deter people is better than doing nothing but don’t act like whatever setup you have is Fort Knox or something.
Kill switch under hood is the key hidden …………..Thieves dont have time to look for a hiiden switch …………coil wire as backup ,keep in garage out of view
…………..Keep up to date insurance and should be no problem…..
My favorite is a 10 gauge shotgun shell in the steering column, behind the horn center, pointed toward the headliner. Wired to detonate at ignition spark, thief is unable to complete theft of automobile. (If only…)
After reading all the comical responses (stick shift, box o’ snakes, electrify the door handles, etc.), I thought I’d go ahead and add my own. As I got well into my “golden years”, I actually found that an “old man’s bladder” was a theft deterrent. One night, I felt the urge, and as I returned to bed, glanced out the window overlooking the parking driveway. Seeing a flashlight moving around in my wife’s car and a sedan waiting nearby, I quickly added things up and got four. Dashing down the stairs, hollering for wifey to call 911, I pulled on a pair of shorts, grabbed some keys, and out the door I flew, only to see the sedan peeling out down the hill. I jumped in the Jeep and pursued (only then wishing I’d snagged a weapon). We had a neat high-speed chase, and luckily I had a flip phone with me. Calling the cops, I managed to give enough info to them that they set up an intercept about 10 miles from my place. When I pulled up, they were cuffing the guys already. An officer came back, flashed his light at my “nearly-naked-wearing-only-a-pair-of-shorts” self, he grinningly said, “I’m gonna assume you don’t have any I.D. on ya, right?” The guys had all kinds of burgled items in their vehicle, and had some pretty wild stories to tell (“We’re Repo Men, Officer, and we were trying to repo that guy’s Jeep” – but of course, finding one guy’s prints all over the wife’s Saturn kind watered that claim down).
Upon arriving home, I discovered that the elastic-waisted shorts I’d pulled on were backwards. I’d make a terrible fireman…
As an insurer of classic cars, why doesn’t Haggerty compile a How-To guide with links to suppliers, rather than these anecdotes.
While it’s entertaining, it’s not that helpful.
Do you want advertisements masquerading as articles? because what you are proposing is how you get advertising pretending to be content and when that takes over a website no one wins.
Also, a “how to thief-proof your classic” article is also a step-by-step guide for thieves too. Do you think only the good guys have internet access? If people were good, your suggestion would be neat, but sadly reality says it wouldn’t work well.
Yep. Better off leaving this one as entertaining content as per our vision for the “According to You” series.
I just read a story where a car in Ontario was tracked to Dubai because it had a couple of Air Tags hidden in it.
My starter kill trick is using the cigarette lighter to allow the starter to crank. You must push in the lighter to complete the starter circuit.
A simple but effective method would be to put a switch on the dash that goes from your ignition circuit to ground, then turn the switch on when you park the car. If someone tries to steal it, the ignition fuse will blow. Then even if they flip the switch after, it won’t make any difference, because there won’t be any power to the ignition. The same thing would work on your fuel pump circuit. Just keep a few spare fuses handy in case you forget to turn the switch off before turning the key on.
A simple alarm could be made by connecting your horn wire from the steering column to the dome light switch on a GM car, through a switch of course, maybe an exterior key switch. Then the horn would come on steady when any door was opened.
I had a 1965 Mustang with a bad neutral safety switch. When the car was in park you had to push the shifter forward to get the car to start. Was just too lazy to ever change the switch out.
Battery disconnect. Put vehicle on jack stands during storage.