So recently some punk has been going around checking for unlocked cars. I have put alarms in my cars before but always found they false alarm so much it just turns into a hassle. I wanted something that would alarm only when the door handle was pulled, not just when the door is opened. I also wanted the thief to have no idea the alarm was going off. I want to catch this guy myself, he won't steal anything larger than what fits in his pocket so I am sure he is alone. With three males in the house the idea is to inflict some causalities while "subduing him"

This idea came to mind and it seems to work flawlessly. The whole project took about a half hour. The only thing you need is a little wire, some 3m double stick tape, and a wireless driveway motion sensor like this: http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFMQ8wIwAA

I took the sending unit apart so all I had was the board, the wires to the LED can be cut, it is not needed. Then I lengthened the antenna wire by about 3 ft, I also lengthened the battery wires for the 9V battery by about 3ft as well. Next I placed double stick tape all across the back of the board. The unit is now ready to be installed. Take off the door panel, instructions can be found on this site. After the door panel is off and some of the plastic is peeled back you should be able to see the internal mechanism for the door handle. If you pull the door handle you will notice a large cast aluminum piece that moves whenever the handle is pulled. Fortunately, there is just enough room behind this to mount the board, it fits like a glove. It is surprisingly easy to place it back there even for someone with larger hands. Try to position the motion sensor right in front of the moving piece. I also added a small piece of metal to the moving piece so that it would move directly in front of the motion sensor ( I added this after I took the picture). Run the wires behind the window channel inside the door so the window will not hit them. The antenna wire will have more distance if it is not behind metal. The door panel fits into a groove along the base of the window, I ran my wire inside this groove. I then ran the battery wire down and had it run out from behind the door liner by the glasses compartment in the door so I could place the battery there and so the wires will not be visible. Once everything is in place put the door panel back on and your ready to go. I tested this with my car at the end of the driveway. I can place the receiving unit which is powered by three C batteries anywhere in my house and the alarm goes off whenever the door handle is pulled fortunately it is very loud, you can't miss it if your in the house. But the thief will have no idea and will not suspect a thing since he didn't even get into the car.

If you want a cheap alternative to an alarm this is great, it is very fast (you did something very wrong if it takes you an hour), its is incredibly easy too. I will update if I am able to catch this thief. The picture below is the board right after i installed it.

 

Nice idea. Hope you catch him. If its too loud and you think it'll scare him away, put some tape on the siren. more layers will obviously silence it more.

 

I think that's a great idea. Hope you catch him and it would be a shame for him to resist and end up with broken bones lol.

 

Awesome innovating there. Let us know how it goes!

 

The siren isn't too loud, its loud enough you can't miss it in the house but i placed it in the closest room to the driveway and you couldn't hear it from outside.

Also I didn't mention this in the original post but while i was at it lengthening wires I also took apart the receiving unit and lengthened it's antenna wire, to get the maximum range possible.

 

Joel,

Great idea and work! But don't get yourself in trouble! Depending where you live you may be better off just taking a picture of the guy and talking to him (calling the police?) instead of touching him. It wouldn't be as satisfying but probably better for you legally. Should he suffer some vision loss for touching your door handle he might end up owning more than your car. I think if you were inside the car things could be very different. And remember he knows where you live!

 

I agree with you, the law is screwed up in that sense, but Im w/ Joel, I'd let him have a military beatdown.

 

Thanks for the words of wisdom, fortunately where i live cops are pretty cool about this kind of thing. Last year my good friend who is a 275lb college football player and NFL prospect caught a guy a mile from my house and didn't really do anything to him. When obviously he could have beat the guy to a pulp. When the cops came they asked him if he got any good punches in on the guy. Even though he did get a few he said no, there reply was "thats too bad you should have really laid it into this guy." These guys know that if they aren't carrying a gun and get caught all they can really get charged with is petty theft, they'll probably go to jail for a week or two get back out and be right back at it. Also the plan is not to confront him at our house. I am almost sure he is on foot since he takes small items, so I plan on following him till he is a few houses down. Even if he does see us following and tries to run, as a Boston marathon qualifier I am pretty sure I can catch him on foot. I doubt this guy is in good shape at all. The problem with my neighborhood is it has the most expensive houses in the city, yet only two or three miles away is one of the worst areas in town. Almost all these guys are drug addicts who walk here in the night. I caught a guy ten years ago, it was clear by his size he was choosing drugs over food.

 

10 years ago you were only 12.... lol

 

thats true haha, i guess it was 8 years ago then cause i was 14 at the time, me and my bro caught him. It wasn't really a matter of much catching involved either we just happened to see him walk out of my neighbors back door. So we stopped him. That goes to show you how bad that guy was if two 14 year olds could take him.