THEFT PREVENTION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3271, 13 November 1928, Page 2

THEFT PREVENTION

A SERIOUS PROBLEM.

{ Quite a serious problem for motorists to decide is which is the best and most convenient way of ensuring the safety of their cars, from theft when left unattended. The number of thiefproof car locks which have been produced within the last ten years, tried, | abandoned and forgotten, must be very large. Some have been distinctly in- j genious and some anything but infal- j lible. There are locks which prevent the gear lever being shifted, or the I side brake being released, or the steering wheel being moved; locks which cut off the ignition, others which cut off the petrol, and at least oAe which does both. Some or all of these may be perfectly successful for a certain time, but the car thief who really knows his business is able to invent dodges quite as ingenious. for circumventing them. It is really very difficult to sec how a car can be safeguarded from theft without rendering it immovable, and that would probably not be regarded with favour "by civic authorities; nor, incidentally, would it be regarded .with any more favour by the average owner. There is always a certain risk of fire, whether the car be left in the street or.in a public garage, or in a parking place, and if you arrange things so that your wheels won't turn round, your car will not be stolen, but it may be reduced to ashes. One of the most popular forms of thief proof device is the steering lock, and at first glance this seems as good as any. As a matter of fact, it can bo nearly as deadly a trap as chaining one of the spokes of a wheel to the frame. A car that can be rolled only in a straight line certainly cannot b<j stolen (provided, of course, the thieves I are not of the order of the expert! American thief, who brings a lorry to the job and carts the car bodily away); but its chances in a conflagration are very small, unless it has a straight, clear space in front or behind it. The theft of one's car is perhaps one of the most unpleasant things that can happen to the owner. Apart from the worry of wondering what is happening to it while search is being made, there is the depressing knowledge that no insurance company is going to afford any substantial comfort so long as there is the slightest possibility that the car is anywhere in i existence. If your car is at large '' somewhere there is nothing for it 'but patience and hope—and these do not wear very well in such circumstances. Fortunately, cars do not remain long in the hands of the thief in New Zealand. There is no organisation for the disguising of stolen cars, and the annual licensing system would confound the thief with awkward questions. The requirements of-transfer of ownership practically prevent any stolen car from finding a market.