That's exactly why I like them. When it doesn't start the casual thief moves on to the next vehicle, they don't waste time trying to figure it out.
If I were to define a casual thief as someone working at the Raising Arizona level, I actually think that a
completely silent starter would make them immediately curious about a kill switch, and in response they
would start rooting around to find/disable it. (ie: They don't have control over the situation, and are
motivated to regain it.)
With Skylark's approach, the vehicle has responded with the engine turning over...but it won't start?
First, they are now making noise cranking the engine over. And the longer this goes on the more curious
the situation becomes.
And second, they may decide that instead of a
desirable vehicle being denied them by a kill switch
(motivational) instead they make the snap judgement that the truck is a non-starting piece of cr@p and
should be abandoned. (ie: They are in control of the situation, and
they decide to bail on a piece of junk.)
Just trying to take full advantage of human nature.
The professional is gonna take it anyway, so there's no point in trying to stop them.
The all or nothing approach ignores the underlying mathematics of living. And to me that attitude
sounds a whole lot like what the Toronto Police recently told their residents:
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(credit:
Watch this video here)
So for me the concept that I give myself the OK to do nothing to prevent loss because there isn't a failsafe solution
just doesn't add up. Maybe the ratio of clowns to pros used to be a 10:1 ratio. So a well thought out kill switch would
be a 90% solution. But given the way things are devolving, the numbers of intelligent pro thiefs with a tow truck may
remain the same, but the number of clowns may increase a large amount? Now, due to the increasing # of thefts,
the kill switch may become a 95-98% solution?
Another perspective on this problem is the question of what kind of environment is the truck being used/parked?
I recently read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal where they were sharing the statistics of car theft
in 2021 on a state by state basis. Here's an excerpt of the report - note the CA numbers:
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...
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(credit: Read WSJ car theft article here:
Jerks on Parade)
Note: The 'theft rate' columns are where they take the number of thefts per number of people living there,
so this helps adjust for population differences. According to the insurance companies, if I lived in a Cali metro
area I am almost 12.5
times as likely to lose the chore truck to theft as I would in metro NH. (A little less bad in Cali
once the rural areas are included -- only ~7.5
times as likely to get stolen vs NH.)
****
For me, the today takeaway is that I'm in the process of moving out of NY.
The chance of moving the chore truck to Toronto & leaving the keys on the front porch? -
0-
The chance of moving the chore truck to Cali w/no kill switch and joining that party already in progress? -
0-
The chance of moving to NH, adding a camouflaged kill switch, and thereby maximizing the odds of keeping
the chore truck safely in my cheap fleet?
100%
Just being cautious. I'm not here to help people help themselves to my vehicle.
