Since the recent "relocation" of my stereo system I have been thinking on how I can avoid this kind of thing in the future. Beyond a good aftermarket alarm one of my friends gave me this idea.

What I would like to do is to hide a tiny b/w camera somewhere in the car. This camera would be hooked up to a laptop hidden somewhere in the car. How I hope it would work is that whenever the "picture" changes it would take a snapshot and record it to disk.

I looked around in the car and found 2 decent places to hide it. One would be to replace one of the rear tweeter openings with the camera, the other would be to mount it on the back side of the third marker brake light.

So what does everyone think?


"Steal from me once, shame on you - steal from twice, shame on me"

Brake light. Should give you the best view of the entire interior of the car, depending upon the "width" of the lens.

you could get one like right next to the rear view mirror...or comin outta the vent in the middle ...we'll figure somethin out gordy...

With my dash currently out I looked thru the front end. There wasn't a spot I could hide it without obsturcting something, makeing it to obvious, or lay wiring to. I think from the rear looking forward is my best bet. It will give me the best angle at everything too.

but if it ever happens again you might not get a face view...to catch the SOB

It sounds like too much money/time to me to do it again. Hide a laptop in the car? Somethign else to steal, you'd also have to worry about it'* power, your battery, securing the laptop, etc. I think any decent security system, a faceplate you removed, and a deck that requires a card or something (blaupunkt comes to mind) will help more. Get one of those security systems from crutchfield with the pager if something happens. But i think there are other options for video recording compared to a whole laptop, which you don't want to mess with. But then you'd have an MP3 server too....

Well, as for the laptop, I have approx 5 sitting at home right now. They are mostly old ones worth very little. So the cost of the laptop would be $0.

A decent camera would only cost aroud $50 for one small enough to hide in the car. The only piece I have yet to work out all the details is the video capture device for the laptop.

If I feel amitious I have ways of makeing the pics broadcasted thru a wireless link to either a handheld pc that I have or to my home lan.

Considering what I have already I might try it just for fun. :P

Just get the loudest alarm that goes off when somthing lightly touches the car... You can get windows that set off alarms when they brake... hide another battery in the trunk... usually just putting a "protected by..." sticker on your car will warn off predators... and put a flashing LED on your dash... buy a big dog ... I think if you did all of that you would be hours ahead of trying to place a camra in it.

-oh and if your parking in a 'rough' place turn down your music a few blocks from where you park..

Yes hook up a chain on a track that goes around the bottom of the car for a ver big german sheppard. And then a trailer for him when his job is done... Wireless link on a PDA... I've had a PDA with built in WiFi, and it wasn't enough for video really, and yes the outgoing connection was just fine. Maybe you could make it motion sensitive?

id almost say go for the video..cuz it would be fun to help put in...but you could store a MASSAVE amount of songs on it...and the pic thing would be sweet...and it would be easy as hell to hide it...and w/ the 200 amp alt you have you could almost add a 2nd battery to keep it goin for a while...

jason...quit lookin at crutchfield...lol

gordy...many places out there w/ pager alarms with window and door shock sensors that could go off...custom build one...would be a fun project...and have a very very very loud alarm on it...and have a buzzer or somethin if you get outta your car and leave the sunroof open...haha..we'll think of somethin good