Re-iterating the security warning

I bought an empeg through TTony a couple of months ago, and have been happily using it at home until I finally got around to installing it into my car this weekend. Returning to my car from work yesterday afternoon I find the locks are jammed and the passenger window smashed in. Now, of course, I had taken the empeg out of car so it wasn't stolen, but I am amazed that just one day after I've installed a pull-out stereo in my car that its gets broken into on the same road where it's been parked without a problem for over a year! I think I shall heed Tony's advice and get a blanking plate pretty soon!

Ross

Yeah. My solution is the drinks holder :-) When I installed my empeg, I deliberately installed it in the top DIN slot, right underneath the drinks holder. When I take the Empeg out, I pop out the drinks holder which neatly covers the gaping hole, and you have to look pretty close to see what's behind it. When I'm feeling particularly paranoid, I stick a couple of empty cans in there for good measure...

Whew, glad your empeg wasn't in the car!

But yeah, re-iterating the warning is a good thing: The hole in your dash is not necessarily a break-in deterrent. They smash the windows anyway, hoping the stereo is under the seat or in the glove box. Same thing with removable faceplate stereos.

Always take your empegs with you, people!

good news travels fast.

Yeah, my next project is creating one of those fake stock stereo face plates from an old Honda tape deck I have... That's got to be one of the best hacks I've seen recently. I take the empeg with me most of the time (i've got a backup, so it's a calculated risk..) but even when I do I'm still leaving $500+ worth of amps and subs in the trunk that I'd like to keep around. Not to mention replacing the smashed windows and locks... I'm now working on how to secure my sub box in the trunk while still being able to change a tire.

One piece of advice is to never play your stereo loudly for at least a block around where you park, and never think of touching the amps/speakers in any remotely public place. Also, never buy used equipment without a box, recipt or manual.

Matthew

My CD receiver sits behind the cup holders close to the floor. The tray has a cover that pops up when I want to put my drink down. So when I get out of the car, I remove the empeg and put in the faceplate I purchased to hide its sled. Then, I remove the CD player's faceplate, pop up the cupholder cover, and toss an empty can into the holder. All nice & neat and nothing to see, no matter how hard you look.

I've had my empeg installed for nearly a year now and have recently been the victim of an attempted theft. I never normally use the passenger door (hey, I am driver after all!) but recently when I came to open the door to put some stuff in I noticed that someone had tried to punch the lock in but had failed.
I have to say it must really take a sad individual to break in a car on the off-chance there may be a stereo hidden under the seat. Given that most pull out stereos will be ancient by now and not even worth enough to pay their drug dealer. That is assuming they weren't trying to steal the car. In which case, good luck, it's got no real clutch left to speak of and very worn out diff bearings. So the concept of Joy Riding will be totally lost on them!

I usually take my empeg with me and fill the gaping hole with a bunch of wires trying to make it look like someone already stole my stereo. Photo: http://empeg.comms.net/files/124006-antitheft.jpg

Matt: Good advice on keeping it quiet in the neighborhood. I made the dumb mistake of pulling up next to a riced out somethingstupid in a WalMart parking lot, blasting techno at 0db (from my station wagon). Only when I got out of the car did I realize that the ricer was IN the car. Knowing that he'd do anything to gank my ovbiously-cooler-than-his stereo, I promptly took the empeg out and carried it into the WalMart. Haha, walked into that friggin WalMart in paint stained pants and a ripped shirt, bought two bottles of antifreeze, and walked out, displaying my empeg proudly the entire time.

But seriously, I risk my neck all the time by leaving my empeg in the glove compartment. Thank god my Pelican 1400 will be here Friday! That and I STILL can't find a stock Volvo radio that is dead and selling for under $150 so I can hack the face off and make the fake plate. Too bad my stock radio is double din.

Anyone else know of any lame, stock double din radios that I could potentially find dead and broken (or at least under $50)? Thanks. I need that hack pronto and it isn't worth $150 to buy a working unit... well, maybe it is......

I am really excited about my new car as a home for the Empeg - especially the secuirty of it. I just found a very cool locking compartment in my car behind the seat that fits the Empeg perfectly. It was months before I noticed it, so its very unlikely that a hoodlum in the dark would find it. I only use this when it is impractical to bring the Empeg with me of course.

The TT also has a flip down cover that hides the empty sled, which should help maintain the factory look. The rest is factory speakers and bose amps - good luck getting those out.

They could steal the whole car, but it would be much more trouble than a car with a traditional key.

Unless that locking compartment behind the seat is a serious strongbox, I still wouldn't leave the empeg in there. It's probably some POS plastic thing that an infant could pry open with a spork.

Trust me, thieves bust open interior compartments in cars. They just do.

Thanks for the warning Tony....I am still very happy with the car and the options it provides me.

Thank goodness BMW makes good trunks. There's no way to get into the trunk without a car key.

I didn't realize hauling the Empeg around would be such a PITA. I just put it in the trunk of my M, lock it and hope that the thieves realize there's no interior relase on the trunk lid.

A blanking plate may not solve all your problems. Several years ago my dad was in New York.

@ the time sterio theft was so bad people were "opting out" of having ANY sterio in the car. They'd put little stickers in the window's that said, "No sterio in car". I assume to save the thieves the trouble of smashing a window for nothing....

He was @ the airport when he passed by a car with one of these stickers. The window was smashed in, on the drivers seat was a hand written note that said "Just Checking."

On my M3, you could access the trunk from the back seats, which folded down...

hope that the thieves realize there's no interior relase on the trunk lid

I fear that your hope might be misplaced.

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It's probably some POS plastic thing that an infant could pry open with a spork.

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phptt! Maybe it was just the timing but that made me blow Dr. Pepper out my nose....

Thank goodness BMW makes good trunks. There's no way to get into the trunk without a car key.

I absolutely guarantee that I could get into your BMW's trunk without a key, in not much more time than it takes you to get into the trunk with a key.

If I were a thief, I wouldn't care how much damage I did to your car, and a good hammer and a drift to knock out the lock cylinder would take maybe a couple of seconds... if that failed, then a good crowbar would bend the decklid enough to pop it open like right now.

The damage would cost you about $1500 to repair -- but I doubt the thief would lose much sleep over that.

tanstaafl.

The damage would cost you about $1500 to repair -- but I doubt the thief would lose much sleep over that.

WHAT!?!? And here I thought they were trying to minimize the damage to my car!!!!

I see what you're saying. I park in high traffic areas. When I don't I take my empeg with me (@ night for example). I also use a car cover in places I'll be for more than ~30 min. The more things a thief has to do to get in the car, the less likely...... my best guess anyway.

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I usually take my empeg with me and fill the gaping hole with a bunch of wires trying to make it look like someone already stole my stereo. Photo: http://empeg.comms.net/files/124006-antitheft.jpg

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I like this idea, but I wouldn.t recommend the RCA cables, it only suggests that you've got amplifiers installed.
And a thief might think there would be something else of value in the car?
A simple audio setup in a car wouldn't have amps, just plain speaker wires hanging out of the sled.
That would give me a safer idea of leaving my car behind.
In fact, I'll consider fixing an equal wire-set for my car tomorrow (without the amp cables)

I think you were already smiling before you saw the word "spork," and that just pushed you over the edge into laughter.

Maybe it was just the timing but that made me blow Dr. Pepper out my nose....

Aw, thanks, it's so cool to find someone who has a similar sense of humor.

One clergyman with Dr. Pepper on his screen: Check. Mission accomplished.

I like this idea, but I wouldn.t recommend the RCA cables, it only suggests that you've got amplifiers installed.

My problem with the dangling-wires bit isn't the type of wires, it's just that it looks fugly.

Still think the best one is cutting up the factory radio fascia. That was the business.

my personal favorite anti-theft detterent is to keep my car very messy. When I leave the empeg in the car I be sure to stuff a bunch of trash around it. I doubt a thief will break into a dirty car with obviously no stereo if there is a nice pretty one with a stereo somewhere close to be found. Obviously this isn't foolproof. but let's face it it's all a calculated risk.. someone could break into your house and steal your empeg just as easily as your car. Or worse yet you could end up in a situation or "your-empeg-or-your-life" if you carry it around everywhere. Everyone's going to have to except their empeg is mortal just like us...

Well, if you want some inspiration on that fake face plate, here is a pic of mine. I had to do some cutting in my Saab dash to make it all fit, but since it sits retreated, I can put the old stock (code required) radio face on top.



I cut off all the buttons and used the hot-melt glue (so they'd be flexible) to glue them in place. Needless to say, the old radio is toast.

now THAT rocks.

When I leave the empeg in the car I be sure to stuff a bunch of trash around it. I doubt a thief will break into a dirty car with obviously no stereo

I think most crooks are equal opportunity thieves. I sincerely doubt that trash is a deterrent.

someone could break into your house and steal your empeg just as easily as your car. Or worse yet you could end up in a situation or "your-empeg-or-your-life" if you carry it around everywhere.

I guess it depends on where you live and travel. In all of the places I'm likely to park, a car theft is orders of magnitude more likely than a burglary or a mugging.

Having had my car stereo stolen twice already, I know what it feels like to come out to your car and see the aftermath. It's bad enough to see that the car was broken into, but I'd feel extra stupid if I'd left the empeg in the car thinking "no one's going to take it because I left trash around it" rather than having taken it with me.

All of the fine "stealth" techniques discussed in this thread are really only useful in terms of reducing the chances of a broken window. I personally don't risk the empeg, and apply stealth techniques solely for the purpose of saving myself the repair bill.

I cut off all the buttons and used the hot-melt glue (so they'd be flexible) to glue them in place. Needless to say, the old radio is toast.

Fine stealth job!

One thing though... I hope you used the high-temperature version of the hot melt glue. When I did the stealth mount of my radar detector, I originally used hot melt glue, not realizing that the car interior rises above the melt-point when parked outside on a hot summer day.

After all the glue melted away, I re-did the work with RTV silicone....

I frequent a bunch of the other car audio sites out there and one of the threads was just like this. One suggestion was to get a piezo siren capable of 140+db and use that as your alarm siren. A thief can't steal your empeg if his hands are on his ears.

Until it accidentally goes off with your family in the car.

Sorry, no thanks, taking the empeg with me still wins.

I'm not sure about that glue melting temperature, but that would be rotten if it melted from the sun. I haven't had a problem yet, though. Even with this stealth job, I still always take the empeg with me when I can. This is just for those few cases when I can't. Nobody seems to want the Saab stock stereo - especially since they have that code activation requirement.

talk about pissing your neighbors off at 4am when it accidentally goes off....

Sun?? What's that?

...you could end up in a situation of "your-empeg-or-your-life"...

Oh, God -- what a terrible decision to have to make!

tanstaafl.

Well, it's hard to use your empeg when you're dead, and even harder to prevent someone removing it from your corpse, so your advantage lies elsewhere.

Holy crap bbowman, that's more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Damn it, if I could just find a dead Double-Din unit that I wouldn't feel bad about hacking apart.

But really, how did you get that flush-fitting face to cover the empeg knob? And is that an alpine deck with the trademark obnixously protruding face? That's my situation. I'm working on the face that will cover the double-din with the alpine face off and the empeg out.

On a side note, I'm looking forward to thuggin' it when my Pelican 1400 comes. Imagine how tough I'd look walking around everywhere with a tough grey case in my hand. Yeah, everywhere. Now I just need to find some time to get a double-din radio for my face hack. Maybe I can finish third...

Well, the Double-Din face came from my old unit. I decided to take the don't look back approach and hack it to pieces. I had lots of fun dremmeling it like crazy. Fortunately, the lip that the units hang on it retreated in the Saab dash. I had to do some cutting too, since the Saab radio cavern was actually Double-Din minus 1/4 inch. I have more detaled pics on my site here:
http://brentscape.com/cgi-bin/fotoparty/fp.cgi?Dir=empeg

Imagine how tough I'd look walking around everywhere with a tough grey case in my hand.

You could go a step further... handcuff the case to your wrist like some secret-agent courier or something. Then you'd really look tough!

tanstaafl.

I honestly considered that. But as close as I'll get is this:

I go to the gym after work. Well, since my empeg will be in my tough Pelican 1400 (which came today and I'm so pissed that it's grey. black would have been so much better), I have to take it to the gym with me. I was seriously considering taking a security cable from work and chaining my empeg TO the inside of the locker when I went to work out. But not only TO the inside of the locker, but through the holes in the walls of the neighboring three lockers (to the left, diagonally left below, and below) and then putting locks on THOSE other three lockers. Yeah, someone would have a hell of a time getting my empeg then.

Or, I could just leave the case at work (a block from the gym) and get it when I'm done. But that requires extra effort. Ah, feel the pain I must go through for my empeg!