Thanks for the input. I guess I forgot my days in the property and casualty insurance world. Gated communities with guard get broken into, even with people at home. I'm deleting that original message and link.

 

Sometimes, theft prevention devices aren't meant to be fool proof. Theft in itself inevitable. But the trick is to slow them down. No wheel locks means yours are gone in 60 seconds. Whereas any set of wheel locks could take up to a few minutes to remove. And that's where you're looking to be. In that danger zone where you'll have the thief thinking "this is taking too long, lets jet" or better yet "they've got locks, it'll take too long, lets move on."

 

"Locks keep honest people honest". There are very few security features that can deter a determined thief.

 

Having worked at Discount Tire and Honda dealership while in college, wheel locks are just a deterrent. They will not completely stop a thief. The point is to slow down a thief or make it a bit harder for them, so that they will move onto an easier target. Those tools were made for honest people. They would be used sometimes if a customer came in and lost their wheel lock key, but needed to get the wheel off car (flat tire). We would use similar tools, and remove locks then install just regular lug nuts back on after we were done. When I worked at Discount Tire, I could have all 4 wheels removed off car in less than 1 minute. Thats all a thief needs to make a quick target. If he has to use these specialty tools, it will take him way longer than that. Usually you have to hammer those lock nut removers onto the lock itself, and it makes a lot of excessive noise. Which is the last thing a thief wants to do if they are trying to be sneaky.

 

No theft prevention measure is unbeatable. If it can be made, it can be unmade. What these are designed to do is slow down or stop thefts of opportunity which are the most common. Nothing will stop a professional thief who wants your property and that is why we have insurance.

 

I've had wheel lock tools for 30 years, its old news.

The best thing to do is not draw attention to them.

In other words, delete this thread.

 

I can take off your locking lugs in a few minutes with a simple socket. They are useless even without that tool.

One of my cars had locks (McGaurd locks). The key got lost. Cheap socket just barely too small, one whack of a hammer to set the socket, loosen lugs and repeat.

Parking garage where I used to live got hit buy thieves one night. Big Chevy pickup next to me had splined lugs (even more worthless than the smooth ones with inset key area) on all of his. His car was sitting on blocks, the socket used to remove them (same method I used above) were each used to throw through other car windows to break the glass so they could break into those cars.

So, you dont need a special tool to remove them, especially if you dont care about how they look after, which thieves dont since they can just replace the lug nuts.

No car alarm or anything else will stop a determined thief. They have flatbeds these days ... they will just drive off with your car alarm wailing. Tracking devices help if they cant find them in time. Just like your houselocks. You can learn to pick one in seconds with barely any training. Most theft prevention holds off the opportunity thieves, who just steal something they see and happen to have a tool (like a lug wrench) to get to. But folks out looking to steal things already have what they need.

Best bet is to be careful where you park and when. That is not foolproof but probably helps more than wheel locks do .

 

Theft prevention is never foolproof, leading some to take a defeatist attitude, and insist theft prevention and strategies are worthless.

As mentioned in this thread by several, most thefts are opportunistic.

Something like wheel locks will prevent most wheel thefts of opportunity, which is most wheel thefts. So they are definitely worth it, even if there are ways to bypass them.

 

IMHO - wheel locks and keys are a PIA. They do little or nothing to protect against theft and they are annoying as heck.

 

100% agreed. I value my time more than whatever peace of mind wheel locks offer. Considering the car sees a substantial amount of track time, it would be beyond annoying to constantly play around with wheel locks when removing/re-torquing wheels. My 2 cents...