Electrifying

[asdadasdd]

Need to stop some thieving bastards, getting tired of replacing tools. Doe anyone know how to electrify the body of an automobile so as to shock the hell out of someone without killing them?

[Steve B]

Google Fi-Shock. Lots of fun for lots of criminals and critters.

Steve

[Eric in North TX]

You would probably be better off if you did kill them, dead folks don't sue, but their families might. Consider those inexpensive game cameras hunters use. They use motion sensors and digital cameras, catch them in the act. To answer your original question, a battery operated fence charger should do the trick.

[Pat]

But make sure you use an old battery so you don't have to wait too long for the battery to die before you can get back into your own car. ;-)

[Beachcomber]

Just a thought... electric sparks, gasoline? Maybe a fence charger would not be a good idea.

Beachcomber

[Thomas Daniel Horne]

I'm hoping that the car is in a locked garage and is therefore immune from the possibility of accidental contact by children or the developmentally disabled. A large animal fence charger installed in the car and some means to attach one terminal to earth ground would work. It will be extremely unpleasant but will cause no permanent harm. I used to have one rigged to the tool chest inside my locked van with the rest of the van as ground. As you might guess such fence chargers are very carefully tested by the manufacturers to be incapable of harming people or the very expensive livestock they are used to contain.

One Foreman I worked for almost two decades ago just clipped a 277 volt line to the gang box every night before closing up the shed. We new he'd got a thief when we found a pair of abandoned dirty underwear in the shed one morning. He's very lucky he didn't end up in prison for manslaughter.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

If you are really worried about that then just buy a listed intrinsically safe model. They have to pass testing to prove that they are non incendive in explosive atmospheres to receive that listing mark. They are of course expensive.

[Big Al]

"

If you really want to give them something to think about, email me. I'll tell you how to wire up a neon sign transformer to make the truck untouchable.

Al

[zero]

And who pays for YOUR legal fees?

Get them the right way. Get your old tools back, let everyone know who they are;

Cheaper and more effective.

-zero

[HeyBub]

Since time immemorial, booby-traps have been outlawed, both under the criminal law and under civil tort claims.

There are many, many people who can legally access or confiscate your property without your knowledge or without your permission. Here's a representative (but nowhere near exhaustive) list:

1. Police with a valid warrant,
2. Firefighter, paramedic, or other governmental employee responding to an emergency,
3. A child with no criminal capability,
4. A civil tresspasser (i.e., a hobo looking for warmth),
5. Game warden or animal control officer tracking an injured/diseased animal,
6. A letter carrier, deliveryman, or others with implicit permission,
7. A repossesor, lienholder, or bondsman,
8. ANYONE under exigent circumstances where life or signifcant property damage is at issue,
9. Any of the above operating under harmless error (e.g., wrong address on warrant).

If you booby-trap your property, you WILL go to jail and you WILL lose ALL your property under a civil claim.

[mm]

You can get, from Harbor Freight tools, iirc, a DVR card for your computer, for only about 30 or 40 dollars, I forget, and a camera too, maybe in a package for 70 or 100 dollars.

The DVR, digital video something, card enables you to record the pictures on your hard drive, if it is big enough, rather than using a dedicated VCR and I think you would need one that is designed to stop when the motion sensor doesn't see any motion.

But you're right, you better not kill anyone, because others may like it or not, but the law in the US does not give someone the right to take a life to protect property (unlike your life or that of others present). The families absolutely would sue, and they'd probably win, plus the prosecutor would probably prosecute criminally and you might well lose there too.

Search on "trap guns" for more information, but it doesn't have to be a gun. This has been the law in the US for 100's of years, probably originating in England, and should not be attributed to the current politicians you like or dislike.

I'm sure those don't kill people or no one (ok, few people) would use them on their practically public fences.

[mm]

Some cars turn on the interior lights when one lifts the door handle. So you can arrange for something to happen before the door is unlocked.