It's every car owner's nightmare: coming out to get your car and find it gone. No amount of consolation from the police will placate the intense emotions of rage and vulnerability caused by having your car stolen. The settlement from an insurance company, never enough to replace your lost wheels, will help you get on the road again but you will still feel anger that such a thing could happen to you.

How thieves work.
The old law states that if a professional thief wants your car badly enough, he'll get it. And, if your car is desirable enough, a thief will go to just about any measure to rip it off. However, there are some things you can do to minimize, or prevent entirely, your car becoming a statistic on the police "hot sheet," or list of stolen vehicles.

To steal your car, a thief has to have both opportunity and sufficient time. By opportunity, we mean the car has to be in a location that makes it easy for him to avoid instant observation and yet be able to move the car. If your car is pinned in so that it can't be moved without moving a couple of other cars, a thief isn't going to have as much chance of getting it, is he?

As for time, it doesn't take much. A good car thief can get into the average car and be rolling in under a minute--less if he's willing to do some damage to the car. That's why the best way to prevent having your car stolen is to increase the time it will take the thief to get your car under way. Police say that if you can make a thief spend more than six minutes trying to steal your car, he will abandon it and go for something easier. There are many little things you can do that add up to a lot of time a thief would have to spend to take your car.

Take your keys.
The easiest thing to do, and one that is overlooked 30 percent of the time, is to lock your car and take your keys. As hard as it may be to believe, almost one out of every three cars is stolen because the thief saw the keys sitting in the ignition and just took off. (These types of theft are called joyrides and virtually all the vehicles involved are recovered with little or no damage.) It can happen in an instant in places where you couldn't imagine it happening. So, even if you're in a gas station and just walking ten feet to pay for your gas, take your keys!

Next, don't leave a spare key attached to the outside of the car. The crooks know all the neat hiding places. If you fear being stranded without your keys, carry a spare in your wallet or purse.

Anti-theft devices.
A huge aftermarket industry has sprung up with the sole purpose of helping you keep your car. Products range from the simple to the complex, from cheap to prices that could pay for a small car by themselves, and from highly effective to totally useless--and price is not a good barometer of worth. Some elaborate antitheft systems installed on expensive cars can be overcome by simply loading the car on a flatbed towtruck and hauling it away where they can be defeated at leisure. Remember what we said earlier, if a thief wants your car badly enough...

If you are unsure about what steps you want or should take, there are many shops that specialize in theft prevention systems. A quick look in your area yellow pages can show some near you. Remember, though, most of these systems do not come cheaply.

Still, there are some reasonably priced gadgets that will
work to stop 95% of the thieves. One, two, or even several of these installed on your car will cause a thief to spend a lot of time trying to get it, and will likely cause him to give up the attempt.

There are two basic concepts to theft prevention devices. There are ones designed to get attention and ones that deactivate parts of the car:

• The attention getting devices are systems such as alarms, sirens, light flashers, and even tape recordings shouting for help. Some of these will page you, using a beeper-like gadget. The advantage to these devices is that they will go off even if someone is trying to get just part of your car, such as tires or your stereo. They will attract attention, and that may be enough to prevent the theft, but usually they may not stop a person bold enough to put up with the noise from going ahead and stealing the car. Besides, many passers-by are used to seeing alarm systems go off by mistake, and therefore ignore them.
• The alternative is to install devices that will interfere or deactivate important parts of your car. The most visible of these to a car thief is a brake pedal to steering wheel clamp, called the J-Bar. By locking the brake pedal and the steering wheel in a fixed place, the car can't be driven even if the thief gets in and hotwires the ignition. The problem with these is that the thief can simply cut through the steering wheel on either side of the bar, slip it off and throw it away. Still, this would take time and could discourage some thieves from bothering with your car.
• The Club is very much like the J-Bar, except that it prevents the steering wheel from being turned and maneuvered. Simply place it and lock it and many times a thief will overlook your car.
  
  

One of the best ways to keep your car from being taken is to cut off the electrical current. An electric "kill" switch (some even have key locks) can be installed relatively cheaply in a hard to find spot. Unless the thief knows what has been done and where the switch is, it could take five minutes or more to locate and bypass the switch--time the thief likely won't want to take.

Another time killer is a fuel cutoff valve. This can be installed in your fuel line anywhere from the fuel tank to the engine. While the thief may get your car started, he'll run out of fuel within a block or two. When he can't restart the car quickly, he'll likely abandon it before someone comes over and offers assistance. While your car may not be where you left it, it should be nearby and intact--instead of cut up for parts.

Summary.
Any car can be stolen by a determined thief. If your car is rare enough, such as a big-ticket sports car or megabuck luxury car, probably nothing will deter the professional thief who really wants to get it. But, if your car is less rare, where a thief is likely to find a similar one down the road, the steps you take to make his job harder can convince him to move on and take the other one. Again, the secret to successful deterrence is to steal the thief's time. Speed is his only ally and, if you take it away from him, he'll likely give up on your car and go after another.