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Protect Your Car

8 Unorthodox Ways to Protect Your Parked Car

by Sandy Lindsey

Ever worry about leaving your poor car all alone on the street? Even the best security systems can be bypassed by the clever crook. Here are a few suggestions that might seem a bit unusual, but will help alleviate your "latch key" car guilt.

1. Circle your car with yellow "Crime Scene—Do Not Cross" tape and trace the chalk outline of a fallen body on the hood.

2. Don't organize your car interior post-weekend. Criminals will mistake the mess for a vehicle that already has been ransacked.

3. Leave a key and detailed directions to a bigger and better-equipped car that's nearby.

4. Create a mannequin of a thief, such as you would a more traditional Halloween scarecrow. Place it inside the vehicle to scare off any subsequent criminals.

5. Surround your car with visible trip wires, which when tripped activate a tape recording of a bomb ticking.

6. Stencil "Property of the (fill in local town) County Sheriff's Department" prominently on the doors, or casually leave a worn sheriff's shirt hanging over the back of the driver's seat.

7. Scatter fake bloodstains on and around the vehicle.

8. Post any or all of the following signs on your dashboard: Condemned, Seized Property of the DEA, Hazardous Waste Inside, Warning: Asbestos Present.