Australia has implemented a tiny solution to reduce its big car-theft problem: plastering thousands of plastic microdots on late-model vehicles.
As small as grains of sand, up to 10,000 DataDots are laser-etched with vehicle identification numbers and spray-glued on the engine and most other parts, making it very difficult to “re-birth” cars or sell cannibalized parts. The dots glow under a black light for easy spotting and can be read with a 30-power magnifying glass.
Each microdot has room for 50 characters, and the glues can be modified for application on all sorts of household and business items.
Luxury carmakers BMW and Holden Special Vehicles report a 60 percent reduction in thefts. Subaru has experienced a 95 percent drop in vehicles stolen by professional car thieves after putting DataDots on all its new vehicles, said Ray Carroll, executive director of Australia’s National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council.
On my last 3 cars in the US I had a system named ‘LOJACK’ installed. It consisted of a hidden satelite transmitter being installed on the vehicle and an assigned code. If the vehicle was stolen - 'Jacked"- it could be located via satellite with in 30 seconds. Thankfully none of mine were ever jacked. But in southern California where I lived 3 of my neighbors who had this system retreived their vehicles within 2 hours of being stolen. All were heading towards the Mexican border. Happy endingd in all 3 cases.
I personaly know of two examples where someone in Taiwan got there car stolen and they recieved a phone call telling them to transfer some money into an account and then they will be told where the car is. In one case they recognized who it was…their neighbor a police man. And in the other case they knew everytime the person phoned the police and phoned back shortly after each call to increase the threats…so most likely the theif either was a cop himself or had a buddy on the police force. Gotta love Taiwan!