Auto theft discourager

[sailor2000]

Long, long ago (1990s) there were ads in shotgun news for tear gas dispensers that could be electrically activated to encourage anyone breaking into your car and tripping your car alarm or breaking into your house and tripping your house alarm to vacate the car or house. I such a thing still possible to acquire?
I have had my car stolen from my work parking lot and also another from my driveway and am getting pretty tired of it.

[chamberc]

Booby traps are illegal.

[Cheapsk8]

[chamberc]

Awesome, but it was a hoax... all the "thieves" were his friends.

[apostate]

Booby traps are illegal.

Sec. 9.44 of the Texas Penal Code says otherwise.

Before somebody empties their barn to build a straw man, I'm not saying they're a good idea.

[flechero]

Booby traps are illegal.

Would it matter if it were not a real boobytrap, but a remote activated "fart" dispenser?

[OldCurlyWolf]

only traps that actually trap or cause physical harm are illegal in Texas.

Pepper spray/Tear Gas are classified as "Irritants".

[sailor2000]

That’s what I want... an irritant that will make the bad guy decide it is better to bail out than stay....

[Skooter]

I’d be worried about the residual irritants left in my vehicle afterwards. Invest in a solid car alarm not one of those cheap ones….

[RoyGBiv]

I prefer Trunk Monkeys.

[C-dub]

I’d be worried about the residual irritants left in my vehicle afterwards.

That's what I was thinking about. How are your going to get that smell out of your seats and carpet afterwards?

[n5wmk]

I prefer Trunk Monkeys.

[sailor2000]

I’d be worried about the residual irritants left in my vehicle afterwards. Invest in a solid car alarm not one of those cheap ones….

I would rather deal with cleaning up the car I still have than going through all the time and thousands of dollars in expense in replacing one that was stolen. The car stolen from my driveway was my wife's 4x4. The police found it abandoned a week later. It was badly damaged electrically from the thief's bypassing the key system with tons of cut wires under the dash and the interior was trashed.... cleaning up tear gas residue would have been easier than cleaning up what the thief left behind. The other one was my 4 door pickup stolen from my work parking lot, a bit less than two months after I paid it off. My insurance paid book value but I was $5,000 out of pocket replacing it. Like I said, I'll deal with decontaminating the ride if I can keep them from taking it.

[Pawpaw]