Stolen: 38' Top Gun

[Sharkey-Images]

This week one of our club members had his boat stolen.

Here is a link to all the information:
Theft Reports (http://pages.zdnet.com/sharkeymarine/njoutboards/id8.html)

With so much of this going on lately, I will keep this page up and add things as necessary...

Thanks for any help you may have.....:(

[bulldogdaddy]

why doesn't someone get a lojack put in their boats?
boats cost more than cars nowadays,and i'd think that the loan companies and insurance would require them,just an idea.

[Sharkey-Images]

I totally agree!;)

[quickonstep]

i used to be a dealer/installer of lojack systems.. the problem with a marine installation is.. 1. hiding places.. 2. power source.

when a boat is stolen, sadly it is pretty much stripped.. so it leaves little places to hide them, unlike an automobile, you could hide it inside of a body panel and no one is any of the wiser.. the only person who knows about the location is the installer, and lojack.. the customer doesnt even know where it is installed.

the power source.. most boats have a battery shut off switch, so that couldnt get power from there.. most people say well use an auxilery power source.. well what happens when you install the system and a year down the road you find out you have bad batteries.. and you pull the batteries out of the boat to replace them, then not get around to it for a few weeks.. the system requires quite a bit of power for such a small deal.. lojack transmits a radio signal that has to be "heard" for miles.. unless the boat is reported stolen IMMEDIATLY after it happens, it tends to be harder to track..

I agree with the idea, but it seems a bit on the far fetched side, unless boat manufactures could incorporate them into there hulls.. with a serious rechargeable powersupply, with wires leadinginto a buzzbar.. to where everything is "hidden"

The technology is there, but most corporations dont wanna spend the money to do it.. and unfortuantly, lojack doesnt install in boats :( (at least they didnt 2 years ago)

Jesse

[at100plus]

Not only that, but not all that many police cars have Lo Jack, my 120 man department only has 2 of them, and when we get Lo Jack hits, they don't tend to be all that accurate, we go in circles for hours thinking the car is nearby only to learn in was two towns away.

On star is much better (besides the cost) when On Star calls us and tells us the exact street it's on and direction it's travelling, we always find it.

[bulldogdaddy]

hell i forgot,cell phones have trackers in them too,could keep a charger hooked up while the boat runs:D

[quickonstep]

negative on that bob, just had mine stolen... all they could say was.. tough ****, give us more money for another phone.

Jesse

[wing nut]

i was gonna say why cant they lay it into the fiberglass? (or have it added then glassed over like ALL THE WAY up in the bow, im sure theres a way to solve the power sorce deal.. y wouldnt it drain a cars battery just like a boat battery????

scott

[quickonstep]

well the exact power draws are kinda a hush hush thing, so i cant really give that info out.. but.. what i can tell ya (shoulda elaborated a little in the big post) is the system is in standby until activated... the only way to activate is via the lojack call center, and thats only notified by the end user... its not like a "onstar" type of deal... once it is activated, it draws 4 times more power than it did in standby, and if its ran off of a reserve battery, seek time is greatly reduced.. to give you an idea, a 6 volt flashlight battery would run it for about 2 hours TOPS, but it is quite possible to find it before then with a TRAINED officer or "hunter"... ill see if i can find some of the "dealer only" info from lojack to see if any of it will be helpful to anyone here...

Maybe we can get these things into boats if somone can get a good powersource.

Jesse