I noticed in past posts that people were worried about they're Nav units being stolen so I had an idea that may help in aiding the recovery of your head unit if it ever did get stolen.

If you do the hack of changing your bootup image, you could add a small disclaimer message at the bottom of your image using MS Paint or PhotoShop etc.

Your message could read:

ATTENTION: This navigational system has an embedded tracking device to aid in its recovery in the event of theft. If found, please call (555) 555-5555 immediately for a reward. Property of John Smith

Or makeup your own disclaimer. Anything to hopefully entice a thief to return it. If he thinks the unit can be tracked, he may be more apt to seek the reward rather than try to use your nav unit. Click here to see an example of one that I made up to use for my Z1 bootup screen in my Ford Explorer:

http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/a9c41dcf-8a ... 2a9de27f4f

Notice that my image is the correct size for the Z1 screen.

I know that some of you may feel that this will detract from the beauty of your bootup screen but it is still less obtrusive than all of the wording on the original Pioneer bootup screen and besides your beautiful bootup image won't really matter if your Z1 was stolen and never recovered, would it?

Again it's just an I had. You can take my 2 cents for what it's worth but I'm going to do it.

Thanks

Kevin Moloney

good idea... im not quite sure how to hack the loading screen but im going to look on here..

To do the hack, you first need to unlock the hard drive. See this thread to do this hack:

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3720

dont know how a car thief would react... maybe since they got your car which should probably worth well more then the avic unit, they wouldnt care? Or they would car and try to rip it out and damage it in the process because the reward isnt for the car as well.. is it?

guess thats why I ensure that wherever I park I am confident when I return my car will be in the condition it was when I left it.

But you've got to watch out though... I parked in front of my own house one time, and my car was stolen on a snowy night. The folks came from another county and were stealing cars. It was an Acura Integra LS. Anything you can do to take precautions is a good thing.

You may not get the car back, but when someone boots up the nav and sees that they're being tracked??? LOL, they'll get scared *less and try to return the item. Who wants to be ambushed out of nowhere by the cops? ;^)

Not a bad idea. But you may end up with a thief tossing your $2000 head unit into a lake because he's afraid he's being tracked. Oh, and.........(go Gators.)

if i were a car thief and saw that I would call you and say ha now what i got your stereo now find me, cuz UMMMM i know you cant track it. Honestly, if you could track it you would of caught me by now right? so, if you want to fool the honest thieves go ahead, but I sure dont suggest relying on this to do much.

It never ceases to amaze me, all of the various perspectives that a post can generate. Not only was this thread informative, but it was also a quality form entertainment for me to read what you have all written.

Now, my thinking when I came up with this idea was that not all thiefs will steal the car. In fact, most won't, unless that is of course their profession. It takes a lot of automotive knowledge and careful planning to steal today's generation of cars.

Not so long ago, in my area we had a spree of vehicle break-ins and the car stereo seemed to be the number one item that was stolen from these vehicles. I believe it was around 24 stereos over one weekend. Now, did anyone get their stereo back? I don't know, but if the thief had booted up my unit and saw a disclaimer like the one I had written, perhaps he would have been returned it, using his girlfriend to get the reward. Maybe she would call me up and say "Hey, I found your Nav System in a trash can at the mall...how much is the reward?"

For every scenero there is a counter scenero. What one thief thinks may not be what another thief will think.

Hey, do we have any thieves on this forum that can maybe comment on this topic ?

jimmy303, you mentioned "...you may end up with a thief tossing your $2000 head unit into a lake because he's afraid he's being tracked.

So, what do you think he would do if the disclaimer wasn't on the bootup screen and consequently, there no contact number? Do you really think that your chances for recovery would have been better?

And tillithz, your comment really surprised me. First of all, have you ever heard of OnStar? If they can track a vehicle with a tiny antenna, then I ask you, why couldn't a stereo be tracked and located once it had been powered up? Now I'm not say that this technology is here yet but do you really think that it's an impossibility? I'm sure that it's already in the works. And I'm sure that it would be offered as a subscription service like OnStar is and furthermore, if the amount was reasonable, I'm sure that I would sign up for it.

Also, most thieves, in my opinion are not very smart, and if I, as a thief saw that disclaimer I would have thought that it appears so professional that only the product manufacturer could have input such a disclaimer. And why in the world would the manufacturer lie about embedding a tracking device?

Thanks again to everyone who responded. It's much appreciated. Oh and...GO BUCKEYES!

um, you can ask any installer.... what did you do before becoming an installer? Many will tell you that things were not so legit or honest.... in fact many were car theives and burglars. whether a youthful indiscretion or something else, many youths today have such a past.

osuv your understanding of 'tracking' is a bit ignorant, now I am not insulting you but just pointing out that a simple ant. is not what tracks you. There is more equipment needed, in fact more equipment then what would fit into the avic unit's case as far as a standalone piece.

So to take the side that dumb people arent stealing todays cars, a thief would know this, and know what is involved with a 'tracking' device. A dumb person wouldnt, but then if they took the unit out of the car and removed power as your "found it in the garbage can" scenario then it would prove to be useless as well if it even had some tracking device in it.

You cant have it both ways, shit or get off the pot... meaning pick a side and stick with it, if you dont stand for nothing you will fall for anything. What I am trying to say is you cant have it both ways, you cant say criminals are dumb and wouldnt know, then turn around and say they are smart and plan this and that... if they are smart, they will know.. if they are dumb... they wont steal the car in the first place according to your perception.

honestly, many people know about tracking systems, and understand what a receiver and what a transmitter is. cuz they are very different. plain and simple you would need something external because of space within the avic unit to be a tracking device.

I think you can have a thief that is both smart and dumb at the same time. It takes knowledge and skill to be a thief. So in that small section of knowledge they can be very smart. But overall I would say that most are dumb. If you take into account the total sum of knowledge (including that we are in a society and how to act towards other human beings) they are not very smart.

You can have skills in an area which makes you seem smart to those who don't have those skills, but still not be very smart.

I think that if you made something that looked like a "Theft determined, tracking commencing..." or something. It would at least give a thief a scare. It would to me (but I'm too smart to be a thief)

it wouldnt scare me, but then again I am probably too dumb to be a thief

it wouldnt scare me, but then again I am probably too dumb to be a thief

I'm glad you admitted it I wasn't going to say anything.

tillithz,

I don't want to get into a pissing contest with you because I'll win. But your last post just ignores everything I've said previously. I am not trying to have it both ways.

First of all, you are trying to group all thieves as a whole. A car thief is not stealing a car for the radio. And a radio thief is not stealing a radio for the car. Two thieves, two different goals, two different levels of talent and expertice.

For example, a car thief is most likely a much more knowledgeable person then a radio thief or a hub cap thief. A car thief is probably an adult, with some level of knowledge, who plans to steal the vehicle to have it chopped and then re-sold, while a radio thief is likely an iexperienced teenager who steals the radio to either put it into his own car or to trade it in order to satisfy his drug habit, for example.

Like Ducatiby stated so wisely, some thieves are smart and some are dumb.

And your statement that many car installers were once thieves and burglars is asinine. Many??? That's crazy. I want to see your supporting statistics. Are you just speculating or do you actually have reliable data to support that statement? If so, could you please post those stats on this forum for all to see? Hell, you probably couldn't even get a job as an installer at a Best Buy or Crutchfield without a background check.

And then you said "many people know about tracking systems". Oh really? Let's see a show of hands. How many of you forum members here know about tracking systems? How many of you know how large a tracking system must be in order to be effective? I see only one raised hand. Oh it's your hand tillithz.

Well tell me something tillithz, have you ever heard of active Radio Frequency IDentification also known as active RFID? Radio Frequency IDentification is an automatic data capture technology that uses tiny tracking chips affixed to products. These tiny chips can be used to track items at a distance--right through someone's purse, backpack, or wallet.

Many of the world's largest manufacturing companies would like to replace the bar code with these "spy chips," meaning that virtually every item on the planet--and the people wearing and carrying those items--could be remotely tracked. There are two types of tags: "passive" (no independent power source) and "active" (containing a battery or attached to one). Depending on a number of factors (antenna size, RF frequency, environmental conditions etc.) a passive tag can have a range of anywhere from 1 inch to 40 feet. Active tags can have a read range of miles or more. Most tags being considered for use in consumer products are passive.

You can read more about RFIDs here:

http://www.spychips.com/faqs.html

Look tillithz, I mean no disrespect when I say this but you are probably one of the most cynical people I ever corresponded with. What I mean by this is that you seem to have a very high level of skepticism and pessimism and it shows in many of yur posts. Also, your mind is very narrow in that you feel that what you know (or think you know) should also be what others know. I honestly think that you are a very intelligent person, but please don't assume that everyone else shares your level of intelligence or your viewpoints.

Theft is inevitable. It will happen to most of us at sometime in our lives. I'm not saying that my idea will protect your nav unit, all I was trying to do was offer an idea that may aid in the recovery of your unit in the event that it ever did get stolen.

Thanks again to all of who contributed in this thread.

Cheers,

Kevin

no we wont get into it, not because you will win, afterall the ignorance is shown by the first post and by the insulting maner in which you responded, so no need to try and counter your points as its clear you want to insult and then try to turn around and compliment, it really is unclear where your coming from or going, so good day.

Your right tillithz,

I've probably overstepped my bounds. No hard feelings and thank you for all your contributions to this forum. They haven't gone unnoticed. You're truly an asset to AVIC411.com. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Kevin

PS "Can't we all just get along?"...Rodney King

no hard feelings, I am a dumbass half the time and the other 3/4 of the time I am stupid.

Ha Ha Ha ,

Some how that doesn't all add up. You're a good man.

Kevin

Holy.........