Okay, this is just a though...

A lot of cell phones have GPS now, or at least they can be tracked down my emergency services (i.e. 911), so would this work for a security system:

1. purchase a prepay cell phone ($20-$60) and a car charger.

2. wire it to the battery of your bike and hide the cell phone is a discrete location that is hard to get to
-the phone will be charging any time the bike is running and will store its own charge when the bike is off
-always leave the phone on and "silent"

3. Should your bike ever get stolen, give the police the number to that cell phone and let them track down your stolen bike



What do you think? Would it work?

 

maybe if u act quick.. once they strip the bike im sure theyl find the phone..seems like a good idea though might work..

 

I was just thinking about this after seeing a case of stalking on TV. The guy put a cell phone in his wife's car with the auto answer feature turned on and the phone on silent. While his wife was driving, he would call the phone and it would pick up automatically. It was hid under the dash but he could listen to everything that she said.

In theory, you could add a phone to your account for like 10 bucks a month or get a prepaid phone, set it to auto answer, hide it deep within the bike with a charger hardwired, and call it if the bike got stolen. The cops would be able to hear the thieves and track the location of the phone. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I remember reading somewhere that a phone in use is easier to track. I suppose a phone with GPS would negate the need to have to call it, but it might be nice to be able to listen in on the thieves while you are tracking it down.

The first thing thieves will do is disconnect the battery once they have the bike and look for an alarm system. Due to the phone not needing a constant source of power, it could be wired into the bike in a discreet location and hopefully remain hidden long enough to be able to utilize the GPS without them noticing that it is there.

My only hangup is that you cannot use the GPS yourself, it requires police intervention and help from the service provider. However, I have seen these commercials on TV "where you at?" that allow one phone to see another phones location on the Boost Mobile network. Also, Disney offers a phone service that allows you to see the location of your kid's phones over the internet at any time. By using one of these services in the above described installation, you could effectively have instant access to a realtime GPS feed from your stolen bike.

I guess if you had a pair of Boost phones that were linked up, you could actually follow the bike from the second phone while driving to retrieve it/blow their heads off. Holy crap, the more I think about this the better it sounds. I would love to be able to track them down myself and have a little armed robbery party at their expense.

I will definitely be looking into the cost of this. It could be cheaper than a basic alarm system and provide WAY more benefit. I'll post up what I find out.

 

UPDATE:

Boost requires input from the "tracked" phone to show it's location, so that wouldn't work.

Disney has ceased mobile operations.

Verizon has a "chaperone" plan that can be added to any existing plan that will show the location of the "tracked" phone at all times. Another phone or an internet connection can be used to track the bike phone. I am going over there tonight to see about hardware costs and phone plans. I'll update that tomorrow.

This really could be a huge help if it is cost effective. Way better than GPS that you need cops for. I was about to switch phone plans anyway or renew my contract, so if this could work and doesn't require huge startup fees, maybe I'll give it a shot. I'd be willing to pay 20 bucks a month or so to see where my bike is at at all times and be able to track it instantly if it got stolen.