---- Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote:
> I'm curious about the need for alarms.  I mean, how many of us have ever
> actually had our vanagons broken into, in how many years of traveling in
> them?

I have never had my Vanagon broken into, in two years of owning it and traveling around the U.S.  Further, in 50 years of driving and owning cars, I've never had a vehicle broken into.  On the other hand, my older brother has had a half dozen or so break-ins of various vehicles, including mostly vans but sedans as well.  He and I both have at times carried and locked in our vehicles our traveling kits of various make-up.  FWIW, I lived for many years in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, a location that has been cited as having the highest frequency of vehicular theft and vehicular burglary in the U.S.

So far as a given system of protection having "worked" as evidenced by the vehicle not having been broken  into while the system was in place, that falls into the same category as the old joke about elephants painting a part of their anatomy red to hide in apple trees working.  I've never seen an elephant hiding in an apple tree, so it must work.

mcneely