hacking a car boot
posted Feb 24th 2005 3:38am by Jason Striegelfiled under: transportation hacks
what a drag, your car got booted
filed under: transportation hacks
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Reader Comments
couldnt they have used bolt cutters on that lock there? its been said that theres more than one way to do something, and there all right in their own way. but if one requires less work/less time im going with that
Posted at 5:35 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by jake
kcxkxckxc boom xkcxkckcxkxc boom xckcxkxckxc boom
Posted at 5:37 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by jeff parker
Uh? Would it have been cheaper to pay the fines and not need a new tire and rim at the same time. Parking fine may be, what $50? new tire and rim cant be less then $100 together can they. I think he should have tried to pick the lock or something instead of leaving the tire.
Damn gutsy though
Posted at 5:38 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by Hal Hockersmith
[sarcasm] wow, great hacking [/sarcasm]
This place is going downhill…not that it was ever really up a hill to begin with..
Posted at 6:44 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by Messenga
Messenga you can STFU. If you want something “good” then go do it yourself and quit being a shit disturber.
Posted at 6:50 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by ant
Cute, but… uh, the boot’s held on by a standard Master padlock… takes about 8 seconds to defeat it…
Posted at 6:59 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by sbb
yeah, shit or get off the pot.
i’m glad this is here, where i live they use the boot liberally, i’ve been sitting outside a Togo’s eating a sandwich watching a person park at the 15 min. zone, in the time it took them to enter the door (15 feet away) their car is booted by these two a-holes that loiter around and extort innocent people for their own sadistic amusement. i guess you’re unstoppable with a badge and a gun.
Posted at 7:03 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by ryan
These posts blow.
“I removed the wheel on my car using a lug wrench. |<-rad”
Seriously, stop abusing the english language.
Posted at 7:36 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by flu8
ok first off its not a perfect hack…the guy lost a wheel..but its not a bad start over here in the uk we can practically legally slice the things off. second the sarcastic guy..this sites doing a good job of bringing a very assorted ‘hacking’ guide under one url..i dont know any better ones..not to mention this site is still in its infancy with a bit more input from its readers (ie some hacks from u usarcastic loser) it can only get better
Posted at 7:41 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by Tim
Just because everything on here isn’t hardcore hardware hacking (say that 3x fast), doesn’t make it neccesary to critisize these people. Their website is amazing and I have learned countless things from here. Something like this is interesting even if it isn’t that technologically involved so STFU
Posted at 7:44 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by adam
IMHO there is more to be done here. Now that he has the tyre and boot as a seperate unit it can be taken home and looked at more closely with better tools. If it can be mounted loose enough to fit a lugwrench in (AND have room to swing that wrench) then its gotta be loose somewhere else.
On a related note there is a gentelman over in England who will bicycle over and use a gasoline powered saw to hack your boot off.
Parking and speeding violations are little more than a massive, albeit disorganzied, public disobedience. Few cases lead to an innocent bystander being hurt, many people get fined for doing it and then continue to do it, and many of those enforcing the laws are displeased about it.
Posted at 8:19 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by nevarmore
IMHO there is more to be done here. Now that he has the tyre and boot as a seperate unit it can be taken home and looked at more closely with better tools. If it can be mounted loose enough to fit a lugwrench in (AND have room to swing that wrench) then its gotta be loose somewhere else.
On a related note there is a gentelman over in England who will bicycle over and use a gasoline powered saw to hack your boot off.
Parking and speeding violations are little more than a massive, albeit disorganzied, public disobedience. Few cases lead to an innocent bystander being hurt, many people get fined for doing it and then continue to do it, and many of those enforcing the laws are displeased about it.
Posted at 8:19 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by nevarmore
I think this particular hack is funny, but still a real common sense move. I am not too impressed with its ingenuity. BTW I think Hack A Day is, and always was Elite.
Posted at 8:30 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by mirk
Put the fake boot onto the tire, and it will slide open or close when you’re going to park.. And create a fake parking ticket with a right time when you’re going to park .. So, that way you can park anywhere you like to park.. this will trick the traffic police thinking it already handle it, and will pass by away.. (I’m not sure much about this.. The Traffic officer may already know about this method..)
The fake boot idea, doesn’t work. Traffic cops only work one specific area…so if they show up to a car and it already has a boot and they didn’t put it there it’s a dead giveaway that it’s a fake.
Posted at 9:40 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by drpepper
… or you can just keep a 18v cordless Dewalt set in your car and cut it off. watching someone take a sawsall to their car in a parking lot would be quite interesting to see.
Posted at 11:21 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by invisisam
i agree that this hack isnt the best that ive seen on here but i just love the end solution…
DAMN THE MAN!!!
i would love to see the parking enforcement guy that actually booted the car when he comes back to find that the boot and tire are still in the same spot but the car is gone!!!
Posted at 1:31 am on Feb 25th, 2005 by wErSa
They dont use the boot around here in my small town, but boltcutters, hacksaws, and other assorted goodies from my trunk will certainly help should I get booted next time I’m in the city.
The boot was a dumb idea to start with. Oh look! That guy’s suv is getting in the way where it’s parked… I know! let’s put a big clamp on his wheel so the car has to stay there until the ticket is paid.
Posted at 1:48 am on Feb 25th, 2005 by eddie
That is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!!!
The friggin’ Thread is 23 pages LOL
Good job Hack-A-Day for that one.
Posted at 5:34 am on Feb 25th, 2005 by Wazz
bit of an overly-complicated hack. he had the lug wrench in his hand and it never occured to him to jam it into the lock and step on it? broken lock, no more boot on the car, and maybe even his very own boot for the trouble.
i put the “lever” in leverage, baby.
Posted at 10:44 am on Feb 25th, 2005 by see dubya
If you read the whole thing, you’ll notice several points that nobody has mentioned yet.
1) He left to wheel so he wouldn’t be guilty of stealing the boot. (A much more expensive offense.)
2) The boot was installed improperly, that’s the only reason he could get it open far enough to get in a wrench. (The person who installed it was worried about damaging the stem, we know this becuase…)
3) He was caught. He had his real name and location in his site profile, and the name of the community college was printed on the boot in the pictures. Somebody emailed a link to discussion to the college security office.. who looked up his address in their records, drove to his place and saw his car, and then pulled up his class schedule and met him at one of his classes. They were good natured about it, and the fines were less than $200 (which is probably just a little more than a new rim/tire would cost anyway.)
More disturbingly, once it was thought that somebody on the discussion board had ratted him out (actually.. probably just a visitor), a few people starting throwing around some very violent threats.. to shoot the snitch, rape his g/f or daughter, etc. This was VERY disturbing (though it’s not too suprising in an arena as testosterone drenched as that.)
Remember folks… anonymity on the net is an illusion, both for the guy who tried to game the system, and for those throwing around threats. Though it’s seldom prosecuted on the ‘net, saying you’re going to kill/maim/rape somebody counts as “making terrorist threats”, and can land you in jail for a few years.
Posted at 11:44 am on Feb 25th, 2005 by Pneumatic
fukin funn shit. only got to pg14 but.
hackaday rulz
Posted at 10:44 pm on Feb 25th, 2005 by julz
I would just keep one of those mini oxy-ctyline torches in my trunk for such occasions
Posted at 4:10 pm on Feb 26th, 2005 by serge
It’s a fake.Look at the rear tire closely, notice how it’s sticking out past the wheel well? Also notice how it’s placed, seems that wheel would rub on the back of the fenderwell if driven.
I call bullshit.
Boot a spare tire, take tire off of car, leave it jacked up,stand booted spare tire against hub, take picture, generate more hits on website.
lame.
Posted at 1:28 am on Feb 27th, 2005 by Charlie
It’s not photoshopped, it’s just a staged fake.
Posted at 1:43 am on Feb 27th, 2005 by charlie
Is the fine for a local parking lot more than having to buy a whole new tire and rim? Here it’s a max $20 fine. I would rather pay the fine. It’s cheaper!
Posted at 2:37 pm on Feb 27th, 2005 by On3
Is the fine for a local parking lot more than having to buy a whole new tire and rim? Here it’s a max $20 fine. I would rather pay the fine. It’s cheaper!
Posted at 2:38 pm on Feb 27th, 2005 by On3
Instead of thinking of ways to defeat things like this wouldn’t it just be easier to not park or drive like an ass. Seems to me that someone going to college should be able to read parking signs, follow simple direction and use a little common sense and courtesy.
Posted at 4:32 pm on Feb 27th, 2005 by Jim martin
If you frequent an area that has tire booting fascists, why not carry a battery powered circular saw with a metal cutting blade? The look on their face when they find the cleanly cut boot would be priceless.
Posted at 11:12 pm on Mar 1st, 2005 by rider
C’mon. Lame.
I’m in the engineering program here on my campus, and a buddy of mine ‘contracted’ me to get a boot off his car. I took some measurements on the boot, went to the college machine shop, and machined a key to loosen it up. It’s a pretty stupid key actually, anyone with access to a drill press can make their own if they really wanted to.
Bottom line, after a half hour in the machine shop I manufactured myself a tool to remove those, every time. Without any damage to the vehicle or the boot. You drive away, leave the boot in the space, and it’s a done deal. ;)
Posted at 11:58 pm on Mar 1st, 2005 by Chris
Damaging the boot is at least half the fun.
Posted at 8:13 am on Mar 2nd, 2005 by lantern rouge
I wish we got booted around here. Instead you get like 10 tickets, and if you don’t pay them, and get ticketed again you have to find out just which dip-shit company was cauled to haul your vehicle off.
And who uses power tools? Get technical about man…. go get some liquid nitrogen, pour it on, and then, just for fun, beat the lock off with a plastic toy hammer.
Posted at 9:11 am on Mar 2nd, 2005 by Chaser
My RA last year told me about what his uncle always does to keep from getting booted. He has an old junk truck so he just welds sheet metal over the wheel wells so it is impossible to get a boot on the truck. Simple as that.
Posted at 2:50 pm on Mar 2nd, 2005 by Steve
Liquid nitrogen would be work to be sure but the saw can be kept on hand, there is no “go get”. Besides, you might want to move out of your mother’s basement one day and the saw would be handy for building a house.
Posted at 5:13 pm on Mar 2nd, 2005 by rider
“Posted Feb 24, 2005, 5:38 PM ET by Hal Hockersmith
Uh? Would it have been cheaper to pay the fines and not need a new tire and rim at the same time. Parking fine may be, what $50? new tire and rim cant be less then $100 together can they. I think he should have tried to pick the lock or something instead of leaving the tire.
Damn gutsy though”
What college kid has $50 in their pocket, let alone to pay fines? Those parking people are nazis anyway. They’ll forego writing a ticket for someone parked in a handicapped spot, but they’re write someone a ticket for being a millimeter outside the white line. I say good on him. (Although, I would’ve just cut the lock off, go to the hardware store, buy them a new one, then drop it off at the campus security station with a little note)
Posted at 7:47 pm on Mar 2nd, 2005 by Drstoooopid
(I have my doubts about authenticity here)
I wonder why everyone says it is like a $20 or $50 fine and was not worth the loss of a tire and rim.
I never been booted, but in this area you need something like a minimum of $500 or $1000 worth of back tickets to get booted. I have seen a few cars that were not even worth recovering, so the car and boot stays for a long time.
Sign the title and throw it with the keys on the dashboard.
Posted at 11:29 pm on Mar 2nd, 2005 by Interloper
Actually, when they screw up and attach a parking boot this loose (loose enough to almost slip off but not quite), all you have to do is jack the car up and let air out of the tire until the boot slips off. You may have to put on the spare till you can refill your tire.
If they put the boot on right, you usually can remove it with a cold chisel and a small 5 pound sledge hammer. Oh, and safety glasses because chips will fly. The weakest parts of a boot are the welds, and one or two good blows should break the weld. Just identify the part that looks like it is holding the boot on, and break the welds. Should take less than a minute for someone with metal working experience.
Posted at 5:25 pm on Mar 3rd, 2005 by zurich
you know what would be really cool? Carry your own collection of boots around with you and randomly put them on all of your friends cars while they are at the bar or in class or at church or at the strip club, etc.
yeah. huh. that would be priceless. oh, and your friends would love you for it.
Posted at 6:19 pm on Mar 3rd, 2005 by luxuryluke
What’s needed is a tire and rim that can’t be booted. Maybe one with a slightly dome shaped rim. Basically give it nothing to hook onto.
Posted at 9:27 pm on Mar 3rd, 2005 by Andrea
They probably have your plate # and vin # you are responsible for the boot and ticket ,you are only getting a quick fix from messing with the MAN !
I suggest to install a anti theft shocking device
any one who cant read the warning sign in the window takes a chance touching the car .I would use a strong electric fence unit no deaths and lots of fun to watch in action,hay you are smarter right?
Posted at 12:04 am on Mar 16th, 2005 by David Gronczniak
Wow, what an embarrassing waste of bandwidth on that forum. It comes as no surprise that a car enthusiast (i.e. dick swinging) forum would be as uneducated as this.
This guy parked illegally. There are reasons for the rules. He was a hardheaded jackass and didn’t pay his first ticket. He continued to disobey the rules that his campus spends money to hold up, and got more tickets. He still didn’t pay.
You are not better than anyone else.
He should have paid his tickets and had the boot removed by the authorities. I’m really glad someone busted this dickhead and that he was caught and forced to pay the tickets.
Posted at 8:54 am on Mar 27th, 2005 by chris putnam
there is another way and you get to keep the boot and tyre. you let teh air out of your tyre and the boot will just slip off with a little help, then put on your spare and after putting the flat tyre and boot in your car you drive off to the service station to reinflate your tyre and your away laughing
Posted at 6:47 pm on Mar 30th, 2005 by kyle
Well, all I have to say is thank god for the redneck who came up with this idea to take off the boot, and my cool ass neighbor who gave me the link! I recieved one of these lovely boots about 4 days ago and managed to take it off, BUT I chose to keep it and dump it in another state on my way back to my home state. Luckily I had an out of state license plate. I still lived there but I had to take my vehicle back to the home state in fear of them sighting me again and maybe face an even worse senerio. So, back to my home state I go to leave my vehicle with my family and return with no car. Hey, it’s better then loosing it, RIGHT?
Posted at 2:44 am on Apr 5th, 2005 by Sumpreme-660
why not just pick the lock???
it looks to be just a four pin padlock, I used to pick the same type for my bike chain all the time.
Posted at 3:50 pm on Apr 9th, 2005 by ben
in regards to it being a fake, did you consider the possibility that he had removed the tire before having the wherewithall to take pictures, so he placed the booted and removed tire back onto the car for the pictures? Seems plausible to me. Also, while the “damn the man” aspect in this method is very high, it really could have been done much more efficiently. The dome tire idea is intriguing. That seems the most effective method. if i lived near boot nazis, i’d do that.
Why did no one think of Thermite? It’s the most obvious solution. Place a little on the most distal part of the boot from the car, light with a magnesium strip, and watch (with welder’s goggles) as it melts the boot and some of the pavement under it.
Posted at 9:58 pm on Apr 13th, 2005 by camerazn
deflate the tire and the boot will slip off, then you get to keep your tire. : )
Posted at 11:20 am on Apr 14th, 2005 by audiofreak9
I’m going to look into that anti-theft shocking device. Or perhaps I’ll just keep driving my Delorian at 88 mph….
Posted at 9:32 am on Apr 19th, 2005 by Bill brasky
Umm, as to the liquid nitrogen scenario suggested above… it wouldn’t work. I work with LN2 and it doesn’t make metal NEARLY as weak as people would like to think. I’ve done several tests personally with it. So to all the people out there that have seen terminator 2 a few too many times… forget it. Best thing to do in that boot situation is to park your car where your supposed to and avoid the whole problem. If you want an amusing chemical solution I would suggest thermite ;) And no, I’m not going to tell you how to make it.
Posted at 1:54 am on Apr 22nd, 2005 by permawired
that was awesome. I dont really have to worry about boots for a while cuz I’m under 16.
hackaday rulez
Posted at 4:30 pm on Oct 17th, 2005 by chrisper
this is pretty cool.however, don’t the people record the fact that they booted your car, thus resulting in another boot/arrest if they catch you?
Posted at 9:31 pm on Dec 20th, 2005 by calvin
preach what you say and reap the benefits of your karma…
Posted at 3:08 pm on Jan 9th, 2006 by Car tuning
Likely if you tried the tricks (tires that cant be booted, fake or real boots of your own etc), you would still get the parking fine and they would find other ways to get at you.
Posted at 9:42 pm on Feb 13th, 2006 by jonathan Wilson
here is a quick way to avoid parking tickets:
parking illegally is fine as long as there is adequate precipitation, for you can use the excuse that the ticket washed away, works in n.y. lol.
here is a quick way to avoid traffic tickets:
If the cop is in front of you, dont worry as long as you always stay behind him, he cant do much but pull over and let you get ahead, if he does this just pull over behind him or make a turn, they cant do much because they have to be behind you, if they do give you a ticket they are not allowed to because of safety precautions.
If the cop is behind you, this is always the case: just pull over and friendly wait for him to ask the questions, answer quickly with a calm voice and with concise answers, if the cop hears you babble for minutes he will think you are hiding something. Dont ever ask a cop to make a compromise, this is illegal so they will never accept it; bribing is illegal. Dont give them an attitude and if you know you did something wrong, admit to it and he might mitigate the charge, if you did something you will be imprisoned for life; just pull over and once he has stopped drive for your life.
Master locks are easy to pick, just make a friend with a locksmith, they will take bribes.
In ny I never got booted so this must be some deserted place with sheriffs lol.
simply have the clamper come to remove the clamp or ‘boot’ as you yanks call it, give him the cash at which point he’ll have to squat down to unlock it, a firm blow to the back of his neck will knock him out, finnish his job then remove your cash and his note book containg your cars details from his pocket, crude but effective.
Posted at 11:40 am on Aug 8th, 2006 by anna nomitee
“If you want an amusing chemical solution I would suggest thermite ;) And no, I’m not going to tell you how to make it.”
Thermite: 1 part powdered aluminium, one part magnetite, measure by weight, use a magnesium ribbon (or a sparkler) to ignite.
That’ll melt the boot right off, probably will damage the car too.
Posted at 11:44 pm on Aug 9th, 2007 by alex
wtf? all that? all he had to do is pick the damn lock if I known they use just weak ass master locks i’d be charging people to remove them. I can open those within seconds 2 ways.
1.) bump key ( i have the pressure down that I get it first tap)
2.) lock pick (I have this down to where i know exactly how far to push the pick i use in and tap it up once and turn)
i guess i got them down b/c i have about 50 or more of those school black turn dial master locks (for lockers) here taht i cracked all day everyday in the past, and i have 3 of the ones on his boot.. and other types
Posted at 8:34 am on Oct 12th, 2007 by baalpeteor
over at http://www.atlnightspots.com they were talking about this 2.
Posted at 7:09 pm on Nov 17th, 2007 by Hahz
This article is great, but many commeents assume its a legitimate city government putting on the boot. Many cities, Chicago for example, allow private companies to boot your ccar.
For example, my son went to a Dunkin Donuts in Chicago, and while they were making his sandwich, he walked across the street, and looked in some store windows. As soon as he “crossed the street” a guy from Global Parking Management, Inc. put a boot in his car. He wanted $115.00 to take the boot off. Really, time stamp from Dunkin Donuts says 9:37 pm. Documentation by the guy putting on the boot said he put it on at 9:38 pm.
I drove over, called the Chicsgo police, and my wife who is a lawyer. Two cars responded, but they said they “scam’ people this way 10-15 times per day and its legal. They said it was a “civil issue”. My wife concurred, so I had to pay the $115.00 and then if I want to sue in small claims court to get it back.
It was a total scam. The company puts up video cameras to watch the lot and the guy sitting in Dunkin Donuts had a “Time Synched” audio device around his neck. I paid the $115.00.
I later found out this copany does this at dozens of lots, and because they post a warning sign , you have to pay the $115.00 and then try to get it back!!!
I love this post. I think I’ll put a couple of inexpensive tools in the trunks of my threed cars and next time they can watch me take off the boot, and sue me in “small claims court” for the $115.00.
The police said if I could remove it, but damged it the company could sue for damage to the boot, but it was a civil matter, so I could legally remove the boot.
There is a detailed boot removal article at:
http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Info/boot.html
God Bless You, Every one for this post!!!
Posted at 8:04 pm on Dec 30th, 2007 by Milton Austin
I have several welder friends, and being one myself,
1. I would cut the darn thing off with an oxy torch aka hot wrench.
2. Put thermite on it and light it.
3. use the air chisel that is on my truck.
4. DON’t Park ILLEGALY
5. Sledge Hammer.
6. Pry Bar
7. if all else fails I would call my lawyer and have a chat with the people at the parking enforcement office if and only if I knew that I was parked legally
Posted at 5:16 pm on Sep 16th, 2008 by Black_Angel
I got a boot a week ago. We were looking at it and start to think that there had to be a place to buy a key for it. I saw the lock and it looks like a one fits all.
Posted at 5:56 am on Dec 5th, 2008 by Brett
Thermite might kill your car.
Cold chisel and a hammer or an abrasive cut off wheel would be the way to go.
First I would try to take it off in a non-destructive manner.
Posted at 11:25 pm on Dec 8th, 2008 by Ihavenoname
Parking boots are public property.
The parking-control officers who attach them to your wheels intend for them to stay there until you’ve paid off your fines. Removing the boot without authorization, or damaging it in any way, is a crime.
Nevertheless, in cities like Denver and Boston, where the boot has been a part of life for years, the contraptions occasionally disappear. In some cities, more than 10 percent of the boot stock has vanished or been rendered inoperable.
That came as no surprise to the mechanical experts who examined our boot. The boot, they say, is nowhere near as tough as it looks. Anyone with less than $30 worth of basic hand tools and enough dexterity to screw in a light bulb can probably break the boot’s grip on a car wheel in about ten minutes.
The boot is designed to intimidate, our experts say; its toughest parts are the ones that would be the most obvious targets for boot-busting vandals — the lock mechanism, for example. With a special tamper-resistant padlock surrounded by a box made of quarter-inch carbon steel plates, the lock will stand up to just about anything short of a low-yield nuclear device. So our bootbusters ignored the lock and looked for other less-obvious places where the boot could be attacked. It took them no time to discover several major weak points in the boot’s protective armor.
Deflating the tire.
If the boot is going to work properly, it must be properly installed, and that’s not an easy process — especially in the dark, when you have a long night of boot-installing ahead. If the installation is even a bit sloppy (that is, if the jaws that attach the boot to the wheel are a little bit loose), it’s often possible to remove the boot by letting the air out of the tire and simply sliding the whole thing off.
This is by far the simplest strategy. It doesn’t always work — conscientious installer can prevent it almost every time, and some car wheels don’t leave enough room for the process anyway. But veterans of boot-happy cities have told us they’ve removed dozens of boots this way, quickly, quietly, and easily.
The hubcap plate.
A key element to the boot’s effectiveness is its ability to prevent car-owners from getting access to the lug nuts on the booted wheel. Once the lug nuts are accessible, the wheel can be removed and replaced with a spare tire, and the car can be driven away.
If the boot is properly installed, the plate will be tightly secured over the hubcaps, making it impossible event to imagine loosening the lug nuts. But the plate is one of the more flimsy parts of the boot; it’s attached by a half-inch swivel pin that is spot-welded to the frame. As our boot-busting experts explained, spot welds that hold together two pieces of metal of different thicknesses are inherently weak. There are several such welds on the boot, and this one is especially vulnerable.
With a common battery-powered drill and a 15-cent grinding wheel or “cut-off tool”, one of our experts was able to grind away most of the weld on the pin in about two minutes. With a five-dollar cold chisel and a standard hammer, he did the same job even faster.
Once the weld is broken, a quick blow with a hammer forced the pin out, releasing the plate from the boot frame and making it easy to change the tire and drive away, leaving the old, boot-laden tire behind (or safely stowed in the trunk as a souvenir).
The jaw-to-frame pins.
The main frame of the boot — the “arm” — fit into a pair of metal pins on the wheel-clamp, or “jaw”. The pins are a central element of the boot’s structure. They’re also one of its weakest links.
The pins are only about an inch long. when the boot is installed, they appear to be connected to each other through some sort of thick, central rod. In fact, they’re just stuck into holes drilled in the frame, and spot-welded at the bottom.
Even when the boot is assembled, there’s plenty of free play between the arm and the pins. A few strong, sharp blows with a hammer on the top of the pins quickly breaks them free and makes them easy to remove. With those pins gone, the boot comes apart immediately.
The welds holding the lock-box to the frame. For all the effort that the bootmakers put into developing an impregnable locking mechanism, it’s amazing how loosely the lock-box is attached to the rest of the boot. Four flimsy spot-welds hold the entire padlock-and-cover-plate assembly to the main boot frame. It took an expert just a few seconds to chip away one of the welds with a chisel and hammer; when one of our spastic, incompetent, weak-wristed editors tried it on a second weld a few days later, it took less than a minute.
Once the lock-box is liberated from the frame, the entire boot can be dismantled and removed quickly with a ratchet and standard (16-inch) spark-plug socket.
The arm itself.
If all else fails, our experts discovered that they could actually cut through the tough-looking steel of the main arm with a battery-powered drill and a cut-off tool. forget the oxyacetylene torches and the nitric acid — the boot arm cuts like butter with a cheap hobbyist’s tool. By our calculations, a standard drill-and-cut-off tool set-up can cut through the main arm in less than ten minutes.
The padlock keys.
When the parking-control officers come to remove a boot, the first thing they have to do is unlock the padlock. Since the city is buying about 100 of the monsters, it seems highly unlikely that every boot will have a different key. In other cities, like Denver, a single master key unlocks them all.
That means, of course, that an anarchist thug with a penchant for trouble-making (or a wily hustler with an eye for a quick profit) could easily dismantle and remove the boot from some poor innocent scofflaw’s illegally parked car, take the thing home, bust the lock off and pay a less-than-scrupulous locksmith to make up a new key — a key that would instantly unlock every boot in the city.
Of course, the city can always change all the padlocks on a regular basis (although they don’t come cheap). But if we know this city, the pirates will soon be making and selling the keys faster than the cops can replace the locks, forcing the taxpayers to pour ever-increasing sums of money into a parking-law-enforcement mechanism that is neither appropriate nor effective for San Francisco.
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Posted at 5:16 pm on Feb 24th, 2005 by joe