More Proof Home should not be home

These GPS devices are receivers, not transmitters.

If you use an iPhone as a GPS and it gets stolen, you can track it.

http://techpp.com/2009/09/18/6-ways-to-find-track-lost-stole...

They are receivers only, they do not transmit.

A transmitter would add a lot more cost. Or you could become a ham radio operator and add your own "APRS" position reporting system to your car (sill not inexpensive, but at least no monthly fees). The idea of adding a homing beacon to something as small as a GPS doesn't seem practical. However, one has to wonder why there are so many problems with stolen cell phones, when they would be clearly identifiable and easily trackable if the cell phone companies cared enough to do it.

I thought it odd the nuvi owner's manual said, "Select a location you return to often, such as your home, for your security location."

The help screen on the nuvi said, "Your security location is a location that you return to often, such as your office."

Neither seems like a good suggestion.

I picked a location that while leaving home, I could drive to with a little jog from the normal route one would take leaving my home. It's far enough away from the regular route, it doesn't unlock.

I figure a PIN only adds a few seconds, and if that makes the GPS less useful to a thief than a brick, then all the better.

I either take electronics out of the car or I hide them. When I'm at a gas station, I lock all the doors too. I've seen videos of people getting gas and someone stops on the other side of their car and quietly opens the passenger door to steal a purse or bag. They leave the door open so it doesn't make any noise, and they're gone.

I put my home location about 1/2 mile away on the route home. Only problem was when my brother was visiting the GPS said "Arriving at home", and after that he couldn't find the rest of the route!

I set my Go Home at my driveway but my security code about a mile away. When somebody breaks into my car he finds the papers and knows where I live but when he steals the GPS its useless to him because he doesn't know where I put in the code. I always take the GPS with me anyway.

Use the pin feature, I can't believe people here that complain it's a pain to type in, whne they risk losing their GPS, if they don't use it.

It takes me all of 2 extra seconds, and protects me from someone grabbing my unit, and profiting from selling it, or worse, like the article above states.

Use your head. Protect yourselves.

I think your sig explains it - "so where the heck am i?" - how you supposed to get home if you dont know where you are?

In the big city....like the LA are, that can be a problem....which is why i have a GPS - to figre out how to get to strange places...AND BACK...

I use the Garmin PIN code on my 855. I also have my "home" location set at the very entrance to my subdivision.

I do have other people listed, but I use only first names (no mom, dad, sister, brother type names) and no women names.

The track log will show where you go, so it is rather obvious that I enter and leave from my actual house location. I clear it regularly and it is PIN protected, so I expect that should be sufficient.

My safe location is a my church's parking lot.

It is certainly a pain. And I've had the gps mis-read the pin several times, making it an even bigger pain.

But the bigger issue is that it is absolutely no protection at all that your GPS will not be taken. A thief is not going to fire up the GPS while stealing it, so he can't leave it alone if locked. He will try that later when he is away from your car. When it is locked he will either smash it or sell it on the electronic bay of thieves. So you actually slightly reduce your chances of getting back a working GPS, since there is some slight but unlikely chance that the thief might be caught and if the GPS isn't locked it might be recovered.

And, of course, the belief that using the PIN in any way protects one against theft may cause some poor saps to leave the GPS in the car. Taking it with you prevents theft, not fooling with a PIN number.

I like the idea of a keyless lock.

I would hope most people see the PIN code for what it is, an extra/necessary security step. Of course using a PIN code won't stop your individual GPS from being stolen, it will protect the data contained in your GPS from being misused and causing a potentially dangerous situation for all those people you have entered into your unit.
If more people adopt using GPS PIN codes, maybe stealing GPS units in general won't seem worth the risk to thieves.

what is stored in Tiger Woods' GPS?
Hooters POI from POI factory?

We also installed the keyless entry. It is really useful when your arms are full of packages.

I do like the fact that my GPS has a pin and I use it. I agree there's lots of information in your car to get the thieves home, and if no one is there, they can break in easy enough - after all, they are already desperate enough to steal. I'm lucky I don't have anything of value.

The reason that there is no tracking for gps devises is that they are passive. They are only capable of receive and do not transmit.

I think it would be cost prohibitive to put GPS tracking into your GPS. You can by them for your vehicles for $300-$500 and then pay a subscription fee to watch your vehicle via the internet. The technology is there but companies may still want to sell both items rather then bundle them. I am such some electronic Tecno person could rig one up though. My feeling are still:

1) HOME is my local PD
2) Use the PIN code
3) Never leave GPS or it's power cord in view when you park the vehicle.

Thieves scour a row of vehicles to see goodies they want, then pick the unfortunate victim.

I've now set it to the nearest interstate.

As was stated at least once most people have enough informatiom in their vehicle for a thief to easily know where you live even without the gps unit. If they want to know how to get to your home they could easily punch the address into mapquest or numerous other sites so lock your gps unit and quit worrying about setting home away from your home. If they have a cell phone they can use that also to drive right to your place. On my new cell plan driving directions are included in the price.

As another poster said, the best thing to do is not to make one's self a victim. I've chastised friends for doing things like leaving pennies in their ashtrays! They all think I'm nuts until their cars get broken into. Even with that line of thinking, I never thought about the tell-tale suction cup mark! I always take down my Garmin a few turns before I'm at my destination. Recently I did take all of the registration papers out of my vehicles after my mechanic was able to find my house by pulling my registration out of the glove box (he wasn't being creepy, he was doing me a favor by driving my car to my house since I had no other way to get it, then I drove him back to his shop, but he forgot to write down my address...yeah, my mechanic rocks). It's required to carry it in my glove box in my state, but that stuff all shows up on their comps, plus I have valid tags with registration stickers on the back of the car. My insurance cards don't my address, and since I won't so much as leave a napkin in my car once it's been used, there's nothing else in my car that would point someone back to my home. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my GPS on the rare occassion that I don't carry a purse so I have no place to store it when I exit the car. Any suggestions?

This day in age, when everything is computerized, it takes seconds to get all the information and more from the license plate. I really don't see the point of the registration card.

Yes, the security can be turned off if you decide to do away with it. You can also change the pin number to a different number if you wish to keep security turned on.