[bigiain]

A lot of the cellular gps trackers have ignition kill capability, where you can send it a specific sms message and it’ll pull a wire to ground or open circuit a pair of wires, which you can use to remotely kill the engine.

A friend of mine got a motorcycle back by watching its movements via the gps tracking, and killing the engine while the guy was riding in a safe-ish and high visibility place, so the thief just parked it and walked away.

[sealeck]

I imagine (not a lawyer) that this expose you to a variety of charges.

[pvarangot]

IANAL, but I think in California as long as you don't use excessive force it's ok, but yeah if you kill the engine at a high speed or if you get unlucky and the thief gets seriously injured then you will get in trouble if they want to go after you.

[OrangeMusic]

Who's gonna sue him? The car thief?

[sealeck]

Potentially, or more likely the public prosecutor after the coroner's report comes in.