The inventor of one of the country's most widely known anti-car theft devices, The Club, died yesterday in a head-on collision in western Pennsylvania. Two other people were also killed, according to the Associated Press.
James Winner, who was 81, is said to have sold 10 million Clubs through his company, Winner International. The Washington Post reports that Winner was a passionate salesman who aggressively marketed a number of products before settling on The Club, which owed its success in part to a series of effective advertisements featuring police officers, coupled with large-scale distribution.
The paper said that, after the success of The Club, Winner became an active philanthropist in western Pennsylvania, having grown up on a farm in the area. He invented his famous device after having a Cadillac stolen in the 1980s, the Post added.
The Club works by immobilizing the vehicle's steering wheel, making it ostensibly impossible for thieves to steer the car well enough to drive it away. While some experts say that the device is of limited use against a canny thief, other more modern anti-theft measures have been found to be more practical.
Advanced technology present in the ignition systems of many newer cars makes it much more difficult for thieves to bypass interlocks mechanically, as they were frequently able to do until recently. In addition, VIN etching on windows and electronic tracking systems can allow law enforcement and insurers to easily recover cars that do get stolen.
Experts say that installing effective anti-theft devices can help keep car insurance rates low, as some insurers will give better rates to customers who are at less risk of having to file a claim for theft.