The Way We Live Now: 2-6-00: Salient Facts: Armored S.U.V.'s; Gangsta on Board
According to law-enforcement officials, Puffy Combs -- the rapper recently charged with throwing a 9-millimeter handgun out the window of his speeding Lincoln Navigator -- had installed a secret trap door to hide a weapon. The problem? The trap door's security system was so elaborate that in the heat of the moment no one in the car could figure out how to get it open. According to a report in The New York Post, one witness told the grand jury that Combs yelled: 'Trap! Trap! Open the trap!' (Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal gun possession.) Police say that secret gun vaults are increasingly common among certain high-risk drivers. And for those who have enough money and know the right auto-body mechanic, they are just one of the many options available.
Trap Doors  First used by drug gangs, these discreet compartments can keep illegal contraband (or legitimate cargo, should the need arise) safe and out of sight. As long as you can open them, that is: law-enforcement officials in New York have discovered traps -- inside dashboards, behind back seats, in door panels and floorboards -- that pop open only when the operator turns on the heat while the radio is set to a certain station, or when he inserts a hairpin into connections in the doorjamb while stepping on the brakes. More high-tech versions involve a series of microswitches that must be flipped in sequence. A few years ago, a drug gang in Washington Heights had a whole fleet of nondescript sedans whose traps could be opened only by inserting fuses into the second and fourth slots on the right column of the fuse box and then activating the rear-window defroster. 'Five years ago,' one veteran New York City lawman said, 'these things were unusual. Now they're commonplace.' Then again, he added, 'to some degree that's a function that we know to look for them now.' Trap doors aren't actually illegal. Still, many alarm shops or auto detailers are leery of installing them. 'The police department frowns upon that kind of stuff,' said the owner of a custom shop in the Bronx. 'If you start putting it in they give you a hard time. People ask me for safes, and I won't do it, because it's just too much to have in my head.' Michael Trusio, a senior sales executive at Krystal Enterprises in Brea, Calif., agrees that it's business he'd rather not have. But, he added, 'we don't want to tell somebody no and then have someone come around and burn our plant down.'
Armor  Car armor, which can include bulletproof glass in the windows, ballistic steel in the doors and body and Kevlar shields for the floorboards and gas tank, was once used for skittish billionaires and presidential motorcades. Today, it's just another accessory for the nation's wealthiest drivers. But all that security doesn't come cheap. Outfitting the family Mercedes in this bulletproof material can cost $100,000. And for some, that's just the beginning. 'I can think of 10 or 12 families who have armored cars for everyone,' said Craig Fingold, the president of Beverly Hills Motoring, which has dubbed itself the Neiman Marcus of automotive accessories. Depending on the thickness, armor can add from 400 to 4,000 pounds to the weight of the car. Fingold said that a record mogul who had been threatened with death by a rapper had recently come in and had his Suburban outfitted with 4-inch metal -- enough to stop machine-gun fire. And Notorious B.I.G. stopped in to check out an armoring system but did not buy it. A few months later, he was shot to death in his Suburban.
The Works  Even drivers whose security concerns don't involve wielding or dodging heavy firepower have a number of self-defense toys to consider. Auto Taser ($200) delivers a powerful electric shock to anyone who lays an unwelcome hand on the steering wheel. Tiny video cameras ($800) that are installed with a clear view of the front seat can be useful for those who want evidence of police harassment; Fingold says they're especially popular with celebrities and sports figures. But for some wary drivers, the best defense is a good offense. Outfits like the Counter Spy Shops sell devices that spew oil, leaving a dangerous slick behind them ($1,300); they are reportedly popular in Russia, as are similar devices that spray a mist of oil on the windshield of the car behind ($1,300). Contraptions that scatter a large number of tacks in a car's wake -- first seen on countless Saturday-morning cartoons -- cost slightly more. (They start at $1,500.) Counter Spy claims it installed one for the Shah of Iran. Thankfully for the average American driver, however, most are available for export only. Finally, for those less afraid of fellow motorists than of airborne hazards, the smart choice is a tear-gas deterrent system that seals the car against unfiltered air ($5,000).