A steering wheel lock is a device that you attach to the steering wheel of a car to deter thieves.

Early permutations of this type of security device operated by connecting the steering wheel to one of the car's pedals,

usually the brake or the clutch, but it eventually evolved into a more self-contained sort of thing that looks like a cane and stretches to encompass the steering wheel and nothing else. These newer designs

function by preventing the steering wheel from turning. So most modern versions meant for modern

vehicles stick to the wheel and consist of two pieces that extend outward from the middle of the

steering wheel, locking onto the outer rim. And it then prevents steering by basically being long and cumbersome,

its components colliding with other parts of the car, or failing that, the driver's legs,

in such a way that it's practically impossible to drive the car while the device is attached.

The most popular brand of steering wheel lock, in the US at least, is called The Club,

and it was originally introduced in the mid-1980s,

though the earliest version of the club was relatively simple to bypass,

using Freon, of the kind that comes in little aerosol bottles for refilling air conditioners.

You would spray the club with Freon and then shatter it once it was frozen. Later models were made of an alloy that would not shatter in this way, but they could still be bypassed by either hitting the club with a hammer for a few minutes, deforming it to the point that it can be removed, or by utilizing some kind of hacksaw to cut through a part of the car's steering wheel. So basically you can't drive the car while

the club is attached to the wheel, so you cut through a part of the comparably soft steering wheel,

take out a chunk of it, and that allows you to slide the club off the wheel and use the car

as normal. This device is use, by the way, and the reason that it's necessary to begin with is due to a flaw in the way many cars have been built over the decades.

It's possible in many models of vehicle to hot wire, the ignition switch, the part that allows you to turn the vehicle on,

in such a way that you can start the engine without having the proper key.

The details of how this is done vary from model to model, but generally hot wiring involves

popping off some component of the vehicle's dashboard or steering column, finding the proper

wires, which when connected will tell the car's system that the ignition process has been completed.

These wires are ultimately connected when the owner turns the key in the car to start it,

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