Back in the late 80s a company called Jacobs Electronics came up with an interesting car protection system. If a thief stole a car it allowed 'em to crank and start it (with or without the key), then a built in timer would kill all power to the ignition box and no matter how long they cranked on it, it wouldn start again until the owner entered a code.

This allowed the thief to think they were stealin the car and get it backed out of the parking space or driveway before it died, where it was now in the way of other motorists and then let 'em keep crankin away at it, tryin to get it started again, while hopefully drawing attention to themselves.

Most used car dealers here these days have an ignition kill system added so if a person is late on their car payment they can remotely disable the ignition. Most such systems are also tied to a GPS locator and will cease to allow the operator to start the car if it's been driven outside the state, and of course tell the repo dude exactly where to pick it up if they stop payin on it