There is described a system for preventing vehicle theft, the system comprising: a plurality of signal emitting devices placed and camouflaged among various parts of a vehicle, each of the plurality of signal emitting devices being independent of the vehicle's power source; readers placed at a plurality of locations in a geographical area and connected to a network having a central location, the readers receiving signals from the plurality of signal emitting devices and transferring reader data to the central location; and a central database at the central location comprising registration data for each vehicle equipped with the signal emitting devices, and whereby the central database is correlated with the reader data to identify vehicles that have been stolen.