Editing Darrell Issa (section)

==Business career==
===Quantum/Steal Stopper===
After leaving the military, Issa and his second wife, Kathy Stanton, returned to the [[Greater Cleveland|Cleveland area]]. According to Issa, he and his wife pooled their savings, sold their cars (a 1976 Mercedes and a 1967 VW [[Volkswagen Beetle|Beetle]]) and a BMW motorcycle, and borrowed $50,000 from family members to invest in Quantum Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer run by a friend from [[Cleveland Heights]]. It assembled [[bug zapper]]s, [[CB radio]] parts, and other consumer products for other companies. One of those clients, [[car alarm]] manufacturer Steal Stopper, became the path to Issa's fortune. It was struggling badly, and he took control of it by [[foreclosure|foreclosing]] a $60,000 loan he had made to it when its founder, Joey Adkins, missed a payment. Adkins remained as an employee.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with [[Toyota]]. Early in the morning of September 7, 1982, Quantum and Steal Stopper's offices and factory in the Cleveland suburb of [[Maple Heights, Ohio|Maple Heights]] caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out. The buildings and almost all the inventory within were destroyed. An investigation of the fire noted "suspicious burn patterns" with fires starting in two places aided by an [[accelerant]] such as [[gasoline]].<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

Adkins said Issa had appeared to prepare for a fire by increasing the [[fire insurance]] policy by 462% three weeks earlier, and by removing computer equipment containing accounting and customer information. St. Paul Insurance, suspicious of [[arson]] and [[insurance fraud]], initially paid only $25,000, according to Issa.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Seabrook |first1=Andrea|title=House Investigator Issa Has Faced Allegations As Well|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/04/16/150739985/house-investigator-issa-has-faced-allegations-as-well|access-date=September 12, 2016|work=All Things Considered|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=April 16, 2012}}</ref>

===Directed Electronics===
{{main|Directed Electronics}}
Steal Stopper soon returned a profit again. As car theft rose in the U.S. during the 1980s, so did the demand for security devices. [[Rolls-Royce Motor Cars|Rolls-Royce]], [[BMW]], and [[General Motors]] joined Ford and Toyota as customers of Steal Stopper. In 1985, Issa sold the company to a California-based maker of [[home alarm]]s, and moved to the [[San Diego]] suburb of [[Vista, California|Vista]], to work for the company.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

Shortly afterward, Issa left to start Directed Electronics, Inc. (DEI). He has continued to live in Vista.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/> Issa used his knowledge of the weaknesses in automotive security to develop effective [[anti-theft system|theft deterrents]]. Using sensors that, when armed, would detect motion and pressure on the car's body, his device made loud noise to draw attention to a would-be car thief, such as the car's horn honking or a speaker playing a recording with Issa's voice saying: "Protected by Viper. Stand back" and "Please step away from the car", warnings for DEI's signature product, the Viper car alarm.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EEDC143FF930A15754C0A9659C8B63|work=The New York Times|title=California Recall Backer Feels Heat|first=Charlie|last=Leduff|date=July 23, 2003|access-date=May 1, 2010}}</ref> Sales grew from $1 million in the company's first year to $14 million by 1989.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

===Greene Properties===

Issa is partner in 17 limited partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs) that own commercial properties across North San Diego County.<ref>{{cite web |title='Down-to-earth' Issa has lived 20 years in Vista |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sdut-down-earth-issa-has-lived-20-years-vista-2012may25-story.html |website=Watchdog |date=May 25, 2012 |publisher=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref> He is CEO of Greene Properties, Inc., a privately held real estate investment company with commercial real estate holdings in San Diego North County. Headquartered in Vista, it manages three commercial office buildings in [[Carlsbad, California|Carlsbad]] with a total of 26,354 square feet. Employees include his wife and son William "Will" Issa as assistant property manager.<ref>{{cite web |title=Greene Properties |url=http://www.greene-properties.com/default.aspx?page=4 |website=Greene Properties |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025165556/http://greene-properties.com/default.aspx?page=4 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The office is in the same building as Issa's former congressional office, near their house of the last 20 years.