Warning: thefts of and from cars

Fretwired

This is apparently new to the UK.

There have been loads of thefts from and of cars where I live in the last week. The thieves gain access to the cars with remote keyless systems quickly without breaking windows or damaging the cars. In some cases they locked the cars after they had searched them/taken what the wanted. The police were baffled.

Keyless systems are designed to work a few feet away from the car. However, in eastern Europe you can buy a cheap device that acts like an amplifier and increases the range dramatically so that if you leave your keys by your front door the device can get your car to recognise them so it opens up and depending on the model starts the engine. It seems crinimals are buying these devices.

Here's a blog from the US .. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/style/keeping-your-car-safe-from-electronic-thieves.html?referer&_r=1

ESBlonde

Essentially no lock is foolproof, it just deters the casual thief and might slow down the professional. Once this info gets around the jails the number of trained/enlightened thieves will grow.
Who ever thought keyless/bluetooth/wireless security would be reliable for very long?

Phil_aka_Pip

At least with a physical lock you have to pick it. I'm sure it's not beyond anyone's wit to make cars which use different locks on the keyswitch and the door locks, and to make the keyswitch very difficult to bypass (well, it seems they already do the latter as I discovered with LRV last autumn).

An intelligent physical lock could know when it is being picked and ask the ECU to fire HT from the coils into the lock metalwork

siremoon

On BMWs there are two different types of keyless system.  The standard system and what BMW call "comfort access" which on most models is an option. 

The standard system requires you to press a button on the key fob to lock/unlock the car and is only keyless in respect to the ignition.  The comfort access system however only requires you to be close to the car with the key fob and the car can be locked/unlocked by touching the driver's door handle.  The signal amplification method described in the article is thus only potentially feasible on BMWs with comfort access.  Unfortunately BMW makes it obvious which cars these are by having a marking on the door handle.

fretmeister

I am very glad I have an old car.

underdog

I can save them the trouble my car is never locked at night

stimpsonslostson

underdog said:

I can save them the trouble my car is never locked at night

I'm often the same. I went to drive my car for the first time in 3 weeks on Monday, got in & then realised I'd left the key in the house. :-O

I don't do it on purpose, I grew up in a rural area where there was no real need to lock the car (or front door for that matter) & still forget to lock the car when I leave it despite now living in the city. Thankfully we have a yale lock on the flat, so I can't easily forget to lock that!

It's an older car and I keep NOTHING in it, but even so...

Phil_aka_Pip

fretmeister said:

I am very glad I have an old car.

wis. LRV is most un-nick-worthy

fretmeister

Phil_aka_Pip said:

fretmeister said:

I am very glad I have an old car.

wis. LRV is most un-nick-worthy

I've got a 16 year old diesel Focus with quarter of a million mile on the clock.

It's in really good condition so I'm keeping it until it dies.

It's worth more in parts than as a car, and even then not more than a couple of hundred.

Sporky

ESBlonde said:

Essentially no lock is foolproof, it just deters the casual thief and might slow down the professional.

I dunno. When I locked the key in the boot of my Yeti the RAC man couldn't pick the locks - they have a clutch system so you can't get the tension bar to engage. He was it it a good hour or so. Then he tried using a little airbag to open a gap between the door and frame; the first airbag burst before the door had moved at all, the second he managed to get a bit of coathanger (well, that's what it looked like) inside the car, only to find that the interior door handles are disengaged when the car is deadlocked and the unlock button on the centre console also doesn't work when the car is deadlocked.

He looked very defeated at the end of it all.

Smashing a window deadlocks the car automagically so even though you could get in you'd still need the key to drive it at all. Even the bonnet and boot release are disengaged.

That was a 10 plate, I think, and not a particularly expensive car.

Paul_C

stimpsonslostson said:

underdog said:

I can save them the trouble my car is never locked at night

I'm often the same. I went to drive my car for the first time in 3 weeks on Monday, got in & then realised I'd left the key in the house. :-O

I don't do it on purpose, I grew up in a rural area where there was no real need to lock the car (or front door for that matter) & still forget to lock the car when I leave it despite now living in the city. Thankfully we have a yale lock on the flat, so I can't easily forget to lock that!

It's an older car and I keep NOTHING in it, but even so...

Whilst I occasionally leave the car unlocked I did the opposite a while ago - I got in the car, put the key in the ignition and then wondered if I'd shut the front door, I looked in the mirror and noted that it was as far open as it could go, which suggested that I hadn't.

menamestom

Back to one of these for now, until manufacturers can get their security better:-

octatonic

I've considered buying a fake key fob and leaving it in plain sight (although not visible through the window), so if we do get broken into they think they are getting the car key.

Sporky

Would you have smeared it with a mixture of LSD and excrement?

breakstuff

I got caught out several years ago when I locked my keys in my Golf.It was a warm day and I chucked my jacket with my keys in the pocket into the boot forgetting that my car autolocks after about thirty seconds.Called Green Flag out and the guy spent about an hour trying to get in to no avail.I therefore had a choice leaving the car there and going back the next day with a spare set or breaking the rear quarter glass and as I was about eighty miles from home I decided on the latter.Just before we did it the Green Flag guy asked if he could try something else first.He wedged the top of the door open,got his long piece of wire with a hook on the end and proceeded to hook the lever that lowers the back seat thus exposing my jacket and dragging it out of the boot.He then managed to get his hook into one of the pockets and when he took the hook out there was something stuck to the end of it which turned out to be a piece of Magnetix,a type of kids building block which is,as the name suggests magnetic.I'd picked it up from our front garden on the way out and put it in my pocket.Anyway when me went into another pocket the Magnetix piece latched onto the keys and he was able,very gingerly,to fish them out of the gap in the door.

I couldn't thank him enough,though I think he was thinking that he wasn't going to be beaten but that piece of Magnetix definitely made the job that bit easier.

speshul91

Mines that unworthy of stealing I left my keys in the ignition the other day for 3 hours. Nothing. My shed is still here. Xsara Picasso with 175k on the clock.

Phil_aka_Pip

Sporky said:

Would you have smeared it with a mixture of LSD and excrement?

good idea

Sporky

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Sporky said:

Would you have smeared it with a mixture of LSD and excrement?

good idea

Feel free to use it - no royalties or licencing fees involved.

FX_Munkee

I very rarely lock my MX-5 when I'm using it. I mean what is the point, it's a convertible.
I have been known to make a loud beep noise when I walk away from parking it up though, just in case/you can't be too careful...
BTW if anybody does lock their keys in the boot of a MK1 MX-5 you can get them back in about 3 mins with a screwdriver

menamestom

speshul91 said:

Mines that unworthy of stealing I left my keys in the ignition the other day for 3 hours. Nothing. My shed is still here. Xsara Picasso with 175k on the clock.

smear it with a mixture of LSD and excrement, I'm sure that would improve it somewhat.

Sporky

menamestom said:

smear it with a mixture of LSD and excrement

I take it this will now be the forum's answer to almost any situation.