Keyless car theft has never been so easy

Stand outside the front door with a big loop of wonky metal and the electronic wizardry of our modern age does all the hard work of nicking your car

I bet ChatGPT couldn't have figured that one out, only human intelligence possesses the crafty monkey algorythm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-65696161

...and all because some people can't even be bothered pushing a button or putting a key into a lock...

Edited By Ady1 on 28/05/2023 10:09:57

I don't think I had better click on that link because I do not have a TV license and I worry that my computer may dob me into the boys in blue if I put one foot wrong

Years ago a colleague married to a senior policeman had their Mercedes stolen off their front drive whilst she and Superintendent hubby watched TV about 20' away. Saw and heard nothing.

No electronics involved, the thieves arrived with a crane on a flat-bed truck, passed straps underneath, and lifted the car over the gate and on to the truck. Only took a few minutes. A neighbour had seen the car being lifted and assumed it was being taken away for repair. Never seen again. No suspects identified.

Dave

On most (all?) Mercedes keyless systems a double push on the lock button turns the key off, so that it doesn't broadcast. You do need to press a button on the fob to reactivate it the next time you use the car, but it does prevent these attacks - also reduces the chances of the fob battery going flat!

LOL, so they are advising the owners of keyless cars to use a steering wheel lock for security. Err, seems to rather defeat the object and be going back to square one 1970s style. How about they just make a key system that works?

Lot to be said for the old hidden toggle switch in the fuel pump circuit. Simple but effective.

..it's scrutiny of profit margins dressed-up as 'providing what the customers want' - it's way cheaper to fit a couple of chips and solenoids than keyed locks and mechanical actuation..

This has been happening for years and now we have battery angle grinders a steering lock is no real deterrent.

Tony

I always use my Stoplock Pro, which has regularly been voted best of the type in various surveys.

Yes, somebody with a battery angle grinder could cut into it (or the steering wheel) after time, but I work on the basis that the majority of thefts are opportunistic, so why bother if they can move to the car next to mine and steal that easily instead.

If a toe rag really wants your car specifically, they will nick it regardless of keys, locks, electronic wizardy or immobilisers etc etc.

I've removed those(the customer had lost the key) using a Leatherman Wave. Although a cordless grinder would have been easier. Best of type is a very low bar when considering steering locks.

Come on chaps all this food and gloom about keyless entry vehicles.

whenever man invents/designs any kind of security device he scally's will hunt for a way of beating ectechnology.

There are two things that can be done to slow them down and/or cause them to look elsewhere.

fFirstly use steering lock as already discussed. Cordless anger grinders are available but they are noisy and take time, both the thieves enemy.

Then add to this securing the keyless entry system. Being electronic a Faraday Cage is the way. There are pouches to keep your key(s) in which contain metallised linings which mask the signal from the key. Spare keys should be kept in a similar device or even a simple metal container.

Domthe pouches work? Well we have three cars with keyless entry and periodically check them by leaving them sealed and then trying to open the cars with the key alongside the door handle. In well over a year they have never failed.

The pouches are readily available on eBay, Amazon and most good car accessory shops.

Can we all get over this? Undoubtedly car theft happens but you would have slightly less chance of winning Euromillions than someone stealing your keyless car with a loop of wire, just about the same chance as someone happening to be looking over your shoulder just as you are entering your banking app details in a crowd in broad daylight. Most of these panics and scares are just utter nonsense fuelled by a sensationalising press on a slow news day and I would think some of the scare stories are merely urban myths anyway. Obviously, fraud and theft are a reality but most frauds succeed through the gullibility of the victim and most thefts are opportunistic due to the lack of security precautions. That doesn't diminish my sympathy for any victim of crime because I have been robbed on more than one occasion and it's not nice but I don't let the thought of it affect my enjoyment of life.

Yes, I have read the piece on the BBC new web site. Am I worried? No.

I don't live in an area blighted by such thefts. The only people I know who suffer from such thefts live in dodgy areas or town centres.

This is really just the media over reacting to a small problem.

(For this you are going to get a little story. About 25 years ago a work collegue had his almost worthless car stollen on a Saturday night from outside his flat in the city centre. He reported it to the police who found it safe and un-vandalised in a dodgy area of town. A week later on the Sunday morning he found his car had gone. This time he knew where to look and sure enough it was there. This went on until he scrapped the car).

JA

One of my former managers was a reborn petrol-head with a Ford Granada, I think it was.

He fitted a hidden switch in the boot, that connected to earth a wire from the ignition coil in such a way the engine would turn over but not fire.

It caught him out one day when he forgot. What surprised him though, was the car did start and he was just able to emerge part-way from a parking bay when it cut out.

.

Some years back there was a spate of smash-and-grab raids on cars parked in out-of-the-way spots on the Mendip Hills, about twenty miles from Bristol. I do not know if the scum were ever caught but a friend living in Bristol told me the suspects included youths on Community Service Orders in the city. If they had clean driving-licences one of the services they were given to perform was using pool or hired cars to ferry elderly people to and from hospital, If they did that well, as reward they could sometimes borrow the car at the weekend....

One of my old neighbours had a high performance Ford stolen from the attached garage at their house. They didn’t hear a thing.

Nigel

Community Service Orders are very variable in their efficacy, we were approached by the Probation service at our local Church to employ those on community service to cut the grass in our fairly extensive churchyard. The designated felons were brought to the Church and left unsupervised with lawn mowers and a supply of petrol and shown the extent of the task that they were expected to complete, they promptly poured away the petrol and then spent the rest of their allotted hours in trying to break into the Church, a total waste of taxpayers resources ! Dave W

Any who are worried about thieves using transponders to unlock and start their cars just need to put their electronic key in the microwave oven and close the door. Microwave ovens are electrically screened to prevent radio frequency leakage - well, at least at 2.400GHz.

Of course if thieves actually break into your house, that will be the first place they will look to steal your car keys.......I always take mine with me.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 29/05/2023 11:27:14

Just remember to take your keys out before heating up your morning coffee in the microwave.

When I bought a new Izuzu, if it was not for my wife staying behind in vehicle I would have never known. As I walked away and put the keys in my pocket the vehicle locked up, the same happens if I lock the vehicle and lock it and walk away, it unlocks with nobody in it which give a window before it locks automatically again. I discovered this only a month after having the vehicle. They could not replace the keys under gurantee , its all the same soft easy operating buttons, so I have to walk away and be sure not to touch it in a wrong way till distance of activation is exceeded.

So it seems no matter how digitally secure the system is, theres always a way accidently around it so far.

Some on here think these keyless systems are unsafe, but forget that these are generally high-value vehicles that are nicked. The scroats certainly will target them if it is esy pickings. But I expect these thefts are a minority when considered as a simple percentage of stolen vehicles.

The scroats will take possession of other people’s property if given the opportunity - whether vehicles or other items.

Keyless systems are becoming more secure. Agreed, some systems are susceptible - some high value vehicles were easily nicked - Range Rovers were one marque that where the keyless system was very seriously flawed in the first implementations.

Some people don’t remember (or conveniently forget) that some vehicles were simple to break into when air bags were first fitted! Air bag deployment automatically unlocked the doors - so it didn't take long for some to realise that a heavy thump, with something like a lump hammer, on the vehicle towing point on some cars set off the airbags and unlocked the doors to allow simple and easy entrance. Not theft of the vehicle but easy to nick the contents - and an expensive repair job for the owner.

Go back further and car keys were a joke for some brands. I once borrowed a bunch of Ford car keys from my local police station (back when the station was manned in the evening (at least). I had locked myself out of my cortina and needed to gain access to drive home. I think it was about the second or third key that opened my car door.

One does not hear of many Rolls Royces being stolen - valuable, but not easy to sell on or break for parts!

If the scroats really want your car, they will take it. Do not think you are invulnerable, unless extensive steps are taken to avoid it. That will be whether they can drive or carry it away. Whether garaged or not - but obviously they will take the easiest pickings - they would get it one way or another. One even hears of ‘carjacking’.

While expensive mercs and rangerovers receive news coverage, the thousands of cars stolen by joy-riders are only local news - if that. Most insure their vehicles under a policy which includes theft. It is unfortunate that the policy cost will rise if a claim arises the policy, but it is generally much less than the loss of the vehicle.

I’m guessing Ady1 does not even own a vehicle with keyless locking? Just scaremongering? It won’t change much, however - the scroats will always be catching up on new security, but they will find ways to continue their thieving ways - be sure of that!

A neighbour who had a large twin axle flat bed trailerhad left it unused for some time in his yard,it had a secure hitchlock,so at night thieves unbolted the entire hitch then took a tow hitch from a caravan in an adjoining property put it on the flat bed and then oh dear,they did not notice that all four tyres on the trailer were flat,they did not notice the flat tyres as they were surrounded by tall stinging nettles, the thieves plan had been to steal a Kubota tractor from one property and use the trailer next door to carry the tractor away. though my neighbour did loose the hitch lock as the thieves took it with them, I got involved a the thieves had cut the brake rods to to the hitch. His wife also had a horse trailer so I suggested a tack weld on the hitch bolts to stop any other thieves from removin the hitch. a while later the owner had found the stable yard gate open and the trailer hitch rotated so that it was obvious that another attempt had been foiled.Theft is dam near impossible to prevent,its just that its best to make it difficult for thieves so they they will go after an easier target. Though the ingenuity of the model engineer can help by making /modifying locking devices on sheds/gates non standard so that thievewho know how to break commercial items will be slowed down or stopped.