Author Topic: Theives using Mystery Gadgets to Elec Unlock Cars (Read 1137 times)

Binechi · « **on:** January 02, 2014, 07:25:09 AM »

Thieves Are Using “Mystery Gadgets” To Electronically Unlock Cars And Steal What Is Inside

http://www.infowars.com/thieves-are-using-mystery-gadgets-to-electronically-unlock-cars-and-steal-what-is-inside/
Michael Snyder

American Dream
January 2, 2014

All over America, criminals are using improvised electronic devices to electronically unlock vehicles and steal whatever they find inside. These “mystery gadgets” reportedly recreate the same signals that the key fobs that so many of us carry around send out.

Image: Key Fobs (Wikimedia Commons).

As you will see below, footage is popping up nationwide of thieves using these “mystery gadgets” to remotely unlock car doors and disable alarm systems. Once a car has been unlocked, it takes these thieves just a few moments to take what they want before leaving without a trace. This is now happening all over the country, and authorities do not know any way to prevent it from happening. For now, the most common piece of advice that police are giving to people is to not leave any valuables inside your vehicle at all.

When reports of this sort of crime first came out, even car manufacturers were totally stumped. Nobody could figure out how this was happening, and CNN startled a lot of people when they started reporting on this. The following is an excerpt from one of those reports…

Police across the country are stumped by a rash of car thefts. In surveillance video of the thefts, criminals appear to open locked cars with a mysterious handheld device.

Nobody, not even the car manufacturers, knows how it works.

In Long Beach, Calif. The man walked up to the car, and used a small box to open it. Right next to him another man, also using a box, opens that car.

The problem is they’re thieves without keys. Now they’ve swiped all valuables from the cars.

In Chicago, it was the exact same scenario. A man by a sedan unlocked it without a key. The alarm was disabled by some mystery device.

Frances · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2014, 09:08:53 PM »

:roll-laugh1:
How nice of them to no longer break the window! Now, when they find nothing of value, they can just leave! People who have to park their cars on the street don't leave anything of valuable inside.

ggreg · « **Reply #2 on:** January 03, 2014, 02:43:43 AM »

What one man can invent another can reverse engineer.

They don't have much car theft in Saudi Arabia. Difficult to press those little buttons with just stumps.

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #3 on:** January 03, 2014, 03:35:51 AM »

.

I think it's stupid for them to say that everyone is "stumped."

If thieves can figure it out, then so can the "experts," or else they're not expert at all.

How would you like it if you were to go to the bank and they told you that some thieves found a way to take all the bank's assets, and your account is empty?

I would suppose it's likely that the thieves hang out and wait for a person to use their key fob to either lock their car or unlock it, and the thieves have a receiver that records the radio signal that the key fob puts out. Then they wait for the person to disappear, or to return later with the same car, and walk away, then the thieves playback the recorded key fob signal to unlock the car, etc.

When you use a remote device to lock OR to unlock your car, you are BROADCASTING a radio signal for all to hear, that is, for those with "ears" to hear.

So the way to prevent this problem would be, obviously, don't leave anything in the car worth stealing, but what about the car? If they can open the doors, they can tow the car away and steal it.

Especially young people like to lock their car as they're walking away from it, but maybe that's not such a good idea anymore. I'd suggest, you shouldn't use your key fob to LOCK your car, because someone might be hiding nearby recording your radio signal.

Another idea would be to have the push-button door locks at the door handle on the car, so that you have to key in a code by pushing those buttons, and stand close to the door when doing so, preventing anyone from watching you from the side at a distance.

Frances · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2014, 11:08:29 AM »

:dancing-banana:
Copy my uncle who had to park in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. Drive an old clunker and carry the battery inside. Carry a weapon. His car was never stolen. Someone tried to jump him exactly once. Word got out not to mess with him.

ggreg · « **Reply #5 on:** January 03, 2014, 05:23:19 PM »

It is pretty simple to install a kill switch under the dashboard somewhere. Much simpler, and cleaner, than removing a car battery. Just hide it and learn where it is by "feel". Or hide it in plain sight as a rear fog light switch or ac switch or some other spare switch you pick up at the wrecker's yard or on ebay.

Still this post is about people stealing from cars not stealing the cars and you could do that in the 1970s and 80s with a coat hanger.

OHCA · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2014, 06:04:57 PM »

Quote from: Neil Obstat

.

I think it's stupid for them to say that everyone is "stumped."

If thieves can figure it out, then so can the "experts," or else they're not expert at all.

The experts probably know what technology is being used. But they'd probably be chased around the globe like Edward Snowden by the various USofA alphabet soup goons if they disclosed it.

ClarkSmith · « **Reply #7 on:** January 04, 2014, 02:16:25 PM »

Tech enthusiasts always make wild claims about how technology will make crime virtually impossible. What actually happens is the criminals figure out the technology and use it toward their advantage.

Now they want people to lock their homes with their smartphones. This seems like a disaster to me when you consider how easily smartphones are cloned and hacked.

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #8 on:** January 05, 2014, 06:07:12 AM »

Quote from: Frances

:dancing-banana:
Copy my uncle who had to park in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. Drive an old clunker and carry the battery inside. Carry a weapon. His car was never stolen. Someone tried to jump him exactly once. Word got out not to mess with him.

He probably carried the battery inside because he didn't want someone to steal it.

Someone stole my battery from my Jeep CJ7 when I parked it overnight at a friend's house, and I had padlocks on the hood. I have no idea how they got them open, except by picking them. They were good 4-pin Master locks with 7 possible lengths each (2401 permutations), not the cheap ones with a zig-zag keyway. Both were locked, but my battery was gone under the hood. That was in 1982. Street thugs sometimes know how to pick locks like that so it's not impossible.

.