Do you keep your car keys in freezer? Maybe you should!

A recent Network World article talks about the world of high tech auto theft.

Using a $17 amplifier, thieves were able to boost the signal between your car and your key fob sitting on the kitchen table and convince your car to open up.

The article has links to several other articles including one that talks about cloning a high end BMW with a blank key in less than 3 minutes.  Break a window (and block the alarm going off too), plug something into the diagnostic port near the steering wheel and clone the key.  Then just plug it in and drive off.  Apparently hundreds of BMWs have been stolen this way in Europe.

And the freezer?  Apparently the freezer acts as a shield for the radio waves and the amplifiers don’t work.

I suspect this is more difficult that it seems and requires a degree of skill, but given the payoff for stealing the car – the crooks are working on it.  And the cops don’t seem to have a handle on it – sometimes blaming the car owner for leaving the car unlocked.

In one video, the crook opened the car, stole a laptop out of the back seat and a $15,000 custom bicycle out of the hatch.  This problem is easy to solve – don’t leave valuables in your car.  Oh, and the considerate crook even locked the car again when he left.  All caught on video.

by