Is Your Car Safe?

Brendan Miner

10/29/15

Car break-ins are a common thing. You go outside to get in your car and you see that its not there. You only find broken glass or parts of the car the robber broke off to get inside your car. This is not the case anymore. Now when you have discovered your car has been stolen there will be no evidence. There will be no shattered glass or pieces of the door on the ground. The reason for this is due to the new electronic keys.

            For many new cars, they don’t use keys anymore; they have electronic keys now that unlock your doors. It’s a genius idea and it makes it very easy for the driver to unlock their car. However, there are many dangers to this now that people may not have expected.

            There is a new technology that has come onto the market that costs, “$30 and is made in china and Eastern Europe that allows thieves to break into and steal BMW’s”(Bilton 1). What these devices do is they use, “a radio transmitter that figures out the unique code of a car’s key fob by using brute force to cycle though millions of combinations until they pick the right one”(Bilton 1). This is a very serious problem. Now no ones car is safe. Your car can never be truly locked with devices such as these. There was a perfect example of this happening to David Beckham all the way back in 2006. Using devices such as these a team of thieves stole David Beckham’s BMW X5 worth around $100,000.  Now even though right now this device can only break into BMW’s, there will probably be more devices coming out for other brands of cars.

            In the meantime, one simple solution is, “putting your keys in the fridge or freezer. Another simple alternative: Wrap your keys in aluminum foil”

(Yesenosky 1). What this will do is stop the key from sending radio signals to the car. The car and the key are constantly sending signals and if they are in the freezer or in tin foil the signal is broken. If the signal is broken the thieves wont be able to use their devices and your car can be saved.

I personally think this is horrible, and I am sure most people will agree with me. I believe that these devices should be banned everywhere. There is always the black market where they can be distributed, but its’ about getting to the source and shut down who ever is the maker of these. With these devices lurking around I am sure to never leave anything valuable in my car again.

Works Cited

1)     Bilton, Nick. "Keeping Your Car Safe From Electronic Thieves." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

2)     N.C., Dan Yesenosky WCNC-TV Charlotte. "Putting Keys in Freezer Could Prevent Car Break-ins." USA Today. Gannett, 07 May 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.