Wife's car stolen from our driveway overnight

[the wopster]

Yeah nowadays i don't think faraday pouches are really worthwhile, lots of easier ways to steal cars for the most part.

Have a read of this if you want to scare yourself with just one example with how easy modern cars are to steal..

https://kentindell.github.io/2023/04/03/can-injection/

Hence the reason I won’t buy a car with keyless entry/start, one of the main reasons I went with the R-roc I have now

 

[neilw]

I've never really understood keyless entry. It's no effort to press the unlock button on the key and put it into the ignition car to start it, I do it without thinking. Part of me wonders if the manufactures make it easy to steal a car, as you then get a new one, they make more money.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Looking for the remote is where the effort of that starts. It’s awesome.

 

[Bear]

I've never really understood keyless entry. It's no effort to press the unlock button on the key and put it into the ignition car to start it, I do it without thinking. Part of me wonders if the manufactures make it easy to steal a car, as you then get a new one, they make more money.

Have you never seen a horror movie where they are being chased by a murderer or zombies, they jump in the car and fumble with the keys and get killed or eaten. I would have been heading towards the horizon with my keyless entry

 

[Nigel Kingdon]

As it happens I have one of each, full keyless entry/start and a keyless start. Biggest plus point is no longer have bunch of keys dangling and (over time) making the lock loose and temperamental.

 

[bayo000]

they can just wirelessly hack into cars these days.

 

[Nasher]

I've suspected some had been fully cracked. It was always going to happen unless they kept patching them, which they don't. Now there are basically millions of cars broadcasting vulnerable networks. There is no physical security like on old cars and physical security is always the strongest layer.

It happens to anything wireless eventually. Algorithms get leaked by insiders, new vulnerabilities found etc. The time to crack it goes from billions of years to a few seconds after X years. It's why WIFI encryption has recently moved to WPA3. WPA2 got broken, just like WEP did before that.

You have to think of a keyless cars as having no security from the factory. Find other ways to secure it which will require physical effort and take time to figure out. That will deter thieves.

 

[Uther]

Have you never seen a horror movie where they are being chased by a murderer or zombies, they jump in the car and fumble with the keys and get killed or eaten. I would have been heading towards the horizon with my keyless entry

Not if someone had stolen your car though...

 

[Gazanimal]

Seen a short snippet of the neighbour's CCTV which shows someone hanging around the car for several minutes around between 2:55am-3am.

Waiting to see more as it looks like they've wirelessly gained access. Seems Fiesta's are easy targets too.

 

[Bear]

Not if someone had stolen your car though...

If someone wants a car, nothing is going to stop them. Certain manufacturers use techniques to combat the signal relay method, for isntance my previous Mercedes if you double tapped the lock button on the fob it disabled the keyless entry. On my current BMW the fob goes to sleep after it hasnt moved for a minute or so. Of course it wont stop someone from breaking into your house and grabbing the keys short of a big dog

 

[Semple]

Ford Fiesta Titanium (2014) - Posted it up on our local village facebook group, but it could be long gone by now - especially with the full tank of petrol in it.

Seems odd for them to nick an 11 year old Ford that's only worth a few grand. Presumably they'll actually swap plates and use it to commit further crimes with the intent of abandoning it, rather than stealing a car to sell it or it's parts.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I've suspected some had been fully cracked. It was always going to happen unless they kept patching them, which they don't. Now there are basically millions of cars broadcasting vulnerable networks. There is no physical security like on old cars and physical security is always the strongest layer.

It happens to anything wireless eventually. Algorithms get leaked by insiders, new vulnerabilities found etc. The time to crack it goes from billions of years to a few seconds after X years. It's why WIFI encryption has recently moved to WPA3. WPA2 got broken, just like WEP did before that.

You have to think of a keyless cars as having no security from the factory. Find other ways to secure it which will require physical effort and take time to figure out. That will deter thieves.

Physical security?

I can remember when many cars were nigh on impossible to insure in London as the physical security was just a laugh. Around the time of the Sierra/Escort cosworths.
It was common joke that a ford key was almost a get into any car key
I opened an Astra in the works carpark and got in to realise it wasn't my car due to the junk on the passenger seat, and that was the supposed high security locks.
Locks wear and get laughably easy to turn when they are worn.
Lack of immobilisers meant you could do the film special of bumping the starter, from the ignition or under the bonnet.

Alarms were useful for a few years, before they became so sensitive and loud that everyones reaction was not "omg a car alarm is going off I better check if its being stolen" to "FFS will someone shut that car alarm off"

So summary, there has always been evolution in making cars harder to steal, but it always got a limited shelf life before the scrotes catchup and make the prevention mechanisms more a pain for the owner than a negative to the thieves.

Disclocs/bars became a thing for a while but they all had flaws as well and the proliferation of actual useful 18v tools means many can be defeated physically very quickly as well.

 

[lordrobs]

Physical security?

I can remember when many cars were nigh on impossible to insure in London as the physical security was just a laugh. Around the time of the Sierra/Escort cosworths.
It was common joke that a ford key was almost a get into any car key
I opened an Astra in the works carpark and got in to realise it wasn't my car due to the junk on the passenger seat, and that was the supposed high security locks.
Locks wear and get laughably easy to turn when they are worn.
Lack of immobilisers meant you could do the film special of bumping the starter, from the ignition or under the bonnet.

Alarms were useful for a few years, before they became so sensitive and loud that everyones reaction was not "omg a car alarm is going off I better check if its being stolen" to "FFS will someone shut that car alarm off"

So summary, there has always been evolution in making cars harder to steal, but it always got a limited shelf life before the scrotes catchup and make the prevention mechanisms more a pain for the owner than a negative to the thieves.

Disclocs/bars became a thing for a while but they all had flaws as well and the proliferation of actual useful 18v tools means many can be defeated physically very quickly as well.

I remember my Grandad getting into the wrong Sierra when I was a kid "Blinkin bleedin arm holes, this ain't my car" I also vaguely remember him locking the keys in and one of my cousins breaking into it with a tennis ball that had been cut in half!

My old mechanic also had a Mini van that the local yoots used to break into on a fairly regular basis. He fitted a hidden isolator switch under the dash so they only ever got as far as rolling it down the hill a bit before giving up and abandoning it! Same mechanic had a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth that lived locked up in his unit because of how much of a theft magnet that was. As I recall it had some weird plug in card for the imobilizer.

Theft has always been an issue with cars, just the nature of how it is done and what is the prime target that changes over time.

 

[tom_e]

Seems odd for them to nick an 11 year old Ford that's only worth a few grand. Presumably they'll actually swap plates and use it to commit further crimes with the intent of abandoning it, rather than stealing a car to sell it or it's parts.

Parts are expensive/long wait times so it may well be stripped down and sold in bits

 

[Gazanimal]

Got a couple of bits of CCTV footage. One of the person walking directly towards our house/car, then disappearing out of sight. About 5-6mins later, the indicators flash and then the car is gone.
The other bit is of a person wearing similar clothes, walking down the main street, which our cul-de-sace connects to, but from behind, wearing what appears to be similar clothes to the other bit of footage just before the car disappeared.
Nothing to identify them.

Tracksuit bottoms/hoodie - typical scrote attire.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I remember my Grandad getting into the wrong Sierra when I was a kid "Blinkin bleedin arm holes, this ain't my car" I also vaguely remember him locking the keys in and one of my cousins breaking into it with a tennis ball that had been cut in half!

My old mechanic also had a Mini van that the local yoots used to break into on a fairly regular basis. He fitted a hidden isolator switch under the dash so they only ever got as far as rolling it down the hill a bit before giving up and abandoning it! Same mechanic had a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth that lived locked up in his unit because of how much of a theft magnet that was. As I recall it had some weird plug in card for the imobilizer.

Theft has always been an issue with cars, just the nature of how it is done and what is the prime target that changes over time.

Yeah there were some funky immobilisers on after market.
I had one that had a thing you plugged in that was like a usb stick.

My celica had a one off funky alarm in it. One of my mates was an alarm fitter and electronics guy that also did security.
He modified my alarm so that if the power went then there was a battery backed up warehouse fire alarm sounder hidden in the centre tunnel.
They are really high frequency and very nasty up close, after 15 secs or so you really couldn't stand to be in the car.
It was battery backed up and to disable it you needed to remove the cigarette tray and reach into the tunnel for a toggle switch.

I forgot all about it when I sold the car so I bet someone had some fun with that at some point in the future.

 

[Zaphan58]

Parents had a Fiesta stolen in the same way a couple of years ago. It turned up about a week later on a field in a rough end of town, completely battered. Insurance company wrote it off. The police reckoned it had been used for robberies or other crimes.

 

[koolpc]

My mate had his car stolen from outside of his house recently. He was FUMING!!!

Thats because he said he wished his wife was still in it at the time!!!!!

 

[gc123]

Does anyone sell OBD port locks?

yep loads on market ...i went one further put a dummy obd socket in and moved original,quite funny when i forgot oneday and wondered why my scanner turned on but didnt connect nomal power to socket but all important parts missing can bus etc.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

You didn't have the keys in a Farady box?

Amazes me how many don’t, but fine by me, they’ll take next doors car instead. That said, the last faraday pouch I owned didn’t work! Loads of cars nicked the same way round my area. A beautiful AMG GT was the last one I remember.