As recently as May 17th, 2018, a security camera recorded a pair of thieves walking around a car and one of them was holding some type of bag close to the front door of a house. Next thing you know; they managed to steal a Mercedes – This happened in Billericay town of Essex.
The incident took place at 12:40 am. Upon investigating the security footage, it was revealed that one of the thieves unlocked the car by hi-tech relay device hidden inside the bag which extended the signal coming from the car keys inside the house, apparently nearby the main entrance door.
More: Hacker unlocks vehicle for family who’d lost keys months ago
For those who are not aware of relay box, it is an electrically operated switch which works in such a way that other than the metal it can detect and receive signals through doors, windows, and walls.
Although the exact model of the stolen Mercedes is unknown, last year in November, a Mercedes car was stolen in a similar way by two thieves (video available here). In another incident in April 2017, a £60,000-BMW-X5 was stolen by two thieves apparently by using relay boxes hidden inside a bag (video available here).
In the recent case, the victim’s name is Danny Talbot who uploaded the security footage on his Facebook profile and wrote the following:
“Had my car stolen last night. Anyone got keyless, go and make sure you double click the lock button or put keys in a metal box, apparently this deactivates the key. ‘Whatever device these c**ts use deactivates the tracker.”
Danny who is a DJ said that he could track his stolen vehicle by using Mercedes Find My Car tracker app but it shows the car is still in his driveway. “They have obviously deactivated that as well’. Danny added: ‘The funny thing was, I walked the dog this morning and didn’t even notice it had been stolen,” said Danny.
Once Danny’s post went viral several people commented on the issue in which one Facebook user Angie Burke said that “Ours was attempted last night too and we are on Crays Hill. Have the same guys on CCTV.”
Events like this show keyless cars are highly vulnerable to theft, therefore, Ray Anderson, a security expert advises car owners to protect the fob by putting it in a metal box, or perhaps in a fridge since the metal would block signals that are otherwise constantly emitted.
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