Thieves exploiting keyless car vulnerability

CINCINNATI, Ohio (CNN) – An alarming tech trend is making its way across the country allowing car thieves to access and start vehicles without the owner’s keys.

Heather Moore was shocked to find someone tried to steal her car out her driveway. She was even more alarmed when she saw what her surveillance cameras captured: someone walked into her backyard, unlocked her car, started it, and almost drove off.

Moore said, “I thought if you put your keys up and your doors were locked, other than busting your window and hot-wiring your car, I didn’t think there was a way for them to them to steal your car.”

Moore said her keys were in the kitchen, which was also locked.

Cincinnati police say this kind of theft is becoming more common. Sgt. Eric Franz said thieves are using RFI repeaters, also known as RF devices, to steal keyless cars without ever getting their hands on the key fob.

Even if your keys are put up inside your home, criminals can still hack into the fob.

Sgt. Franz explained, “One person stands next to the house or the building that the keys are in. It’s a little key fob, and their device picks it up, amplifies it, sends it to a second device, that the guy that’s breaking into the car with manipulates to open the car door up and ultimately turn the car on and drive off.”

Locksmith Glen Fessenden is the owner of Allied Lock & Door Service. He said, “They’re selling them all over the country, and it’s a very hot item right now, especially in tourist areas.”

Glen can handle just about any lock and key problem. Now he’s also trying to prevent key-less problems. “Well,” he said, “this is a new product that recently just came out. It’s a nylon pouch, and it has signal-blocking material in it.”

The idea is to block a hacker’s device from communicating with a key fob.

It’s a prevention step worth taking, according to someone who would know. “We’re just trying to raise the awareness so that hopefully we can go to bed with a car in the driveway and wake up and have a ride to work,” Heather said.

Thankfully for Heather, the would-be car thief wasn’t a great driver and couldn’t manage to get the car out of her driveway.

But authorities warned that won’t always be the case. They say this trend started on the West Coast about five years ago and has been making its way across the U.S. ever since.

© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.

Skip to content