[KL7AA] Be careful how you lock you car

[John Lynn]

(Original email edited for spelling and grammar.  Identity of original
author is unknown.)

This is very troubling, what lengths people will go to steal what doesn't
belong to them! I do almost 100% of the time lock my car on the door lock
inside when I exit the car. Little did I know that is the best way to lock
your car, so read on... 

My oldest son came over yesterday - he had to go to Canada for work last
week. One of the other engineers traveling to Canada with him, but in his
own car had something happen that I need to share. 

While traveling he stopped at the roadside park, similar to what we have
here with bathrooms, vending machines etc. He came out to his car less than
4-5 minutes later and found someone had gotten into his car, and stolen his
cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator, briefcase... you name it. 

They called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken
into, the police told him there is a device robbers are using now to clone
your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain
locking device. They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim,
since they know you are going inside the store, restaurant, or bathroom and
have a few minutes to steal and run. The police office said to be sure to
manually lock your car door by hitting the lock button inside the car. That
way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next
victim it will not be you. 

When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting it does not send the
security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain
it sends the code thru the airwaves where it can be stolen. 

I just wanted to let you know about this... it is something totally new to
us and is real. It just happened this past Thursday June 19th to his
co-worker so be aware of this and please pass this note on. Look how many
times we all lock our doors with our keys... just to be sure we remembered
to lock them... and bingo the guys have our code and whatever was in the car
can be gone.