Locking your car
 

Got this in an email...don't know if it's true or not but thought I'd share

How to Lock Your Car and Why


I locked my car. As I walked away I heard my car door unlock. I went
back and locked my car again three times. Each time, as soon as I
started to walk away, I would hear it unlock again!! Naturally alarmed,
I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire
lane next to the store. They were obviously watching me intently, and
there was no doubt they were somehow involved in this very weird
situation. I quickly chucked the errand I was on, jumped in my car and
sped away. I went straight t o the police station, told them what had
happened, and found out I was part of a new, and very successful, scheme
being used to gain entry into cars. Two weeks later, my friend's son had
a similar happening....

While traveling, my friend's son stopped at a roadside rest to use the
bathroom. When he came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later,
someone had gotten into his car and stolen his cell phone, laptop
computer, GPS navigator, briefcase......you name it. He called the
police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into, the
police told him he had been a victim of the latest robbery tactic --
there is a device that 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. They know you
are going inside of the store, restaurant, or bathroom and that they now
have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said 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 through the airwaves where it can be
instantly stolen. This is very real.

Be wisely aware of what you just read and please pass this note on. Look
how many times we all lock our doors with our remote just to be sure we
remembered to lock them -- and bingo, someone has our code...and
whatever was in our car.

No keyless entry ftw, i have no other option than to lock manually.

This is very true for most older factory keyless entry and alarms...

Newer factory units and most after market have code hopping built in so that the next code used to unlock\lock will be different.

I usually hit the button on the door of the Jeep when I leave it. And I don't really ever lock the Miata. There's nothing in there to take, not even a radio.

Luckily my alarm remote doesn't work very far, and I always park far away.

thats it, never driving the golf again.

Definitely NOT true for the masses. Code hopping remotes go back as far as the mid 90s so unless you're rocking an ancient aftermarket alarm or just have an old car w/ factory keyless I wouldn't worry too much. I highly doubt thieves are using this method these days solely based on those percentages. A slim jim is by far a more efficient method. :)

Regardless of the effectiveness of this method, the Tiburon doesn't have keyless entry, and I never lock the Z. I don't keep anything of value in there, and I encourage them to steal the $20 factory radio so I can get the insurance money for it at an uber expensive dealer cost and get a sweet new one :) If they're so professional that they have whatever electronic equipment needed to bypass the computer chip in the key to start it, then I didn't stand a chance locking the doors anyway. Sometimes I even leave it running if I'm not going to be someplace long, or waiting for it to warm up. I live in the heart of westside Williamsport, 1 block from Memorial Ave where all the shootings are, and it sits in the parking lot of my building unlocked every single day/night, lol

Manual ftw. Not like I ever lock my car anyway. Nothing important to me is in it.

Lol, good to know.

My car can't be opened with a slim jim. Busting out the window is the only option. :-p

As other have stated, newer models have 64bit encryption on the RF signals they send.

Older units had no encryption...

No keyless for me, I always lock manually. If someone really wanted to get in my car I'm sure they'd have no problem getting in. The vert top isn't going to do much to stop a thief. I keep nothing valuable in it, but it's always been a habit to lock my doors.

So just look for the z in the hood, honestly I think I know where that sits:) ......Mebbe I can help you out with that radio.... I have no keyless entry so I dont worry about it. I have heard about this elsewhere tho. Sort of scary.

Well regardless of what you do, they will still just bust your f ing window and take what they want, so there is no real safe option, unless you can hit a button and your car transforms into somthing the size of a pack of cigerettes so you can carry it with you where ever you go. The best option is to keep your nice car in a garage somewhere and drive a ****ty 500.00 dollar car everyday.

I just daily drive a car nobody would want. Seems to work out pretty well.

Mine is manual locks.

+1 Parking in allentown overnight half the week and no one seems to care about the saturn w/ the fart can on it.

No one seems to want the geo metro that's rotting out at some spots either.