Police Warn Of New Car Theft Techniques
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Philadelphia Police held a press conference at their Auto Theft Squad building . They wanted to advise the community that they are going door to door to give anti theft tips because no body wants to see their car stolen. They also showed off some car theft tricks thieves are now using.
According to Lt. Brian Greer, a new trend is developing and that is to break a window, or a sun roof to gain access to a vehicle. From there, the thief can access the onboard diagnostic box which is where key FOBS are programmed. They have a device that looks similar to a cellphone. That device will pre program a key FOB that the thief has in their possession and then re program it with the code that the thief puts in. The process takes about two minutes and the car is stolen.
Newer cars that feature “Push to start” are vulnerable to this hack. To add insult to injury, the key FOB the original owner has is now worthless, according to Greer. They have to spend hundreds of dollars to get them re programmed by a dealer or a locksmith if their car is recovered.
Police are seeing an uptick in stolen cars in the Northeast section but that is due to the fact that there is more population density of auto owners. Not everyone in center city owns a vehicle. One solution to thwart this , according to Greer is to use a lock to cover your diagnostic box.
Older model cars can still get stolen and the use of a steering wheel lock would be an effective deterrent. Thieves will have to cut the steering wheel wheel to get the lock off. “That takes time and thieves don’t like to spend a lot of time when they are stealing cars,”Greer said.
Faraday pouches are another good deterrent , a key fob is stored inside of and people cannot get the key FOB code to steal a car. Some police districts are giving out either Farraday pouches or steering wheel locks, to owners of high theft model cars.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com The stolen auto squad headquarters at McCallister and Whittaker Aves.
Just because someone has an older car does not mean they are immune from auto theft. Police can use the GPS location of a Sirius car radio if the owner subscribed. The location will be found withing 500 feet, Greer said. People should never keep registration and insurance in the glove box when they are out of the vehicle.