Car Keys

[Tilly2]

Last night, one of my neighbours had their car broken into. From the car they were able to unlock the electronic garage doors and thereupon stole a case of wine.

His car keys were in the house. How does this work, and how did they access the garage?

[ChillDoubt]

Sounds a tad more intriguing than the usual Cluedo questions!


I’ll get me coat.....

[ethandron]

Maybe your neighbour keeps a fob which opens the electric garage door, inside the car. Once they got into the car then it’s easy, just press a button on the fob and hey presto, garage door opens. That’s how ours works.

[Tilly2]

The car was not damaged. They somehow managed to open the door without 'breaking in'. He said something about them using an electronic device of some kind.

[Ryzen]

Some cars have a button that can be programmed to the door controller,thus enabling auto open/close.Never bothered with mine for the very reason within the question.

[Tilly2]

You would think that he'd keep his garage door fob on the same ring as the car keys?

[ToraToraTora]

they can get into the car by using a keyless go signal reader. That's why you should not keep your keys/go card near the front door (or better still disable this silly feature). As for the garage door they probably have a control fob in the car so whoever is driving can open the door, no idea other than that.

[Tilly2]

Do you mean the garage door, Ryzen?

[bhg481]

We have an electric garage door, operated by a remote control; usually the car is kept in the garage. We have two remote controls, one is kept in the house and one in the car. We use the one kept in the house to open the garage door if we are going to go out in the car and the one in the car when we are returning home to open the garage door to put the car in. If the car is on the drive, with a remote control inside, breaking into the car will give access to the garage.

[ethandron]

We don’t Tilly, it makes the keys bulky to carry around.

[Tilly2]

Thanks, TTT. That makes sense.

[Tilly2]

...and bhg. Thank you too.

[Ryzen]

On mine the button was next to the rear view mirror....if there's no car damage then they used a scanner device to enter.

[Tilly2]

Does this all mean that he will have to get a new set of keys for his car?

[wolf63]

Would it not make more sense to steal the car instead of some wine?

[Ryzen]

Depends on the car wolfy.

[ToraToraTora]

here's an article about it, if at all possible I always disable the keyless entry feature. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/keyless-car-relay-theft-advice-14496158

[ToraToraTora]

"Does this all mean that he will have to get a new set of keys for his car? " - No but either disable the keyless feature or store the keys away from the front door.

[Tilly2]

Wolf, there were cars everywhere. They were having a birthday party for their grandaughter and his car had another two cars parked behind it, on the drive.

What makes matters worse is that they were burgled, during the night, just before Christmas.

[Tilly2]

I have to go out now. Thank you for all your answers.

[Barmaid]

He probably needs to get a faraday bag to keep his keys in. Stops signals from other transmitters. Less than £10 from Amazon.