Robbers

[aahhyeahbaby]

Hi, My car (peugeot 306) has been broken into a few times recently and the theives seem to be able to unlock it i.e i leave it locked and come back to find it unlocked and rummaged through. I have heard that it's possible to copy the electronic code that a key fob sends to the car and use it to break in. Does anyone know any details about this and how i could go about preventing it?
Thanks - Tom

[redcrx]

are you sure youre leaving it locked?

Not saying that you didnt lock it but I know of 2 peugeot 207s that didnt always lock when pressing the rmote.

[ChuckFickens]

I am suspect about Pug key fobs...

When I was buying my current car I was on the forecourt of the garage when a mechanic came out to move a Pug into the service area, he hit the button on the key fob to unlock it and it unlocked... and so did another pug on the forecourt for sale!!

He swore a little and said "that should never happen" and then stood there with one key fob for a while locking and unlocking both cars at the same time. It ended up with a small crowd of the staff from the garage stood outside looking on with disbelief.

[Donquixote]

Yeah, like Chuck i've heard of that happening before with Peugeots and Citroens...but it is extremely rare.
It is possible to pick up the signal emitted from a key fob and copy it too, but if a thief was going to that much trouble (and expense) to get into a car it would almost certainly be to steal it.
What year 306 do you have? From what i can remember the majority of the 306 range have 'pop-up' style locks on the top of the interior door trim, visible through the door window. These are incredibly easy to open! With the aid of some plastic parcel ribon, or sometimes only a wire coathanger, the locks can be turned in seconds.
Look out for signs of this having been done by checking the pop-up lock inside your car for signs of tampering (scratches, spots of superglue, etc), and checking the outside of your car where each of the doors shuts flush to the chassis - the ribbon/coathanger/whatever will be fed down through this gap and more often than not there will be small signs of tampering.
If this is how they are entering your car, the only real solution is to cover your interior locks with something to prevent them being reached, or invest in a motion sensor alarm that will trip if anything is sensed moving around inside your car.

ps. don't worry, i'm not a car thief...i was in the motor trade for a long time and used this trick myself countless times to unlock cars when the keys had been locked inside or lost!