Car theft has become high-tech in recent times. Hackers and thieves have found a way to intercept the signal between car’keyor fobs and modern security systems to break into the car and steal them. Owners can take preventive stepssuch as putting fobs in a Faraday bag to deter “tech-savvy” thieves, like Guardians report. But taking precautions can turn into paranoia, and a sign of that is when the microwave looks like a hacker-proof safe instead of a device.
That paranoia made Edmund King, the president of AA – once known as the Automobile Association – to its extreme after his wife’s Lexus was stolen; King told the Guardian his wife’s key fob was in a Faraday bag when it was stolen.
So King started putting his car keys in a Faraday bag, then put the bag inside a metal box, and finally, put the metal box in the microwave – like a metal lined doll to steal car thieves. And for safety, the AA chief also uses a good old-fashioned steering wheel lock.
King’s makeshift microwave cellar sounds like a good idea to one person. But putting the car keys in the microwave backfired the parents of a reader who wrote to Guardians Five days later the king reported that:
Hiding car keys in the microwave doesn’t always work (AA director reveals his microwave trick to catch tech-savvy car thieves, Aug.). My father did this until my mother warmed up the milk for the coffee without first checking if the microwave was empty. The key was destroyed and the microwave was badly damaged.
While the unfortunate incident of melted milk and car keys doesn’t disprove King’s theory that microwaves deter thieves and car thieves, it does show that microwaves aren’t. the best place to store a piece of plastic with a metal key and electronic components inside.
It technically works; Now thieves can’t steal the car, because there’s no key to forward and intercept, but neither can the car be driven by the owner. Good, it is possible as long as there is a spare key or fob, but that sets us back to the original minus one fob. All I’m saying is don’t put your car keys in the microwave. If you’re worried about car thieves, put your keys in the freezer. Or also try locking the steering wheel; King was a little closer to that person.
