It's the end of your shift.
Exhausted,
you walk to your usual parking spot
just to find that
your brand new car is gone.
You spent your life's savings
on those wheels and some crook
is now tearing around town in it.
Oh, man.
If only you had signed up for insurance.
Every 40 seconds
a vehicle in the U.S. is stolen.
A quarter of those occur
in parking garages
or near commercial areas.
If you think this can never happen to you,
think again.
These figures are growing.
In major urban centers like London,
the number of car thefts has increased
256% since 2016.
So, if you want your dream-mobile
to be waiting for you when you’re done
with your shopping,
pay close attention.
New tech can be great and exciting
but when it lands in the wrong hands
it can do terrible things.
Criminals take advantage of location
devices like the Apple AirTag
to keep track of cars that caught
their eye
but won’t steal just yet.
Once they’ve marked your car
in a public place
they'll track it back to your home.
Then the waiting begins for
the perfect moment to steal it
from your driveway.
A tracking tag can be hard to spot.
It could be hidden in the wheel wells,
under the car,
even the gas tank.
Luckily for you,
Apple will send a notification
if you're near an AirTag
not registered to you.
You can disable it by clicking on the
notification and following the steps
on your device.
You might be thinking that flashy,
high-end cars
are the only ones that get stolen
so you’re probably good in your
Toyota Camry.
You’ll be surprised
to learn that your family car
made it to the top 10 most stolen cars
of 2020.
And if you're the proud owner of a
Honda Civic,
I have bad news for you.
You’re driving America’s most stolen car
of 2020,
with 38,426 thefts
occurring throughout the year.
So next time you’re looking to spend
a few bucks on a new car,
check the most stolen car list
of the previous year.
It might spare you some unwanted stress.
No matter how secure salespeople
make them sound,
keyless vehicles have a vulnerable spot.
They operate by sending shortwave radio
signals to your car’s fob
to allow you to open the doors and start it.
Fancy, huh?
Well, thieves can use a device
to reprogram their fobs to replace yours.
You can be sitting in your home
while they capture the signal
from your fob
and then boost it.
This tricks your car into thinking
that you and your fob are much closer
than you actually are.
If it works,
they will have full access to your vehicle
and can drive off with the push
of a button.
Experts recommend you store your fob
in a metal-lined box
or commercially available
signal-blocking pouch
to foil any fob signal highjacking
attempts.
With all these sophisticated
new-tech ways
of stealing a car,
it might be
best to go back to the basics.
Get your hands on a steering wheel lock.
This simple rod-type device
stretches across the wheel,
preventing the driver from moving it.
This heavy-duty lock
is purposely hard to miss,
making someone think twice
before attempting to steal your car
in the first place.
When it comes to protecting property
there’s nothing like
a strategically-placed security camera.
Someone up to no good
definitely wants to avoid having
their picture taken and wind up
with their face all over social media.
Placing security cameras
in plain sight might dissuade
potential thieves from making you
another victim.
And even if they do,
the footage will help police in tracking
them down.
You've survived your car from being stolen
and you can hit the road again.
But this time
you caught the attention of criminals
that won’t wait for you to walk away
to steal your car.
They're ready to take it from you
at gunpoint.
Don’t worry,
everything you need to know
for that situation is here.