How did they get into my car?

[Elephantina]

For the first time in 15 years of travelling all around the country for work, I had my new bag and some other items stolen from my car at a motorway services today.

It was a small services, fairly busy, and I parked the car within 50 yards of the entrance in full view of the main thoroughfare. I was going to be minutes - quick dash for a sandwich, I wasn't queuing for coffee or using the loo. I grabbed my purse and phone, figured my bag would be fine on the passenger seat (I know, I know, but I don't have a parcel shelf so it would still have been visible in the boot anyway). I locked the car with the remote key as I walked away - but I didn't look back to double check, it was just habit.

When I returned after about 8 minutes, my bag and a few other bits were gone, and my car was unlocked. No damage to anything, just my stuff gone.

The police told me that they watch you and use a jammer or a blocker to block the signal from your remote, so you think you've locked it but you haven't. But I've googled this and can only find info on how they target keyless systems for vehicle theft, I can't find anything about them managing to stop you locking it in the first place.

Is this a thing? Did I even lock the car at all? I keep going over and over it. Nothing I can do about it obviously, bit gutted about my lovely new work bag which was on its first outing.

No it’s not encrypted. I’m a teacher. It is password protected. I don’t think it has a remote disabling device. Bet there are THOUSANDS of teachers in same position.

15 years ago I was told a similar story to one up-thread about keyless cars, husband and wife both drove it, one drops the other off somewhere, half an hour and many miles later, the one with the car discover the other has the key, and they can't get back into their car.

I didn't choose the keyless option when I specced my first ever new car. (Didn't see the benefit and the additional security issues were a consideration.)

It is password protected. I don’t think it has a remote disabling device. Bet there are THOUSANDS of teachers in same position.

It's probably worth raising this as an issue with your data controller.

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/education/

news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2017/11/20/gdpr-the-five-things-teachers-should-do-first/

It has been raised and we have had clear instructions to delete student records. I have done most of them, but I bet there are loads who haven’t.

That’s an interesting link. I’ll check about encryption as our school are pretty hot on gdpr.

In 2019, there is no excuse for any laptop to not be encrypted. Processors have done encryption in hardware since forever, and with AES-NI on the processor you can encrypt data faster than you can move it to and from memory, never mind disk. You can argue the toss about the precise details of the encryption, and if you are dealing with protectively marked data of the sort that requires SC clearance or more, then those precise details might matter. But for anything less than that, Bitlocker on WIndows or FileVault on Macs are free, effective and cost nothing to use. Password protection on laptops is worthless. Encryption works.

@Elephantina you need a little sticker for your biro: "my other pen's a Mont Blanc" (like those "my other car's a BMW" bumper stickers you see on crappy old bangers)

MamehaSan hahaha! I'm so doing that - for the benefit of the boss.

I spoke to HR today and although they didn't seem overly bothered, the agony of waiting for a bollocking is not over yet. Head of operations is back soon and bet I get a long winded lecture and a formal telling off or something. He scares the shit out of me.

Head of operations is back soon and bet I get a long winded lecture and a formal telling off or something.

They might need to update their policies and procedures on securing cars - they may well need to alert staff to these methods of breaking into cars or stealing them.

I know you had your laptop with you but, again, it's probably helpful for you to assure HR (if they raise it) that it and any removable media were encrypted or that you knew how to contact IT support to get it remotely disabled etc.

They're pretty hot on all that Arran - we are in a highly regulated industry.

IT policies are very sharp, we have strict rules to follow about not storing documents locally etc. I worriedly said to them that whilst 99% of my work is stored on the remote server and only accessible via VPN, I did keep a couple of items on my desktop for convenience when I had no connection. The guy waved it away and said there are multiple levels of encryption anyway and not to worry.

I actually called IT first, before the police, the fear is so well ingrained! I haven't read the safety of equipment policy recently I must admit, but I know the basic content (common sense). I am sure I won't be sacked but I am bracing myself for an uncomfortable ticking off. Well deserved I suppose, but they can't make me feel any worse than I already do for being lax.

They'll track the van and reg and track it's route on the motorway ANPR and put it on their systems. So wherever it flags up they can pull it over.

rocketman, is it a 3 door? With a 5 door you can normally check by trying a back door.

I actually called IT first, before the police, the fear is so well ingrained!

Your CyberSecurity officer would burst with pride to know their policies had been so successful!

OP how did your meeting go? I saw your last thread

Oh I'll go and update it Violet, so as not to go completely off topic! Probably tomorrow though as I'm off to bed soon, I tired. It went very well though, thank you for asking!

Crikey I'd better name change, it wouldn't take much to out myself with these threads combined.

Brilliant Arran, I'll use it as my defence!

I need to show dh this thread. He rolls his eyes at my need to hear the car locks clunk, my double checking of hotel door locks, and my paranoia about leaving anything on view in an unattended car. I grew up in a rough area (I loved the adjective ‘lively’ used by a pp!) and our family car was broken into all the time. So my suspicious nature is ingrained.

Dh on the other hand has never been a victim of crime and regularly leaves phones in the car, goes to bed leaving the garage doors wide open so anyone could help themselves to bikes, lawnmowers etc and gets irritated when I insist on renting holiday cars that are big enough to fit everything in the boot instead of putting bags on the back seat.

We are considering buying a Tesla for our next car, so now I’m in a world of paranoia about that being a massive target. Plus they have some kind of weird credit card system instead of a key, which just seems like asking for trouble. Maybe we’ll stick with our ten year old shed for another couple of years

Firesuit, We did that with our Phaeton too (several times).

The 1st time, DH dropped me of at my club then drove about 2 miles (mostly downhill) to get some shopping.
He then turned engine off using the start/stop button, but when he tried to lock it realised I still had the keys. He couldn't contact me as there was no signal where I was, so had to leave the car unlocked and jog back up the hill to me to get the keys and then jog back to the car.
Luckily, the car and our stuff was still there. He was really annoyed with me, but as I said to him: "Don't keep asking me to keep your keys in my handbag then!"

Another time, he dropped me off at a friend's house about 12 miles from where we lived and then drove himself home. Parked car and couldn't lock it or get into the house, and couldn't start it again either. Managed to get hold of me after about 10 mins (we live in an area with bad signal). Ended up with my friend having to drive me back in order to let him in and lock the car.

Now I point blank refuse to carry his keys. He knows my memory is bad and as he can't remember to ask for his keys back, I won't keep them in my bag anymore.

I keep my car keys in the central console when I'm driving. The engine cuts out if the keys are removed from the car.

Wow I love your husband!! How wonderful of him. Can you use a pen with a nib? I'm a lefty and smudge the ink....hubby has a mont blanc....never uses it. We got it out before Xmas. Value is nothing like yours though.

I once lost (got drunk and left it under a table while I went to the loo) a work bag. No laptop fortunately. But I was on a night out so my make up bag was in there. That cost a bloody fortune to replace when you include make up brushes etc. Learnt my lesson about being more careful.

Try not to feel too badly Op - it wasn't your fault, it was the bastard car thieves who did it. Our IT policy states that you shouldn't leave your laptop in a vehicle overnight but running to the loo at services is deemed acceptable so it depends on what yours says. Even if it states that you never leave it in a car unattended, you won't be the first person who has & likely you'll get sympathy rather than a bollocking.

Glad they didn't get your pen though - silver lining & all that

A good tip I was told was to lock your car doors from the inside while travelling through cities. Sometimes you are stopped at a traffic light and someone can open your car door, grab your bag and run off in just a few seconds.

I'm glad they didn't get your purse and pen and mobile.

They may get a few quid for your bag but at least they didn't luck out.

uv made my day with that 🤣

Sorry my comment was for @SayNoToCarrots funny comment earlier. I thought I’d replied directly to their comment 🤦‍♀️ Never mind