To buy a faraday box?

[stopmefeelingsick]

For my car keys to protect them from thieves intercepting the signal and stealing my new car?

I don't really want one (would look a little out of place by the door and we're on a frugal living push so avoiding unnecessary expense) but it would be interesting to know if other people use them and just how widespread this type of car theft is?

If you're really short of money, just stick the in the microwave, assuming you have one. Yes,of course it's a Faraday cage,to keep the "microwaves" in. I have a Faraday cage wallet. Have had it for years, because when bank cards went contactless,thief's were "reading the cards" from quite a distance away.ie on the tube.

We and most of our friends have "medium cars" and faraday boxes.

Theft is rife in north London.

Next door is a stream of ring videos and cars being nicked and updated on police being useless.

My life is busy enough - I just couldn't bear the hassle of a permanent surveillance on a nice / good car

It's not about the age of the car, how would they be able to intetcept when the car is in a shopping centre car park?

Maybe I'm wrong but doesn't the key have to be in range or the car?

We have one for DH’s car, was under a tenner and looks quite nice.

my keys are on the hook by the door, I don’t think anyone is looking to steal my 30 year old car.

Any thief would need to be like the cat burglar as our dogs bark the minute anyone touches the drive way.

🤦🏻‍♀️ I missed the retail park bit. Thought you meant because it was an older car

Lack of sleep 😊

We've got one. It's a small box we drop our keys in that lives on the sideboard in the hall. I don't think it spoils the decor.

You need more than that here in S London by the way if it's a nice car, we also have a steering wheel lock, a tracker and a Ghost immobilizer plus cameras. We also block the nice car in with the little cheap car.

Neighbours 2 doors down on the left had their Mercedes stolen, one to the right had his Range Rover stolen this year. On the whole road, 3 other Range Rovers went and another Mercedes. Police came round and told everyone to get Faraday boxes and immobilisers.

Yes police gave same advice to us about the immobilisers and the trackers. They also suggested bollards on the driveway.
That said it didn’t stop thieves stealing a BMW steering wheel from a neighbours X5

Wow seems a lot of work for a nicer car... almost better to stick to a normal one!

Yep, all you can do is delay them/put them off. Make your car too much of an effort to steal compared to the one up the road, just like when home burglaries for your TV were 'in vogue'. It's big business so if you have a nice car (or even a cheap one, they go with equal frequency for robberies) I don't think buying a few accessories to go with it as a one off effort when you get the car is much of an effort really. The cost of the Friday box, steering wheel lock and even a Ghost is dwarfed by the cost of even a basic car.

The Ghost autowatch immobilisers are supposed to be much, much harder to get through, the specialist car crime police unit round here recommend them to anyone with a car worth 40K+.

I have a faraday box around my key and then we keep them in a tin at the back of the house. I also use a steering lock now too. Maybe overkill but an identical car nearby was stolen and I don’t need the hassle.

This thread has been enlightening! Feeling relieved I swaped my lovely Merc for a VW family estate earlier in this year as they seem to be less popular. Hadn't appreciated the Faraday pouches could deteriorate, will test ours and my dad's. Will also look into keyring pouches so thanks for the tips.

@Lifestooshort71 try using the key while it's in the pouch, if the keyless entry / start works then the pouch is not working.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

We have two keyless cars and keep the fobs in a faraday box. It just looks like a box on the side

Spare keys are kept in pouches and hidden away

We just use an old biscuit tin.

I wish I hadnt read this thread now.

We don't have this sort of car but our neighbours do. However, because of the way parking is there's no way of telling which house the Range Rover belongs to. I'm now thinking that thieves could break in to our house for keys that we obviously don't have!

I'm not sure that they'd be palmed off with our Seat keys!

I really don't think they need to break in anymore, all the many thefts that have been done round here (lots of owners post the camera footage on FB) they seem to do it all from the drive.

OP you don’t need something specifically sold as a faraday box. I have a smallish metal biscuit tin. We put our car keys and a small amount if cash so we always have some for the window cleaner etc. The box is on a shelf in the centre of the house so equidistant from all windows and doors.
If your car opens by proximity to the key rather than having to push a button on it you can check the box is working by getting close to the car and trying to open it. My little box works very well I can stand holding the box right next to the car but can’t open it.

Fairly sure that claim about contactless cards is bollocks. They don’t work in the same way as keyless cars.

We've had one for years.

We also have a steering wheel lock:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7408234?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=c290d9a9-b5d6-423c-841d-2a559621874c&istItemId=ixilqilai&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59157%7Cacid:804-872-0397%7Ccid:20330964438%7Cagid:%7Ctid:%7Ccrid:%7Cnw:x%7Crnd:618540647452348887%7Cdvc:c%7Cadp:%7Cmt:%7Cloc:1006625&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20330964438&utm_term=7408234&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=&utm_custom2=804-872-0397&GPDP=true&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA-bmsBhAGEiwAoaQNmoMgmX5gRYrZ5eQ-tB_UZ_Uz70y1byBuLPMMb_yAuMAdR54uf1QpRhoCYLwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

No it’s happened to me.
Stole money from
inside the car and threw all belongings out in the gutter or around the car. Didn’t take the car.

Fairly sure that claim about contactless cards is bollocks

I watched some tests on a TV programme and it was disproved. The reader has to be very close to the card and I seem to remember that if there were several cards stacked together, it can’t read any of them.

Yes, I'm pretty sure most thefts near us are done within seconds on the drive, lots of people on local pages report their cars being stolen, but I'm pretty sure most don't involve breaking into the house.
It would be quicker, easier and probably a lot less likely to be caught if you don't have to enter a house

How does a faraday cage/pouch ‘stop working’- surely metal lined is metal lined?

Is it that the pouches are flexible and so the inner metal lining gets cracked? so a biscuit tin is fine indefinitely?

Purely an anecdotal observation but I think it’s area dependent. Our street is densely packed terraces and all cars parked bumper to bumper on the street so you’d have no way of knowing if the range rover belongs to the house it’s parked in front of or 10 doors down. I’ve literally never heard of a home break in car theft but the relay theft happens all the time. I did hear in the range rover service dept of a guy whose car was lifted off onto one of those tow trucks like the council have to move cars parked in suspended areas because yes if they really want the car they’ll find a way whether you have a faraday box, ghost immobiliser, disklock etc etc but breaking into houses would attract a lot of attention and would be unlikely to yield success so presumably that’s why it doesn’t really happen here. So if your area is similar I really wouldn’t worry.