Thieves in UK are using 'relay theft' technique to steal keyless cars. Know how

A British woman has become the latest victim of a car robbery after burglars used a technique called "relay theft" to steal her car while she was feeding her baby.

Sarah Baxterwas at her Henley home feeding the two-week baby in the early hours when her Mercedes was stolen. Despite being a keyless car, the thieves managed to pry it openusing a metal hoop which detected and amplified the fob's signal. Notably, modern cars with keyless car systems require a fob for the car to sense and open, rather than a key to unlock it physically.

Baxter discovered the modus-operandi of the crime after going through her doorbell CCTV camera footage which showed a man closing in on her property.

"So you can see a gentleman approaching our side door and he holds up something, like a big cable loop - it looks like a kind of a broken hula hoop - to detect the keys and then amplify the radar of this keyless system to then make the car think the key is next to it and then unlock the car and start the engine," Baxter was quoted as saying by BBC.

"I was up and down every few hours, as you are with a two-week-old, and I was actually awake when the car was taken," she added.

What is relay theft?

The technique essentially allows the thieves to neither steal a key nor break into the car. Instead, they use a cable loop near the doors andwindows of a house to find a fob's signal. In most cases, two people are involved in the exercise with one standing by the vehicle while the other standing near the house with the device.

Experts suggested keyless car owners start using a Faraday box which may dissuade the thieves from stealing their cars. A Faraday box is a simple box or pouch where one can put their car keys as it limits the signal entering or leaving a fob.

Since the start of the month, as many as nine cars have been stolen in the Henley area where Baxter resides.

Car theft figures have skyrocketed across the UK in recent times. Motoring organisation AA said figures forcar thefts were "in danger of getting out of control".

According to data released by Home Office, as many as 130,389 cars were stolen in 2022 which was an increase of 26 per cent compared to 104,435 cars stolen in 2021.

(With inputs from agencies)

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