As recently as this April 4, a security camera recorded two people walking around a car and then one of them was holding some kind of a bag close to the front of a house. Next thing you know- they stole a BMW. This happened only days after a Mercedes was stolen in a similar way in the UK.
The car in this question, the £60,000 BMW X5, seemed to have got disappeared from the driveway when its owners slept. Upon further investigating the CCTV footage, it was found that two thieves stole the car by using some kind of transmitting device which is apparently hidden inside their bag which has extended the signal of the car keys coming from inside of the house. This model generally uses a keyless start system, this means that the car can be unlocked by just having the fob relatively close, or in this particular case, transmitting the signal of keys so that the car would assume that you have the keys with you.
Since both of these vehicles are stolen in Essex, it is believed that they are being stolen by a gang that is targeting very valuable cars that can be sold at high prices. A security expert, Ray Anderson, has stated: this is the fourth time such a theft is reported. His adviced to protect the fob by putting it inside a metal box, or perhaps in a users fridge since the metal on fridge would block the signals that are otherwise continesly emitted.
Anderson was the one who said that the thieves might be using a device that makes the car think that the fob is closer than it is and that nothing special is required to create this device. The entire process is completed in a very short period once the thieves start receiving the signal, and after that, both the thieves and the car are gone.
