According to The Baltimore Banner, police commanders in Baltimore are warning residents about a quieter form of car theft — one where criminals intercept the signal from a key fob left too close to the front door and simply drive the vehicle away. Major Kurt Yourkovic, commander of the city's Northwestern District, told residents at a community meeting earlier this month that officers had started to see the technique used "throughout the city." The kit is not bespoke: the relay devices are locksmith and garage tools, cheaply available online, and the same equipment is well within reach of organised crews operating across the UK.
How the signal gets lifted
The method targets cars with keyless entry and push-button start. A relay device held near the house captures the fob's signal — even through a letterbox or a thin front wall — and passes it to a second device beside the car. The vehicle's electronics believe the real key is present, the doors unlock and the engine fires. There is no broken glass, no alarm trigger, no noise. That is why one Baltimore victim, Brooke Faller, only realised her white 2018 Honda Accord was missing when she stepped out of the front door with cleaning supplies for work. Her home CCTV later showed figures loitering on the street for around half an hour before driving the car off, but the footage revealed nothing about how the signal was actually copied.
Police in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Howard counties have all reported cases, and the same pattern has surfaced in force areas across England — particularly against Honda and Acura models whose fob technology is easier to clone. That makes it a question of when, not if, our own streets here in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham start to see the same trend.
What to do tonight
The Baltimore advice translates neatly. Keep the spare set — and, frankly, the everyday set — well away from the front door. The hallway hook or the kitchen counter is the worst spot in the house; a metal tin, a Faraday pouch or simply a back bedroom drawer does the job. If your car still takes a traditional metal key, carry on using it and park it where you can see it from a window. Steering locks and wheel clamps are not old-fashioned — they add the kind of delay that nudges opportunistic thieves towards an easier target.
Anyone who spots strangers carrying small electronic devices lingering near parked cars in the early hours, or who notices a vehicle idling on a drive with nobody behind the wheel, should treat it as community intelligence and pass it on to Humberside Police. Plain, straight answers beat silence every time — and the more visible presence officers can maintain on our residential streets, the harder it becomes for this quiet, technical theft to take root here.