AUTOMOTIVE
Turn It Off or Take It With You
Thieves use Bluetooth to steal phones and laptops from your car, but there’s an easy fix.
By Matt Bubbers | Illustration by Tom Froese
IN CASE YOU NEED another reason not to leave valuables in your car, here’s a new one: thieves are wirelessly scanning parking lots to find smartphones and laptops left inside of vehicles, according to Ryan Peterson, CAA Club Group’s manager of automotive services.
“Thieves are not looking in your car windows,” Peterson says. “They’re finding the devices wirelessly, pin- pointing them and walking up, smashing and grabbing.”
This type of high-tech theft relies on Bluetooth, the wireless connectivity technology found in laptops, smartphones, tablets, headphones and smartwatches, not to mention most new vehicles.
Even if you’re not especially tech-savvy, the beauty of Bluetooth is that it’s easy to use. Drivers like it because it offers an instant wireless connection between a smartphone and a vehicle, enabling everything from navigation to phone calls to music streaming while on the go. Pair your phone and your car once, and it can connect automatically every time you get in.
“Make sure the Bluetooth signal is switched off so scanners can’t detect them.”
Unfortunately, thieves also like Bluetooth for similar reasons: it’s ubiquitous and easy to use. With a simple Bluetooth scanner app — available on any modern smartphone — thieves can quickly scan an entire parking lot full of vehicles for digital devices. Basic Bluetooth scanners have a range of about 10 metres, but slightly more advanced equipment can scan 100 metres or more. Not only can the scanners detect the make and model of any Bluetooth device, but they can also home in on the signal, leading thieves right to it.
“It’s not that the thieves are smart geeks, because they’re not. The tools they need to do this are readily available,” Peterson says.
The good news, he adds, is that the solution to this problem is easy and something everyone should be doing anyway. First of all, never leave valuables — digital or otherwise — in your vehicle. If you must leave your laptop or headphones (or any device) in there, make sure the Bluetooth signal is switched off so scanners can’t detect them. If in doubt, just turn the device off entirely.
“The old ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is not applicable anymore,” Peterson warns. “As thieves go high tech, the days of hiding your valuables under a blanket or in the trunk are over. It’s worth it to go an extra step and shut everything down.” CAA
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