A St. Louis car owner woke up to an empty parking pad this week, with no broken glass and no sign of forced entry. Sherri Brown’s 2017 Nissan Maxima was locked, and her key fob was inside the house. Investigators believe thieves used a relay attack, where one person captures the fob’s signal from outside the home and a second person boosts it to the car so the vehicle responds as if the key were nearby.
Brown typically stores her fob in a signal-blocking pouch, but that night it stayed in her purse because she had plans to go out. She had also dropped to liability-only insurance to cut costs, which means no payout for the stolen vehicle. The story matters here on the Suncoast, where plenty of households keep paid-off cars at seasonal homes and trim coverage to save on premiums.
The fix is inexpensive: signal-blocking pouches and faraday bags sell at hardware and electronics stores, and simply keeping fobs away from exterior walls and front doors helps too. Auto thefts in St. Louis are down 15 percent from last year, but cases like this show the risk hasn’t disappeared. Where do you keep your keys overnight, and have you checked your coverage lately?
