Every now and then, I get emails from friends about some new idea that we are all supposed to be aware of. I can usually tell the ones that are a hoax because of the way they tug at your emotions. My belief is that if an issue is important enough, we recognize the severity of the situation without the emotional manipulation.

However, these emails seem to yank on the emotional chords to get the job done. The following story is the latest “warning” I recieved. It was forwarded to me and I could see the dozens of other email addresses that the ‘breaking news’ had been sent to, which is typically the case.

I wonder who, what type of person, sits around thinking of these things. Do they think they are just being clever? Do they get a thrill out of causing alarm?  It makes me curious. Maybe in heaven, we will finally get the answers to all of these perplexing questions.

This is the latest email. Have you seen it?

Beware folks. This is news you can use. (Emotion)

THIS HAS BEEN CHECKED ON SNOPES (Notice the authenticity?)

My oldest son came over yesterday- he had to go to Canada for work last
week.
One of the other engineer’s traveling to Canada with him, but in his own
car had something happen…that I need to share. (always a second-hand story)

While traveling he stopped at the roadside park, similar to what we have
here with bathrooms, vending machines etc. (so many details, must be true!)

He came out to his car less than 4-5
minutes later and found someone had gotten into his car, and stolen his cell
phone, laptop (annoying advertisment) computer, gps navigator, briefcase…..you name it.

They called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broke
into- the police told him that there is a device that robbers are using now
to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your
key-chain locking device..  (the bad news always comes
from the police because we all know, they are in the know)

They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. Since they know
you are going inside a store, restaurant, or bathroom and have a few
minutes (read below to see how long it really takes) to steal and run.
The police office said…to be sure to manually lock
your car door-by hitting the lock button inside the car, that way if there is
someone setting in a parking lot watching for their next victim it will not be
you.

When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting…it does not send
the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain
- it sends the code thru the airwaves where it can be stolen.

I just wanted to let you know about this…it is something totally new to
us…and this is real…  (Really, really real?? Can’t you just feel the desperation?) it just happened
this past Thursday June19th to his co-worker…
(what year? This email has actually been circulating for years)

So be aware of this and please pass this note on..  (share the panic) look how many times we all
lock our doors with our keys… (everyone does this so everyone can be a victim
even though not one of us has had it happen to us or heard of it happening to anyone we
know. It is such a huge problem, yet the news has never mentioned it. What is wrong with the media?) 
How many times do we hit the lock button on the way into the store? Just to be sure we remembered to lock
them….and bingo the guys have our code…and whatever was in the car…can be
gone.

Keep safe everyone!

Ok, so  I added a few commentaries in the story. I did a little research on how prevelant this problem is. I found another version of this story which actually included the police officer’s name…he is a promient officer in the area. The reporter contacted the officer and was told:

                                   Please be advised that this is a hoax. We are requesting the public to please not further distribute this email because it could lead to further misunderstanding. 
                           Cst. Wally Henry,  Strathcona County Detachment,  Media Liaison/Community Policing Unit

This account added a personal touch before the same story, not typical:

I locked my car — as I walked away I heard my car door unlock I went back and locked my car
again three times. I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire lane next to the store.
When I looked straight at them they did not unlock my car again. That’s when I found out about…

More research and I found that while the technology does exist to grab the wireless transmission out of the air when you ‘click’ your remote, it still requires a very sophisticated computer and takes over an hour for the fastest computers to decipher the correct code from the millions of transmissions flying through the air at any given moment due to algorithms the manufactures use in the codes. (Don’t ask me what that means). So these accounts of immediate de-coding are just not possible yet; the technology does not exist, as far as I could find.

The researchers that are doing the experimentation on this still do not believe it is a problem because of the technology required.  The fact that the process takes so long will be a major deterent…a thief’s best friend is time; 
he wants to get in, get out as fast as possible, to steal as many cars as possible in a small amount of time. For car robberies, they are still looking for a fast snatch. So, to date, this is not a problem the authorities…or anyone (except those tricked into forwarding these emails) is really concerned about.

I am glad I could clear that up.