Our Home Managers have put together their top tips for to secure your car, giving you peace of mind. The basic tips only take a change of habit, the more advanced tips require a mechanic to install additional anti-theft devices in your car.

The Basics:

Here are some simple tips and tricks for minimizing the risk of car theft. Think of each steps as contributing to your base-level of defence.

• Lock it Up: Lock your car and don’t entice potential thieves by leaving valuables out in the open and visible.
• Protect Your Keys: Instead of keeping your car keys in a bowl, on a table, or on a hook near your front door, leave your car keys upstairs or in a key pouch. Many modern vehicles have proximity-sensored door locks that open when the key fob is close. Thieves use key range extenders by standing right next to your front door, allowing them easy access to your vehicle.
• Steering wheel club: Using those hardened steel bars that attach to the steering wheel and brake pedal visually wards off potential thieves.
• Arm Your Home: Ward off night thieves by installing motion-activated flood lights and visible exterior security cameras directed to your driveway and garage.
• Park in your Garage: If you have a garage, make it a habit of parking your car in the garage. All the clutter that you have in your garage is probably not worth the same amount as the car. Out of sight, out of mind.

Advanced techniques: Outsmart Tech-Savvy Thieves

Multiple investigations in Toronto show that thieves have been overriding cars’ onboard diagnostic port (the equivalent of a car’s “Black Box”) and creating a new fob or key on the spot to steal vehicles. Outsmart these tech-savvy thieves by considering the following:

• OBD port locks: It is a mechanical dongle that plugs into a car’s diagnostic port and locks it in place with a key.
• Aftermarket ignition kill switch: These switches cut off the electricity in your car and/or disable the fuel pump.
• Aftermarket alarm systems: While most vehicles have alarm systems built into them, they are standardized and easy to bypass. These alarm systems are unique to the installer making it difficult for thieves to access your car unnoticed.
• Intelligent Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) immobilizer: It is a small chip that embeds into the top part of an ignition key, sending out an encrypted string of radio-frequency signals that acts as a secret code. If a thief tries to start your car without this code (even if they hotbox your car or clone your ignition key), the car won’t start or won’t activate the fuel pump.

If you’d like help with these preventative measures, we are here for you.

• We can help install exterior security cameras and motion-activated floodlights.
• We can install automated garage door openers.
• We can put up garage organizing systems to declutter your garage.

If this is something you are interested in learning more about, please do not hesitate to reach out to us via the Setter app.