Spain has one of the oldest car parks in Europe, but this is not an obstacle for the majority of cars that circulate on the roads and streets of our country to have a central locking system. This procedure by which all the vehicle doors open and close at the same time through a remote control integrated into the keys has been standard for many years now in all cars.
This device, which can even be used to raise and lower the car windows from the outside, as you can see here, avoids having to check one by one if all the doors are properly closed before leaving the vehicle. The indication that all the doors are locked is provided by the car’s turn signals with a quick flash that indicates that everything is in order, without the need to carry out any other type of check.
However, sometimes, due to carelessness or because we are in a hurry, we do not stop for a moment to carry out this visual check. We walk away from the car without making sure the doors are locked properly, which could happen if someone uses a jammer to intercept the remote control signal. In this way, he would be preventing the car doors from closing and could take the opportunity to steal the belongings.
For this reason, the National Police has published a video on its official TikTok account to warn drivers that before leaving the car when they have just parked, check that the doors are closed.
“Have you seen the light that indicates that your vehicle has been locked? Sometimes thieves use jammers to prevent your car from locking, and once you’ve driven away, they take the opportunity to steal what’s inside. Check that your vehicle is perfectly closed before leaving itâ€, says an agent of the Corps.
In addition to recommending looking at the flickering of the lights, the police also advise checking first-hand that the door is closed by pulling the handle. This action, however old-fashioned it may seem to us, still has many followers as can be seen from user comments. “Whenever I get out of the car I do a complete turn checking all the doors, including the hood,” says one.
The thieves who are dedicated to using frequency inhibitors so that the remote central locking of the cars does not activate can act anywhere, although they usually choose areas with a high concentration of vehicles and people, such as school environments at the time of entry and Exit from schools, and shopping centers, where there is a greater rotation of vehicles that park. In the specific case of educational centers, they also take advantage of the fact that, at the time of delivery or collection of schoolchildren, there are moments of confusion.
Criminals place frequency inhibitors in litter bins, planters, or elements that allow them to be camouflaged, in areas close to where the cars are parked, and take advantage of the moment when the vehicle owners move away from the cars to steal their belongings. In most cases they work in pairs, so that one of the criminals activates the inhibitor and the other follows the owner of the car when he leaves the vehicle to make sure that he has not discovered them.
