Going an extra mile to keep his car safe

Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:12 am

1268025146 Going an extra mile to keep his car safe

By ZAIHAN MOHAMED YUSOF

HE'S the sort of driver who would "go the extra mile" to keep his car safe and secure.

Whenever Mr Abdul Rahman Majid, 49, parks his car, he makes sure that it's in an area with human traffic.

He also parks his car "head in" and turns the front wheels to one side.

This is to make it difficult for thieves to tow away his $120,000 Honda Odyssey.

He also uses steering and brake pedal locks.

The Singaporean real estate agent did all these when he visited Tebrau City in Johor Baruon24 Jan.

Before leaving his car, he also made sure that his central locking and alarm system were on.

Yet, 25 minutes later, he was shocked to find that his car had been broken into.

And Mr Abdul Rahman has no idea how the thieves did it because there were no signs of forced entry.

"I was so confident that nobody could penetrate the car's security system," he said.

Mr Abdul Rahman and his family had gone to the mall, which is about a 20-minute drive from the Causeway, to return a faulty cleaning apparatus.

When they returned to his car, he was surprised to see that its glove compartment was open.

When Mr Abdul Rahman tried to disarm the car's alarm, the windows began moving up and down.

"I knew something was wrong because when I tried to deactivate my car alarm, I didn't hear the usual beeping sound."

His daughter's laptop, which was inside a bag on the back seat, was gone.

His GPS system, which was inside the glove compartment, a haversack and a handphone were also missing.

Mr Abdul Rahman, who estimated his loss at $3,000, made police reports in Johor Baru and Singapore.

When he checked with the carpark security guard, he was surprised to learn that his car alarm had not gone off.

"It's amazing that the thieves were able to get into my car despite me having all these security features. I don't know how they did it,"he said.

So how did the thieves do it?

One possible way is by using an electronic gadget that sends a radio frequency similar to the car's alarm system, said an expert who deals with car theft cases in Malaysia and declined to be named.

This enables thieves to open the car doors without tripping the alarm or by using force.

Those in the car industry will know where to get the device, which he said can even be found on the Internet.

"We've come across the use of this device in Malaysia, but it's not that rampant. It's more commonly used in Europe and Eastern Europe as a favoured method of breaking into a car cleanly," he said.

Car thieves are also known to "neutralise" the alarm system by short-circuiting wires in the signal lights.

Then they enter the car using a master key.

Going an extra mile to keep his car safe