lukkiirish, thanks for that link. Very interesting! Off to dig up some Altoid tins.

Don't even leave the fob close to were you park your car. If you keep the fob in your bag and put the bag just inside the door, near the car, the thieves can get in.

We keep all of our keys in a metal box. When we come in we drop them in the box and shut it. It's a nice decorative piece. That way we always know where the keys are. I actually saved it. It was in the old rv above the flood line. I would think that would prevent the problem mentioned in the link. Probably wrapping up the fob in aluminum foil would work. An altoid tin is a good idea.

The Audi we were driving had one of the keyless entries and I thought it was not a good idea. It just seems dangerous and I guess since they have developed this technology I was right. I would prefer not to have keyless. I do use my key fob to get in my car quickly but try to never use it to lock it when out in public areas.

I own a Lexus and it does not lock itself when walking away from it. I can either press the lock button on the key fob, or press an indented spot on any of the door handles to lock the car. To unlock it, I either have to press the unlock button on the key fob, or touch the inside surface of any of the door handles.

Because the fob is always either deep inside my purse (but easy to get to because it's in a zippered compartment) or in a pocket of the clothes I'm wearing, my standard method is to lock the car by pressing the special spot on the door handle, and to unlock the car by touching the door handle.

Also, my car is parked inside the garage, so no one can use any of those devices and go off with my car. The only time it's parked in an "unprotected area" is when it's away from the house, but then the key fob isn't going to be close enough to the car for anyone to be able to use one of those devices.

I ordered a Faraday bag from Amazon after reading this, I had no idea. It looks like a pink wallet.

Lindsay wrote: "I own a Lexus and it does not lock itself when walking away from it."

Depending on the model, you may be able to change your settings so it will. Mine does.

Since my fob is always buried in my purse, I always lock the doors by pushing the button. raven, so good to know this! I will pass it on.

My neighbors had a Range Rover and a Lexus stolen from their driveway a few weeks ago. They left them both open. Another in the neighborhood had her Range Rover stolen too, but they found that one crashed.

Lindsay, sadly your sense of security is not as sound as one might want to think it is. The show I saw about it on 60 Minutes showed how the theives now have a device that can pick up the waves from the FOB when it’s in one’s purse or pocket. Just because the range for the fob with the door is limited doesn’t mean the range for the fob itself is.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-hacked-on-60-minutes/

My young neighbor has 3 kids and lots of toys in garage so he parks in driveway most of the time. Since he's a tech engineer, he's created a motion sensor that illuminates the interior lighting, headlights and tail lights whenever a warm body approaches within 10' of the car.

Nothing is safe anymore. You can buy universal remotes that'll open any vehicle that uses a remote to unlock their cars. Car thefts are on the rise like crazy here in Calgary, especially when the temperatures dip to where they are now. But even in the summer months when it was HOT HOT HOT if you own a vehicle that can make someone some money and it wasn't locked inside a secure garage, odds are it went missing. A lot of people now leave their cars empty inside, and unlocked to prevent thieves from breaking windows to get inside, causing damage that insurance won't cover.

BTW: my husband found an article online that shows people how to B&E into a house that uses deadbolts: those locks are supposed to be made so you can't pick them. So even our deadbolts that I make sure to use when we leave the house are now useless.

once "broke into" a co-workers car purely by accident. WAY before most car lock systems were all electronic... still needed key. i was leaving work, used key to unlock door. before i tried to start car... dawned on me that even my car wasn't that cluttered!?! same make/model car, key opened it right up. i didn't even know whose car it was but made sure to let them know what had happened.

NOT challenging anything stated in this post but it sounds... fishy to me? like my neighbor's, god-daughter's, hair-dresser's, dog groomer said...??

My initial thought was that neighbor had to have left their car unlocked...I know I have gone to bed many many times and had to get back up to go make sure I locked my car. I am really bad about that. And leaving stuff in my car. Won't do that anymore. Luckily my car wasn't broken in to. I had just cleaned EVERYTHING out of my car, glove box, center storage console. I had gift cards easily worth a couple hundred dollars. I think the fact that there were no outside lights or motion sensor lights right in the their area had a lot to do with it too.

Most locks and other systems to prevent entry to anything by strangers can be compromised. It's unreasonable to expect or to try to live one's life inside a protective bubble, it's not going to happen.

Common sense and having realistic expectations can help in place of fear or paranoia. Never leave anything valuable in a car, certainly not something that's visible through the windows. Don't keep valuables in the house unsecured. Accept that anything can be taken. Data and other digital valuables can be easily protected and other things can be fixed or replaced.

I had my car broken into a year or two back. Very unsettling as we supposedly live in a very safe place. I suspect teenagers because they didn't do any damage but stole my old plug-in GPS, lol. Almost worthless. They left the doors mostly closed but not secured, maybe to avoid the noise. It's been happening a lot in our area and I make sure to keep things secure and leave nothing in my car that someone would want.

I once had someone steal my catalytic converter from my car when I lived in Irvine a few years back. I was staying at my then-boyfriend's really nice apartment complex, parked in the well-lit parking lot. Apparently someone crawled under my car and cut it out. I didn't realize till I tried to start it up and it sounded like a jet engine. I had to have it towed.

This is why you should not leave your garage door opener in the car. Break into car, have access to house via garage. Or have access to one apartment garage and break through drywall to access all others in the row.

I found out from my nephew that there is a universal code for my car keypad entry that mechanics use. My keypad accepts both that one and mine.

Years ago our neighbor in the apartment complex went out to his car (an aqua-colored Saturn) unlocked it with his key, and got in. He was puzzled when his car alarm went off, because his car didn't have an alarm. It was my wife's car and their keys were identical.

I have an older Honda CRV and I cannot lock it manually, have to use the fob. Supposed to be to help you not lock the keys in the car. I hate it. My previous car I always pushed the lock button after opening the door.

Madilee wrote: "Depending on the model, you may be able to change your settings so it will. Mine does."

What year and model is your Lexus?

lukirish said: "...60 Minutes showed how the theives now have a device that can pick up the waves from the FOB when it’s in one’s purse or pocket. Just because the range for the fob with the door is limited doesn’t mean the range for the fob itself is."

As I said, when at home, my car is inside the locked garage. Whether or not a device can "pick up the waves from the FOB" is a moot point if they cannot even get to the car.

The article lukirish linked is about hacking a car's steering and/or braking systems. Because the episode was apparently aired in February 2015, nearly 3 years ago, there didn't seem to be an easy way to get to the video of the episode to watch anything that was said about hacking key fobs.

Keyless entries and FOBs are safe to use. Don't believe anyone who says otherwise.

Well....fob hacking apparently does happen. But certainly parking in your garage would foil that. Of course, our new car doesn't fit into our 1940 cottage's garage, LOL:

How tech-savvy car
thieves are hacking keyless vehicles and what you can do to protect your motor

Mirror, U.K. 28Nov2017

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/how-tech-savvy-car-thieves-11601058

Action News
Investigation: Key fob hacking in Florida

ABC6, PhiladelphiaPA 20Nov2017

http://6abc.com/automotive/investigation-key-fob-hacking/2676389/

30 years ago and for decades before, most cars could be stolen using only a screwdriver. No one stopped buying or driving cars.

Madilee wrote: "Depending on the model, you may be able to change your settings so it will. Mine does."

I have just looked through, at length, the owners manual for a 2017 Lexus LS 460 and it doesn't mention anything about this in the section on door locking/unlocking or in the section on settings that can be customized.

However, you *can* have the door automatically lock on any Lexus without using the key fob or pressing the indented area on a door handle if you push the interior door lock button to the "lock" position after you open the door but before you exit the car. The doors will then be locked when you close the door.

Not the passive automatic door locking that Madilee claims her Lexus will do, but since she hasn't come back to state which year and model she has, who can tell? I still say she's wrong, but will admit I'm wrong if she can prove it.

We are not having an increase in auto break-ins. What does seem to be on the rise are shop-lifting, attempted shop-lifting, car-jacking, and theft of delivered packages. Sadly, stealing food is present.

We park our car in a locked garage too but realize that it’s not 100% full proof. It’s no secret that thieves can and do break into locked garages, especially those that use garage openers with rolling pins. Since my link obviously wasn’t of help, you can do your own search to read up on that.

Right or wrong to you Lindsay, my point is very simply, that it isn’t a good idea to become complacent just because you feel you have taken the needed precautions, unfortunately, thieves always seem to be one step ahead.

My perspective of the commentary here is that’s it educational only. I don’t believe Maddie was trying to imply that you were “wrong” so no need to be defensive or feel you need to admit to anything.

>>30 years ago and for decades before, most cars could be stolen using only a screwdriver.>>

Heck, you don't need anything at all to steal one of the older Civic models. I was going by on a bus one day and watched a tow truck driver open up a locked Civic.

The owner was flabbergasted, to say the least, when the guy banged once in the middle of the driver's side door, then pushed the window down! "And here's your keys, sir."

Cars that are taken are either stolen for joyrides/driveaway crimes, or cut up for parts.

Break-ins are unfortunately all too commonplace these days, sigh. You know things are bad when a car window gets broken to steal a $20 pair of sunglasses.

Our Hyundai Santa Fe automatically locked itself within 15 seconds of the driver taking the key out of the ignition and exiting the front door, but you had to manually set the alarm. This was actually terrible, because our other car didn't have that feature, and I kept forgetting to lock the car when I'd walk away!

I'm not feeling or being defensive. When I am wrong, I admit it. However, I do not believe I am wrong in saying that a Lexus will not automatically, passively, lock the doors when walking away from the vehicle and that this option is not available in the customizable settings. Madie stated that her Lexus does this, and I still would like to know which model and year so that I could take a look at the owners manual online to find where/how the setting is changed. Personally, I wouldn't want my Lexus to lock automatically when walking away from it, because I don't want it locked when it's in the garage. Pain in the patoot to have to make sure I've got the fob with me if I go into the garage to put something in the car or take something out of it.

I’m on the fence regarding the automatic locks. Only because I’ve been known to leave my car unlocked when I shouldn’t. :c/ Whoops....My pet peeve with my car, a Mazda Crossover is that when I unlock the drivers door, the passenger doors don’t unlock as well. I load and unload my laptop from the back seat several times a day for work and it never fails, I open the driver’s door, set my purse in, go to the passenger door to put my laptop in and it’s still locked. You’d think after a year of doing that I’d learn to open it when I stick my purse on the seat, but nope...I do it every single time.

I used to have to go to Detroit for work fairly often. A couple of years ago while at a clients office, someone bashed in the rear window of our Jeep with the intent of stealing it. I found the ignition on the driver’s side floor, but they had cut the wrong wires so it wouldn’t start. Just a car break in felt so creepy, I couldn’t imagine someone breaking into my house or actually taking the car. The driver of tow truck said ours was the third on that road, on that day and the wrong wires had been cut on all of them. Idiots.

"My pet peeve with my car, a Mazda Crossover is that when I unlock the drivers door, the passenger doors don’t unlock as well."

The default setting on a Lexus is that when you touch the inside of the handle on the driver's door, only the driver's door unlocks, but when you touch the inside of the door handle on any of the passenger doors, all of the doors unlock. This is a setting that can be customized to operate differently, but the default setting is fine for me.

Have you checked into whether this setting can be changed on your Mazda?

I'm guessing Maddielee did not mean to imply that her car, which has the auto lock feature, is a Lexus. Many cars have that feature as standard. Strange that Lexus does not. If I had a car with auto lock I would disable it before pulling off the lot! Relocking is bad enough!

Police in towns along Chicago's north shore say residents seem to think there's a safety dome over them. Every week since spring there have been reports of cars stolen or vandalized -- all unlocked, some with the keys IN the car. These cars were parked in the owners' driveways or on the street.

Our car is garaged, but unlocked within the garage. I don't know how I would lock it without using the fob remote -- 2005 Jaguar X-Type. Maybe old is good?

I have always removed the garage door remote when leaving the car for service or at a full-service car wash. I never programmed the car's own system for opening the garage.

That’s pretty cool Lindsay. I have not checked but although I like it and it has some nice features, the car is still pretty basic, so my assumption has been that it can’t. I need to take it in for service at the dealer, so maybe I should ask just in case.

Chisue, we always empty our cars and remove the garage door opener as well. It never ceases to amaze me how often we see people hand over their entire set of keys to the car repair too, IMO, that’s just asking for trouble.

I’m 59 years old and up until a few years ago, I’d never experienced any kind of vandalism or theft. Now within the past five or six years my DD’s house was broken into by some kids looking for drugs, our bank account was emptied with a copy of my ATM card and my Jeep was broken into. It’s pretty depressing that this is what our world has turned into.

Lukki, my last two cars (BMW's) made me crazy because when I unlocked the driver's door, all the doors unlocked. When I was getting into my car alone (at night, maybe in a parking garage or other kind of isolated place - even a parking lot like Target at night), I didn't like that someone could easily open the passenger door as I was getting into my car (because it had automatically unlocked). I have an Audi now and I like that it can be programmed to only unlock the driver's door. I can get in quickly and lock it, knowing no one else would be able to slip in the passenger side. Also, before the doors were automatically locked when you reach a certain speed, if I forgot to push the door locks so all of the doors were locked (they'd automatically unlocked when I got into the car), I'd known women who'd had someone open a passenger door and grab their purse off the seat. I really love the feature that those doors stay locked all the time - even if it's inconvenient once in a while to have them locked when I want to enter them.

My Audi only unlocks the driver's door but can be programmed differently. If I open it by hitting the unlock button on the fob twice, it will unlock all the doors, which I do if I'm loading things through the other doors. Or I keep the fob in my pocket so any door I touch will unlock.

One thing I've had happen twice with my fob is having it in my pocket and accidentally hitting the panic button. The flashers come on and won't turn off. I didn't know what caused it and took it to the dealer who guessed that's what happened. I did it again and the tech was correct. Hitting the panic button again turned it off.

Only problem that I have seen when a car locks automatically is that people must forget that they do that when they do things like putting gas in. I have seen too many have to call to have someone come unlock the car because they forgot to put the key in their pocket. I now drive a Forester and I do not like how it unlocks. With most of my previous cars that had electronic locking when you pressed the button one time only the drivers door unlocked. The Forester all of the doors unlock. Has never happened to me but at one place I worked a couple of juveniles approached a fellow employee while another juvenile stood up and walked toward the passenger side. With my current system with all of the doors unlocked a person might not be able to lock the other doors fast enough to prevent entry. I was told shortly after I purchased that it could not be changed. Will have to ask the next time I go in for servicing.

Moonie said, "I'm guessing Maddielee did not mean to imply that her car, which has the auto lock feature, is a Lexus."

I disagree. This is a screen capture of the exchange:

Oh my goodness, Lindsey, enough already

Oly, thanks for providing a different perspective, I guess when you put it that way, it’s not such a bad thing after all.

Funny you should say that Maifleur, I had a rental car auto lock on me while I was filling up the tank to return it. My phone was in the car as well, so the station allowed me call my DH on their phone. Luckily he had his AAA card and was close so I could use his phone. Not only did the rental place fail to inform me that could happen, but they didn’t have a spare key that we could use either so I was pretty annoyed with them.

I have tried to lock my purse in the trunk of my Audi (with the key in the purse) and it won't let me, the trunk refuses to close. It won't lock the doors with the keys inside either. I've also tried to drive away from our community locked mail box with my keys hanging in the mailbox lock. My car sends a warning...your keys are not in the car. It's smarter than me.

eta. When I've had cars that allow you to lock the keys in them, I just got in the habit of only locking the doors by actually putting the key in the lock. Never using the auto lock or pushing any lock buttons, etc. That may be obsolete technology, tho.

Here's a video that show how to activate the Lexus automatic door locking feature. It appears Maddielee is correct. Google is your friend:

Yes, Google is yor friend when you do a Google search on the term "Auto Relock Timer on a Lexus." You will come up with a definition of the term as well as the Owners manual (see page 2) and you will find out that, as I've said all along, a Lexus will not automatically lock itself when you walk away from it.

The Auto Relock Timer has to do with the vehicle relocking itself when you use the fob to unlock the door(s) but don't open the doors within the specified time.

sleeperblues - although I am admittedly persistent in proving myself right when told, incorrectly, that I am wrong, that's not why I've pursued this. It is a safety issue if folks are erroneously led to believe that their vehicle will passively lock itself when they walk away from it when, in fact, that is not what happens. You don't need to read any of my posts if you don't like what I have to say. That's your prerogative, just as it's mine to continue posting.

My apologies, Lindsey...the video narrator says exactly what Maddielee was claiming: what your Lexus will do regarding locking when walking away, not what your post clarifies. Here is another reference to that feature that Maddielee says is possible, but it's not an official Lexus owner's manual post, so perhaps they are also mixed up:

"An explanation from Lexus’ spokesperson outlined where I’d gone wrong.
Here goes (pay attention!)… If you lock your RX with the key fob, then
approach it and auto unlock it by opening the door or rear hatch, then
close the car and walk away, the car will relock automatically — as long
as it senses the key fob has also left the proximity of the car. "
https://www.motoring.com.au/lexus-rx-350-f-sport-2013-long-term-update-35569/

Olychick, unfortunately, it appears that John Wilson, who wrote the article to which you've provided the link, is also guilty of giving incorrect information. Although I have not yet gone through the entire owners manual for the 2013 RX350, I have seen enough to show that he misunderstood the Lexus spokesperson.

John Wilson wrote, "If you lock your RX with the key fob, then approach it and auto unlock it by opening the door or rear hatch, then close the car and walk away, the car will relock automatically — as long as it senses the key fob has also left the proximity of the car."

The owners manual on page 77 (5th bullet point down from the top of the page) states,

"Back door operation

"The back door can be opened even if it is locked. Lock the back door again when you leave the vehicle. The back door will not lock automatically after it has been opened and then closed." [emphasis added]

What the Lexus spokesperson undoubtedly told Mr. Wilson is as I've already stated -- if the vehicle is locked and you unlock it using the key fob but don't open a door within the specified number of seconds (default is 60 seconds but you can customize to 30 seconds or to 120 seconds), the doors will automatically relock.

The features customization section begins on page 980 of the owners manual. Anything having to do with locking/unlocking the 2013 RX350 (that can be customized) is listed on pages 983-985. And nowhere does it say what Mr. Wilson claims he was told. And I do not believe that Lexus would have the features as Mr. Wilson states without it being in the manual, because that feature would be a biggie.

Yes, I think you are right...I didn't see anything in any official Lexus publication that gave the same info.

Holy cow.

Oh my! I was alerted that I have caused some drama here. I apologize for any confusion.

We do have an older Lexus (350, 2009 maybe), that our granddaughter is about to receive that locks automatically. Husband says that the smart key is not the factory key, and his mechanic set the security system to automatically lock.

I thought my 2016 could be programmed to do the same if I wanted it to, I obviously was mistaken. Again I am sorry.

Hope everyone has a safe and healthy New Year. Lock those doors!

phewww....all that for nothing!!!