The Automobile Association's (AA) top dog has explained that he keeps a keyless fob inside a metal box in his microwave, after thieves stole his wife's luxury £50,000 Lexus.
Edmund King has tried his best to stop future criminals from stealing his motor by blocking the key's signal and taking his car, by storing it in a Faraday pouch - a leather bag with mesh lining - inside a red metal box.
He then decided to take it a step further by storing it in a microwave at the back of his home, far from the road in which has car was parked - reports The Telegraph.
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And whilst the metal castings should in-turn stop the fob's emittance from being intercepted by GTA thieves, Mr King also splurged £110 on a full steering wheel lock, in a bid to keep the vehicle in place when parked on the drive of his Hertfordshire home.
The Mirror reports that he has also considered installing a retractable security post at the entrance to his driveway, for extra precaution. Mr King thought about installing gates to stop anyone who manages to outsmart the security measures from driving away successfully with the car.
Although such measures may seem excessive, the past year has seen a 22 per cent rise in car thefts to almost 110,000 - with Mr King's family already experiencing this first hand. A criminal gang reportedly stole his wife Deidre's Lexus worth £50,000.
Luxury cars are usually a highly sought after target for criminal gangs, who use tech kits bought online to relay signals from unprotected keys inside a person's property to unlock a vehicle. A nearby thief with an amplifier can stand close to the property to access the fob's signal - before it is passed onto another gang member in possession of a transmitter.
The second criminal will usually be stood nearby the vehicle they aim to steal, ensuring that the sensors think the key is nearby - thus, granting them access without having to physically break their way in. As one of the UK's leading motoring experts, Mr King worried the gang who targeted his wife were even more sophisticated - as her keys were slotted into a Faraday pouch far from the front door when the car was took.
He anticipates that the criminals scoured the property in advance, looking for movements before intercepting the keyless fob signal when his wife arrived home at 6pm. Mr King said: “We think they came back at 11.45pm and used their computer device to unlock the car and remove it with no smashing into the car or anything.
"We didn’t notice it until the next morning, by which time it was probably in a container with its plates changed on its way out of the country.”
It comes as the AA says motorists should safeguard their keys with measures such as Faraday pouches, following a poll of 4000 owners of cars with keyless entry. It found that more than half - 51 per cent - admitted they did not protect their fobs in any way, leaving them exposed to relay theft.
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