BALTIMORE — It happened while most of the neighborhood was sleeping. The thieves barely made a sound, except for the soft hum of an engine as they pulled Trevor Bernard's Infiniti out of his parking spot in Canton.
"And eventually, you kind of see them like down at the bottom of the driver's side wheel. And then my car opens up, and they hop in and drive it away,” Bernard says as he describes the footage his surveillance camera captured last Saturday at 4:30 a.m.
Trevor says his car was locked, but his alarm never sounded, and there was no sign of forced entry. It all happened in a matter of minutes.
"I didn't think my car was stolen at first. I looked, there was no broken glass. So I was like, well, then it couldn't have been parked here because there would be shattered glass. But once I saw the video, I was like, that explains it."
Blaire Boothe has seen this before.
"It's increased. Youtube - everybody's a Youtube lock star when they're showing how to use these tools."
He’s the owner of Victory Auto Lock in Baltimore, and he says thieves are targeting cars that use keyless entry, or push-to-start key fobs. The thieves have learned how to essentially trick your car into thinking they have the key fob.
In the video captured by Trevor’s surveillance camera, you can see one of the thieves appear to use a tablet.
"They're trying to pick up the signal. What they're doing is they're amplifying the transmission from the car. So as you walk up to a car that's a push-to-start with a proximity, it recognizes your key. So what they're doing is they're putting that antenna between the key and the car and making the key think that the car is right next to it. Then it captures all the information and they're good to go,” Boothe said.
The tools needed are all easily available on sites like Amazon or eBay. It can be a relatively low-budget operation.
Boothe says certain cars are easier to "hack" than others. Trevor noticed right away, the thieves pulled up in what looked to be two other infinitis, just like his, before stopping at his car. A rise in thefts of Infinitis has been reported across the country, but Baltimore Police say they are not seeing an increase in Infinitis being stolen in particular, saying Infinitis only account for 3.6% of all auto theft and attempted auto thefts for 2024.
Boothe says the best way to protect your car is to keep your fob as far away from it as possible when it’s at home. Even better, put it in a metal box, or underneath a card called an RFID blocker, which is also used to prevent credit card theft.
But drivers like Trevor would prefer not having to worry about this at all. He was disappointed in the lack of urgency in Baltimore Police’s response. He called police as soon as he discovered the car had been stolen. He was told an officer would come out, but an hour later they called and asked if they could take his report over the phone, to which he agreed. He then was told to upload his surveillance footage, which he did.
“I haven’t heard anything since,” he said.
Councilman Zeke Cohen called this “unacceptable.”
“The car theft crisis remains an enormous issue for my constituents. And it is absolutely unacceptable the level of theft that we see in our city. We are glad to see that murders, non-fatal shootings are all down. That is demonstrable progress, and there are a lot of people who deserve credit for that. But that issue of car theft is really important because it’s one of those quality-of-life issues, that if it happens to you on the wrong day, it’s why folks will leave the city,” he told WMAR-2 News Monday.
"Here in the Southeast, we have a brand new major, Major Colon. And this is an issue that I flagged for him as being a top priority in this district where we see an inordinately high amount of car thefts, also just the smash and grabs, people breaking windows, particularly around Patterson Park. And he has assured me that he is working really hard,” Cohen said.
"But we're gonna continue to put pressure on BPD to really be responsive. It is not okay to say, 'This is too overwhelming of a problem, there's nothing we can do.’ Look, folks are paying high taxes in this city. We expect a lot out of law enforcement, we have some great officers working here in Southeast Baltimore. But when it comes to car thefts, we need them to do a better job, track the prints, go after the violent repeat offenders, because often it’s a relatively small group of people that are doing this. We need to catch them, apprehend them, and then working with our State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, we need to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law. This is not a victimless crime. This is a crime that really impacts people’s quality of life.”
A spokesperson for BPD tells WMAR-2 News:
"The Baltimore Police Department, along with our partners within Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s administration continue to work aggressively in addressing the increase in auto thefts throughout the city. The Department has arrested more than 120 individuals so far this year for auto theft and recovered 460 auto theft vehicles.
In 2023, the Department gave out more than 3,000 wheel locks and partnered with Kia and Hyundai on anti-theft software clinics. We have hosted three wheel lock giveaway events this year and have another planned this upcoming Saturday. We will continue to identify and arrests those responsible for these incidents."
The wheel lock giveaway will be held at the Parkside Shopping Center from 12 - 2 p.m. More details can be found here.