What started as a routine night in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood turned into a brazen driveway heist when three men rolled up on a 2016 Corvette, threatened the homeowners at gunpoint, and sped off with the freshly customized sports car yesterday morning.
Surveillance video shows the trio approaching the Corvette in the couple’s driveway and milling around the vehicle for several minutes. When the home’s motion detector alerted Doug and Linda Smith, they stepped outside to confront the men. The tense standoff ended the moment one suspect told the homeowner, “I got a gun,” sending the couple back inside to call 911 while the thieves finished the job. The Smiths say the men spent roughly 10 minutes around the car before leaving with it, just weeks after the owner had it repainted and fitted with new wheels. Shaken but unhurt, they now say they want neighbors to know exactly what happened.
Doug and Linda Smith told NBC Bay Area that a camera mounted above their garage captured the entire incident at about 1 a.m. According to the station, officers showed up within four minutes of the 911 call, but the thieves and the 2016 Corvette Z51 LT3 were already gone. The couple believes the crew used some kind of device to clone or spoof their key fob, and NBC Bay Area reports that the video shows the suspects lingering in the driveway for around 10 minutes before driving off.
How relay attacks let thieves drive away
Security researchers have been warning for years that relay and key-cloning devices can quietly defeat modern keyless-entry systems. Instead of smashing a window, thieves use tech to fool the car into thinking the owner’s key fob is standing right next to it.
As detailed by Wired, attackers can rely on relatively inexpensive radio equipment to capture, amplify, or replay a fob’s signal, extending its range so the vehicle unlocks and starts as if the real key were present. Experts note that the method is fast, often leaves little or no visible damage, and has been shown to work on a wide range of vehicle models.
Precautions owners can take
The San Jose Police Department advises residents to keep keys and fobs away from doors and windows, install alarms or ignition kill switches, and report suspicious activity immediately. Security specialists also recommend storing key fobs in signal-blocking containers or Faraday pouches, and adding visible deterrents such as steering-wheel locks and GPS trackers, especially for high-value cars. Those steps will not stop every determined thief, but they can slow down an attempt and make a vehicle less appealing to opportunistic crews.
Local police and news outlets have been sounding the alarm about this pattern for months. As previously reported by NBC Bay Area, San Jose authorities have described the rise in relay-style vehicle thefts as alarming and have urged the public to adopt many of the same defensive measures. Community and precinct crime-prevention units continue to circulate tips on how residents can better secure both their vehicles and their key fobs.
