Techno carjacking: Cricket captain's keyless BMW stolen twice in 24 hours

Drew Cameron, premiership coach of Upper Murray football club Cudgewa and captain of the Belvoir's A-grade cricket side, awoke to a phone call from Albury police on Saturday morning, February 24.

Police informed him that his vehicle, a dark grey 2022 BMW X5, had been found outside a unit complex on Oliver Street in Lavington.

He picked up the car to find his cricket gear, watch, dash cam and air pods had been stolen.

Then, after a restless night filled with "paranoia", Mr Cameron rushed to the lane out the back of his home on Garden Street in Albury to find the thieves speeding away in his vehicle, crashing into his partner's car on the way out.

With his car lacking a physical key, Mr Cameron suspects the thieves "hacked" the signal transmitted from his fob to unlock and start the car.

"We did a bit of research into it with BMWs, and that is what they've done," he said.

"I watched a video where they bring an amplifier close to the house which sends the fob frequency from the house closer to the car, close enough to open it, turn it on and bugger off."

A keyless car does not have a traditional metal key to open the doors or start the motor. Instead, a digital fob, card or smartphone app is used to gain entry.

Keyless car theft occurs when a thief accesses and steals a vehicle without possessing the original fob or card, by tricking the car into believing the digital key is being used.

There are several ways to do this, but Mr Cameron believes the thieves used the "signal relaying" method.

Mr Cameron explained, after doing his own research, that signal thieves use wireless transmitters held up to the front door or window of a house to capture the signal from a genuine digital key and relay it to the vehicle.

"Because all of the cars now are computer system based, once they (the thieves) clone your key and it is inside the vehicle, the vehicle turns on, and then once the computer is going, anyone can have a computer system," Mr Cameron said.

"So, they got access once they hacked the computer, and now that they've cloned the key, they can access it whenever they want."

Mr Cameron's partner, Paula Thompson, who also owns a keyless BMW, said she placed her key in the microwave on Saturday night after researching how to prevent her keys being hacked.

Storing keys in a "signal blocking box" or an aluminum tin is said to help prevent thieves hijacking the signal.

Albury police were contacted for comment.