It’s important to know where you can safely keep car keys at home to prevent theft. Most homeowners in the UK leave their car keys in all too obvious places, making it easy for thieves to find them. Many burglaries in the UK happen specifically because the burglars are looking for car keys to steal, so they can take the car and sell it or commit further crimes using it.
According to Calder Security, “Keys are one of the most commonly stolen items in the country”. Lets take a look at the safest places to keep car keys at home.
Where To Keep Car Keys In The Home
It goes without saying, but the safest place to keep car keys at home is out of sight, and ideally not in the same place as all your other valuables. Whether that’s a random draw or somewhere more secretive, the less obvious it is the better.
Opting to place keys in a safe is naturally a very protected spot, but also isn’t overly practical. I can’t imagine getting your keys out of a safe when you’re half asleep every morning is exactly ideal. It’s easy to hide keys somewhere practical yet not obvious. A few ideas are in a coffee box in the kitchen cupboard, under the cutlery tray or simply in a biscuit tin on the kitchen counter.
Burglars are smart. They typically don’t tend to break in without some kind of planning, or “casing” of the target home. If they are looking for a house to break into specifically to take the car keys, they will probably have figured out where keys are kept.
A vast majority of houses in the UK don’t actually hide car keys in their home, instead opting for convenience. Whether it’s a fruit bowl in the kitchen or one of those key hangers next to the front door, try to avoid putting your keys somewhere this easy to find, because it will make a burglar’s life so much easier.
Following on from this, lets take a look at where to hide key fobs of keyless cars.
Safest Place To Keep Keyless Car Keys At Home
It’s even more important to hide keyless car keys in a secure place. Why? Car thieves have figured out how to break into cars with keyless entry without access to the key itself, using a technique called “relay theft“. Keyless car theft is becoming more and more common, but this type of theft relies on the car thieves being able to pick up the signal being emitted from the key fob.
This is why it’s very important that if you have a keyless car, you secure the keys in a faraday box. So There you have it, the safest place to keep keys at home is ideally hidden away, within a signal blocking device such as a faraday pouch. These are inexpensive and will help prevent relay theft, making them absolutely essential, especially if you have a luxury car with keyless entry.
How Does A Faraday Box Prevent Car Theft?
Using a faraday box or faraday pouch and placing your keys inside will prevent the signal emitted from your keys from being picked up by car thieves attempting relay theft. If the car thieves cannot find the signal outside, they are not able to amplify the signal and replicate it.
So There you have it, the safest place to keep your keyless car keys at home is in a faraday box, which is well hidden. Ideally, keep the car keys well away from doors and windows as an additional measure, whether they are protected by a signal blocker or not.
Can You Keep Car Keys In The Fridge?
Some car owners with keyless cars have tried methods such as putting their keys in the fridge or in the microwave. This is because they think it might be useful for blocking the key’s signal being emitted, preventing relay theft by car thieves. I would personally avoid this for two reasons.
Firstly, you keep food in here too! It can be quite unhygienic to do this, when you think about all the places your car keys have been.
Secondly, most fridges have a reasonable degree of dampness, which could damage or break your car keys. Even if the fridge does actually block your keyless car’s fob from emitting a signal which can be picked up outside of your home, the risk of damaging the keys to your expensive car is high. Instead, simply opt to use a signal blocking box or faraday pouch to achieve the same result, without the risk of breakage.
Is It Safe To Keep Car Keys In The Microwave?
Just like with putting your car keys in the fridge, this should really be avoided. It’s a non-zero chance that someone will turn the microwave on, destroying both the keys and the microwave in the process.
On the other hand, if you’re purely concerned about whether this technically does help with blocking the signal from your key fob, I would expect so. I’m afraid I absolutely cannot recommend anyone does this though!
Conclusion
There you have it, some of the safest places to keep your car keys at home are as follows:
- 1) In a box in the kitchen
- 2) Hidden in an inconspicuous drawer
- 3) Locked in a safe – admittedly not as practical, but if you own a luxury car this is worth considering
- 4) In a hidden compartment, such as behind a picture frame
- 5) In a faraday box or pouch – This blocks keyless cars from being stolen via relay theft