At the beginning of October, a 31-year-old construction estimator named Samantha parked her Honda Fit on a Chicago street. Concealing her backpack, containing a laptop and external hard drive, under the backseat and further obscured by a black blanket, she believed she had taken adequate precautions. Upon her return, she was met with the grim reality of a shattered window and a missing bag. Despite reporting the incident, Samantha, like many others, received no further communication from the police.
Car burglaries are a pervasive issue across the United States, particularly in densely populated urban centers. Samantha’s experience, however, echoes a disturbing trend in these break-ins: the unsettling feeling that thieves possess an almost preternatural awareness of the presence of valuable electronics within vehicles.
“I had other items in the car that held monetary value,” Samantha recounted, “including a wallet with $50 cash, a set of barely used boxing equipment, and even a case of beer in the trunk. Yet, it was specifically the laptop and hard drive that were targeted, leading me to suspect a deliberate method for identifying electronics.”
A noticeable surge in thefts targeting laptops and gadgets from parked cars, especially in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area, has prompted both victims and law enforcement to consider a concerning possibility: are burglars employing Bluetooth scanners to pinpoint vehicles harboring valuable electronic devices based on their wireless signals? Many modern laptops and gadgets, even when closed or in sleep mode, emit Bluetooth signals by default, acting as beacons to facilitate pairing with other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Jake Williams, founder of the cybersecurity firm Rendition Infosec, an expert in penetration testing utilizing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanners, explains, “This default signal emission is often tied to power-saving features and the specific sleep modes of different laptops when closed. It’s highly probable that some thieves are leveraging Bluetooth scanners for targeted device detection. The technology is readily accessible and user-friendly, eliminating technical expertise as a barrier.”
These scanners are far from specialized, clandestine tools. Readily available Bluetooth scanner applications can be installed on any smartphone, utilizing the phone’s built-in Bluetooth sensors to detect nearby signals. These apps not only identify devices but also provide detailed information such as device type, pairing status, and proximity within a few meters. While often marketed for benign purposes like locating misplaced devices, their ease of use makes them easily adaptable for malicious activities, revealing a significantly larger number of devices than a phone’s native Bluetooth pairing function.
Despite the mounting anecdotal evidence and technological plausibility, the notion of criminals using Bluetooth scanners remains a point of contention, dismissed by some as an “urban myth.” Skeptics propose a simpler explanation: thieves may simply be observing individuals stowing laptop bags in trunks or concealing them in back seats. Given the prevalent habit of leaving valuable technology in vehicles, it’s plausible that burglars are merely capitalizing on statistical probability.
Tim Strazzere, a car security researcher, argues, “If I’m surveilling a parking lot with the intent to break into a car, and I witness someone placing an item in the trunk before leaving, would I then rely on a Bluetooth scanner app on my iPhone? Absolutely not. I would immediately break a window, seize the bag, and depart swiftly to assess its contents later. Speed and opportunity are paramount.”
