Photo credit: Julia Avamotive
by Jeanine Botta, MPH, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition
In a recent article about creative ways to use a vehicle key fob, Readers Digest recommended using a car’s panic alarm to enhance personal safety in isolated places, and to scare burglars away while at home. The publication suggests that if a parking garage is deserted at night, you can ward off attackers by pressing the panic alarm on your key fob, which activates the car alarm. For home security, the article suggests keeping the key fob on your nightstand and if you hear something suspicious at night, you can hit the panic button to scare off criminals. Readers Digest also included this practice in an earlier article about ways to prevent a home break-in.
People have suggested setting off car alarms to guard personal safety and home security for decades in online chat forums, but it was surprising that a mainstream publication endorsed this practice, even claiming that experts have weighed in.
If you’ve been attacked, and you’re defending your life, anything goes. You should fight, scream and set off your car alarm if that is an option. But to guard your personal safety on an everyday basis, preemptively setting off a car alarm may not be effective — an attacker can easily overpower you and turn the alarm off. You could also think ahead, and park close to businesses and activity. If you’re at a shopping center, ask if a security officer can walk you to your car. You could also call a friend or hire car service to drive you to your car.
If you regularly travel or work in isolated places where you’re certain that you’re safe but want extra reassurance, consider a personal safety device that transmits a silent alarm to a monitoring service. You could also take a self-defense class.
The article states that “the attention-grabbing blare of your car’s alarm system can also prevent home break-ins,” but this scenario is flawed. A method that doesn’t allow you to see someone trying to break in makes no sense. The attempted break-in has to occur before you fall asleep, or it has to wake you up. This security method requires you to set off your car alarm without being sure of what the sound was.
At the same time, your neighbors may not appreciate a car alarm in the early hours of the morning when you wake up to the sound of a raccoon foraging through your trash cans. And most people, including burglars, know that car alarms do not involve professional monitoring.
There are also safety issues related to misuse of a vehicle key fob. If your car is parked in a garage attached to your house, you run the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning if you accidentally activate remote start.
Vehicle key fobs don’t belong on nightstands. They shouldn’t be used by people who are either falling asleep or abruptly awakened. Even if you don’t inadvertently start a car that is in a garage, there are other unintended outcomes with key fob use.
There are effective ways to protect your home that don’t involve waking up your neighbors. Today there are home security systems for every budget and tech skill level. With a home security system, you can monitor strange noises at night from your phone and see that a family of squirrels is trying to breach the new bird feeder. You can go back to sleep, your neighbors can stay asleep and you can deal with the bird feeder in the morning.
