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BMW Traps A Car Thief By Remotely Locking His Doors (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
Seattle police caught an alleged car thief by enlisting the help of car maker BMW to both track and then remotely lock the luckless criminal in the very car he was trying to steal... Turns out if you're inside a stolen car, it's perhaps not the best time to take a nap. "A car thief awoke from a sound slumber Sunday morning (November 27) to find he had been remotely locked inside a stolen BMW, just as Seattle police officers were bearing down on him," wrote Jonah Spangenthal-Lee [deputy director of communications for the Seattle Police Department].
The suspect found a key fob mistakenly left inside the BMW by a friend who'd borrowed the car from the owner and the alleged crime was on. But technology triumphed. When the owner, who'd just gotten married a day earlier, discovered the theft, the police contacted BMW corporate, who tracked the car to Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood.
The 38-year-old inside was then booked for both auto theft and possession of methamphetamine.
The suspect found a key fob mistakenly left inside the BMW by a friend who'd borrowed the car from the owner and the alleged crime was on. But technology triumphed. When the owner, who'd just gotten married a day earlier, discovered the theft, the police contacted BMW corporate, who tracked the car to Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood.
The 38-year-old inside was then booked for both auto theft and possession of methamphetamine.
The default behavior on BMW cars is that you have to pull the door handle lever twice to open it. The first pull unlocks thw door and it and the second pull opens the door. I've had passengers think they were locked in because while they pulled the handle once they couldn't open the door and I have to tell them to pull it again. I would be surprised if the guy was woken up by the SOS system with a CSR talking to him and he then pulls the handle once and thinks he is locked in since the door doesn't open. Then the CSR messes with the drugged up guy making him think he is locked in if there is any truth to the article and what was being said to him..
Page 38 of the manual states "Do not lock the vehicle from the outside with people inside the car, as the vehicle cannot be unlocked from inside without special knowledge." So if the car was remotely locked this would be the case. The owner of the car could have initiated the outside lock with the BMW Remote Control App. You have to press the lock button from inside the car to allow someone from the inside the car to unlock it.
You'd probably cut your hands up pretty bad if you succeeded. I'd lie on my back and try and kick the windows out. Your legs have far more power than your arms, and you're generally wearing shoes.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Suppose it depends on the water depth. I know I'd rather not wait for the cabin to flood if I were sinking in a lake. You might be pretty deep before you could get the door open and try to swim to the surface.
You more or less have to. The pressure difference means that you wont be able to open the doors. Its the same phenomena that prevents you from opening aeroplane doors mid flight.
I believe that both Top Gear and Mythbusters did a segment on it.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
You'd probably cut your hands up pretty bad if you succeeded.
Car windows are tempered glass. You might end up with a few scratches but it's not the bleed out scenario of normal glass.
Best tip I ever heard for escaping a locked car - detach the headrest and smash the windows with the prongs (assuming you have detachable headrests...)