THIEVES USING A DEVICE JUST LIKE YOUR KEYS TO BREAK INTO YOUR CAR

News Channel 4 asked us to offer our opinion on the unusual occurrence of thieves using a device just like your keys to break into cars.

You can read about. New Reporter, Jacqueline Quynh's report here.

Jacqueline Quynh WWL 6:55 PM. CST February 03, 2017CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ PINTEREST"We saw four individuals with a fifth walking up the street who were able to enter our cars even though they were locked,” said Christian Helmke, a Mid-City resident. The incident was all captured on his security camera in the early morning hours of January 31st. And the burglary suspects have not been caught. "Officers were surprised and really wanted to get hold of the video to try and figure out how exactly they were able to access these locked vehicles without causing damage to them and setting the alarms off,” said Helmke. Helmke says the thieves used something that looked just like a key to unlock not only his car, but his wife’s car, which is made by a different manufacturer. And what’s unusual is that he says the same group of thieves were able to break into his wife’s car just 4 days earlier. "They obviously knew they could get into it which would be a reason why they would come back.” What’s also notable is how long the thieves were at the scene. According to the tape times, the thieves spent at least 20 minutes in the cars. At certain points the brake lights go on and off, suggesting they wanted to actually steal the cars. This time it doesn’t work, possibly because the cars have keyless ignition, and that requires the right key fob to start. "That's something I haven't seen before,” said Albert Grandoit. As police work on the case, Eyewitness News talked with an investigations expert with Brics and Wes, a criminal law investigation office to find out what happened. "Where do you get something like this? Actually, with technology, you can probably surf the web,” said Grandoit. And he says if you look hard enough you can find something similar to what locksmiths use, called a Pop a Lock device, which is used to duplicate smart, or chipped keys. "What else can you do besides lock your car and set your alarm?" asked Helmke. Helmke isn’t the only one, some of his neighbors say they’ve had the same thing happen to them in recent months. For now, Helmke says he’s working with those around him to keep watch, unfortunately, the kind of thing that makes it hard for many to sleep at night. © 2017 WWL-TV.