Car key duplicate

pinball wizard said:
There's over 100 000 vehicles stolen annually in SA. Not to mention all the thefts from out of vehicles (no accurate number exists as a large number go unreported)

Most people would not be comfortable with handing their keys to a stranger for safe keeping.

This is not a terribly hard concept to grasp.
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Sometimes when the parking lots are too full, don’t you leave the key with the guard to park your car when a space opens up? These guards are essentially a valet service now.
 
scudsucker said:
I live in Cape Town. In this city, there is a beach in the suburb of Muizenburg. At that beach, which is popular with surfers, there are several car guards. People give these car guards a token sum of money to look after their car keys, while they surf.

This is not a terribly hard concept to grasp.
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it's a touch different on the KZN South Coast though, most beaches have self appointed car guards standing there hoping to make something to feed their addiction - so not the kind of people you wanna give your keys to, and some spots doesn't even have car guards.

However in the past when I surfed Durban (eg North Beach) they actually have legit police appointed car guards holding all surfer's car keys. Perhaps that resembles the situation in Cape Town.
 
It's not the car guard that's the problem. It's when a bunch of loitering thieves realise what people are doing. So they get 3 or 4 guys together, threaten to stab him, and run off with the keys to a dozen cars.
 
pinball wizard said:
Cubbyhole?
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Yeap. I have a few spots inside the car where I hide the main key, usually rotate to avoid opportunists from watching me.

I have an older car that I currently go surf with, which spare key doesn't have a remote and I put in my wetsuit.. I unlock door with spare key, the alarm goes off (super loud, the whole beach stares at me but I don't care), I take out remote key wherever I hid it inside the car and press the unlock button, alarm stops, all good.

But yeah, other car doesn't have remoteless spare key, hence this thread.
 
ronald911 said:
it's a touch different on the KZN South Coast though, most beaches have self appointed car guards standing there hoping to make something to feed their addiction - so not the kind of people you wanna give your keys to, and some spots doesn't even have car guards.

However in the past when I surfed Durban (eg North Beach) they actually have legit police appointed car guards holding all surfer's car keys. Perhaps that resembles the situation in Cape Town.
Click to expand...
the trust people put in car guards, always amazes me,

would rather trust my keys to something like this:

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or something magnetic, attached to the underside of the car, with a electronic lock on it.

to just give your keys to somebody? what madness is this?
 
eg2505 said:
I guess Capetownians are a trusting lot, not like us here in JHB, who are suspicious of anybody and everything.
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It's not a Joburg or Cape Town thing because cars are stolen everywhere in SA, it's more about the trust one builds with the car guards.
 
TheChamp said:
It's not a Joburg or Cape Town thing because cars are stolen everywhere in SA, it's more about the trust one builds with the car guards.
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The issue here of course is that someone making very little money can get corrupted and that’s not a weight I’d want to put on them no matter how much trust has been built up through familiarity.
 
TheChamp said:
It's not a Joburg or Cape Town thing because cars are stolen everywhere in SA, it's more about the trust one builds with the car guards.
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trust hey? so what vetting does a car guard take? how do I know XYZ is actually trustworthy to hold on to my keys and keep them safe, and return them to me with nothing taken out of my car?
how can you trust a yellow reflective bib brought at builders warehouse for R50 as being trustworthy?

in my Mind, car guards, are car thieves waiting for an opportunity to strike, either they jam your remote and then help themselves to your stuff,
watch who checks their car is actually locked, and then strike, (personally caught quite a few of them) or act as lookouts for other crimes happening nearby,

they even got the perfect excuse to be standing around, hands in their pockets, looking shifty and dodgy.

and as sad as it is, I NEVER give them anything, no matter how much whistling or Greetings or whatever they do.
I literally ignore them, pretend they dont exist, best policy, sadly, as Ive yet haven't found a way to deal with these guys

Its sad, agreed, but id rather not invite trouble by dealing with those guys, so I ignore them as much as possible.
 
Paul Kemp said:
The issue here of course is that someone making very little money can get corrupted and that’s not a weight I’d want to put on them no matter how much trust has been built up through familiarity.
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Or someone could get wind of it and just rob them at gunpoint and take all the cars.
 
eg2505 said:
trust hey? so what vetting does a car guard take? how do I know XYZ is actually trustworthy to hold on to my keys and keep them safe, and return them to me with nothing taken out of my car?
how can you trust a yellow reflective bib brought at builders warehouse for R50 as being trustworthy?

in my Mind, car guards, are car thieves waiting for an opportunity to strike, either they jam your remote and then help themselves to your stuff,
watch who checks their car is actually locked, and then strike, (personally caught quite a few of them) or act as lookouts for other crimes happening nearby,

they even got the perfect excuse to be standing around, hands in their pockets, looking shifty and dodgy.

and as sad as it is, I NEVER give them anything, no matter how much whistling or Greetings or whatever they do.
I literally ignore them, pretend they dont exist, best policy, sadly, as Ive yet haven't found a way to deal with these guys

Its sad, agreed, but id rather not invite trouble by dealing with those guys, so I ignore them as much as possible.
Click to expand...
The crux of my post was that it wasn't a Joburg or Cape Town thing, i wasn't advocating for or against the use of car guards, it's just a trust thing as I said, wherever you are in SA.

I really don't deserve that wall of text.
 
TheChamp said:
The crux of my post was that it wasn't a Joburg or Cape Town thing, i wasn't advocating for or against the use of car guards, it's just a trust thing as I said, wherever you are in SA.

I really don't deserve that wall of text.
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ok, you want simple?

I NEVER give my keys to some random dude, no matter how much I trust him/her.
point 1, and point 2, find a better way of hiding your keys, with a combo lock or a secret place on the vehicle,
 
eg2505 said:
ok, you want simple?

I NEVER give my keys to some random dude, no matter how much I trust him/her.
point 1, and point 2, find a better way of hiding your keys, with a combo lock or a secret place on the vehicle,
Click to expand...
But you know how trust works, right? Someone start as a random person, over time trust happens and they are no longer a random person, that's how relationships develops.
 
TheChamp said:
But you know how trust works, right? Someone start as a random person, over time trust happens and they are no longer a random person, that's how relationships develops.
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trust some random dude, even if I know them for years?
especially a car guard? you must be joking.

know we dont have many in ZA, but I wouldnt even trust a car valet, that parks your car for you.
call me paranoid, but trust is given to somebody that earned it.
 
TLDR:

I'd rather put a bit of trust in the car guards being around to hopefully prevent my window from being smashed open in broad daylight and tip them if everything still good, than actually trusting them with my key, which gives them easy access unnoticable. Big difference.

And yes, I know the local car guards by name, after nearly 10 years... but my trust levels are never going to reach that to trust them with my keys.
 
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