Something mysterious is blocking vehicle key fobs from working in a small Alberta town

Key fobs that suddenly won't unlock vehicles. Cars that won't start. Alarms that go off for no reason and can't be quieted. Something mysterious is thwarting drivers outside a grocery store in the small Alberta town of Carstairs — and it's sparking all kinds of theories.

The problems have been happening for weeks in the parking lot outside the Westview Co-op grocery store in Carstairs, a town of about 4,000 about 60 kilometres north of Calgary.

A longtime employee at the dollar store right across the street from the Co-op says it's all she hears some folks talk about when they come into her store to buy a battery for their fobs — and then discover that doesn't solve the problem.

Something mysterious is blocking vehicle key fobs from working in a small Alberta town

This sounds like some kind of RF interference. They had electricians check it out but the source of the problem was not found. They even turned the power off to the store to see if that would stop the problems, no luck. The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development has not come up with anything yet either.

The problems have only been happening for a matter of weeks. That should rule out ley lines or haunted ground. They need to try and find out what changes happened around the time the problems started.

Hmm... Maybe it's one of those "new curses" from King Tut's tomb?

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I wonder if they have a high level of magnetics in the ground.
There was some seismic activity in the west coast not long ago.
Perhaps that could of shifted something just enough to allow the magnetic field in the ground interfere with the electronics.
But I’m not an electrical engineer so I don’t know the amount of magnetics it would take to cause such an issue.

I do remember when I was a teenager that I had my Marshall guitar amp close to my tv, and the screen changed colours on the side next to the speakers, when it got to close to the tv.

It’s odd that it hasn’t been noticed before

I remember a couple grocery stores back years ago that used a RADAR band of RF to open main doors automatically, and this would trigger any RADAR detector, as it did mine, the one I had in my car at the time.

Something like that could jam key fobs I bet.

It will be interesting to find out if people’s credit or debit cards aren’t working either.
Then they would know it’s a strong magnetic field from somewhere

I used to work very close to the Asamblea de Madrid (Madrid national assembly) and key fobs would react strangely all the time. There is a protocol they use which disrupts radio signals, it operates on various levels, from a low level interruption signal all the time and it ramps up at a frequency related to time so that the combination effectively blankets the area.

Not sure why that would happen in a small town though.

This is likely a hacker having fun at people's expense

For the past 6 months I have been developing a proof of concept attack against rolling code key fob entry systems. Some examples of affected systems would be the key fob you use to unlock your car.

It's aliens!

Gotta be!

I do not think magnetics have anything to do with it. It would be an RF problem, as these things use micro transmitters.
Someone has a powerful radio source nearby that is close to the 2-3ghz range that these things operate in. It could also be some idiot flooding the place with a marine radar.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Everyone thinks it's radio signals? How does that drain car batteries? The article said key fobs went dead and people were trying to buy batteries for them. They are afraid to go there because they can't start the car to get out.

It's some kind of power drain. Maybe a signal can do that if it turns on something electric in the car but the article didn't say that was happening.

a reply to: toms54

They did buy batteries for them and they were not the problem. They could not start their cars because the fobs did not work. Radio jamming.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: LookingAtMars

I wonder if they have a high level of magnetics in the ground.
There was some seismic activity in the west coast not long ago.
Perhaps that could of shifted something just enough to allow the magnetic field in the ground interfere with the electronics.
But I’m not an electrical engineer so I don’t know the amount of magnetics it would take to cause such an issue.

I do remember when I was a teenager that I had my Marshall guitar amp close to my tv, and the screen changed colours on the side next to the speakers, when it got to close to the tv.

It’s odd that it hasn’t been noticed before

It could be something magnetic that was moved close to the store. The problems they are having would be hard not to notice in the past, so I don't think it is in the ground. Could it be a new underground tunnel with a mag-lev train?

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
I remember a couple grocery stores back years ago that used a RADAR band of RF to open main doors automatically, and this would trigger any RADAR detector, as it did mine, the one I had in my car at the time.

Something like that could jam key fobs I bet.

They shut the power off to the store and the problem persisted. Good idea, but I think shutting the power off rules that out.

originally posted by: projectvxn
This is likely a hacker having fun at people's expense

For the past 6 months I have been developing a proof of concept attack against rolling code key fob entry systems. Some examples of affected systems would be the key fob you use to unlock your car.

It is setting of alarms and causing other problems though, but you can never rule out hackers

originally posted by: charlyv
I do not think magnetics have anything to do with it. It would be an RF problem, as these things use micro transmitters.
Someone has a powerful radio source nearby that is close to the 2-3ghz range that these things operate in. It could also be some idiot flooding the place with a marine radar.

If it was the US the FCC would find that, not sure about in Canada.

a reply to: toms54

It didn't say it drained the batteries. In fact, new batteries didn't solve the problem.

It's RF interference. Now they have to find out from where.

The FCC would certainly rule out haunted ground first. No use working with science first.

a reply to: charlyv

Would a 5 ghz wifi signal be enough to cause the issue, if it was in close proximity?

This happened to me in Michigan. I was at a store and the other customers were complaining about theirs not working either. This was roughly 1 month ago. Outside of that area it seemed to work fine.

a reply to: Macenroe82

A broadband RF scanner and some triangulation should sort this out fairly easily. Sounds the sort of bastardry hackers & phrackers used to get up to for jollies.