From tonight’s local news, on every channel. The following is from the local NBC affiliate station:
“News 3 has learned that thousands of Las Vegas residents are having problems with their keyless entry systems on their cars. It seems to only be affecting American made cars, but owners want to know why. News 3’s Steve Crupi is digging deeper into this bizarre phenomenon, and will have a live report on News 3 at 5 and 6.”
It seems that all throughout the valley here, people were unable to open garage doors using their electric openers, and they couldn’t open their car doors either. Local car dealerships were flooded with calls, some people towing their cars to the dealerships to see what was wrong. (Many idiots failed to realize that they could indeed open the doors – with their keys!). Still – it is a total mystery and although the military denies anything to do with it, we have a large Air Force base here as well as the famous Area 51 not all that far away.
I’d guess that some anccidently flipped on a transmitter at Nellis that swamped the frequencies used by these devices. Or maybe not-so-accidently.
Reminds me of a story I read some time ago, in which some transmitters, radar, etc. on US Navy ships could cause problems with Australian garage door openers and such when one came into port there.
With my Saturn, if you open the door with the key, you have to get in and start the car within a few seconds or the alarm will go off. Presumably, General Motors figures that if somebody picks the lock, they won’t be able to hotwire the car that fast.
