> Then I heard about another possibility. Earl Hyser, the
> superintendant of State Farm Insurance¹s Vehicle Research
> Facility, told me that some transponder-equipped cars came
> with a secret ³cheat² code designed to allow people who lose
> their keys to drive back to the shop. I asked the SFPD about
> it and was referred to Ken Montes, famous in Bay Area street
> racing circles for a souped-up 1992 Honda Civic he built as
> part of a tuner team called the Benen Brothers. The SFPD
> told me the team called the car Spanky, which instantly made
> me feel a certain kinship.
>
> I went to see Montes at his custom motor-cycle shop about a
> half hour south of San Francisco and asked him how someone
> could have stolen my car. He just laughed. ³If I want to
> take your Civic, I¹ll do it in 10 seconds,² he said. Then he
> confirmed Hyser¹s story. The mythical Honda override exists:
> It¹s a series of presses and pulls of the emergency brake.
> Each car, it seems, has a unique override code, which
> correlates to the VIN.
>
> ³You want to get yours?² Montes asked.
>
> Sure, I said.
>
> He called an acquaintance who worked at a Honda dealership.
> I listened, awestruck, as Montes fed the guy a barely
> credible story about a cousin who had dropped his keys down
> a sewer. The dealership employee was at home but evidently
> could access the Honda database online. I gave Honky¹s VIN
> to Montes, who passed it along to his friend. We soon had
> the prescribed sequence of pulls, which I scribbled down in
> my notebook.
>
> I walked outside and approached Honky. The door lock would
> have been easy ­ a thief would have used a jiggle key, and a
> stranded motorist would have had a locksmith cut a fresh
> one. I just wrapped the grip of my key in tinfoil to jam the
> transponder. The key still fit, but it no longer started the
> car.
>
> Then I grabbed the emergency brake handle between the front
> seats and performed the specific series of pumps,
> interspersed with rotations of the ignition between the On
> and Start positions. After my second attempt, Honky¹s hybrid
> engine awoke with its customary whisper.
>
> I had just jacked my own car.