Shadowing Practice: I Outsmarted Pro Car Thieves - Learn English Speaking with Video

A couple of weeks ago, you might have seen

when popular Twitch streamer Jason the Ween had his car stolen using this weird -looking device during an actual live stream.

The car got stolen.

I'm not even trolling, bro.

Now, a lot of people accused him of faking it for views.

And the gates are open?

It's almost as if this was an inside job.

A lot of people are saying it's fake.

This is real, bro!

The keys are right here!

But after doing research into what device the thieves were using, I was intrigued.

So I decided to track down the criminals myself using footage from his neighbor's camera

Which captured the license plate of the getaway car

which gave me an address

that had the same exact getaway car parked out front After matching the identical backpack

and shoes from the security footage I was able to identify the thief

and that identity confirmed for sure Jason had no idea about any of this Oh, and his reaction was a hundred percent real

Because the thief was none other than me

and by the way he still has no idea it was me i suppose now he does hi jason

and this means his car was just one of a half a million cars

that are stolen every year using the same method you might have seen in clips like this

and this where these are coming up to doors with these weird things oh my god he has that device

so we reverse engineered the ultimate car theft device using just

a couple hundred dollars with the parts slapped into a 20 year old baby monitor

and along the way we discovered a super simple trick

that costs literally a penny

that will not only protect you from our ultimate car theft device

but from every single one of these as well oh and Jason

if you're watching this video right now in a bit of

a bad news first approach after we pretend stole your car

and left it parked on the street these guys came by and for real stole your car.

Look at this st, you got fully spaced for Hollywood.

Which took us down a deep rabbit hole of why a car is stolen every 48 seconds in America, who is behind this, and what they do with all these stolen cars.

But more on that later.

Now my descent into a fleeting life of crime started when I first noticed this video online, which I originally thought was fake.

But after a very brief amount of research, I realized it was in fact very real

and nowhere near an isolated incident because across the world This technique is used to steal a car once every single minute.

Now granted some of those thefts are smoother than others

But this technique is so effective that even if you smash through one gate, then hit a tree, then hit another tree, then smash through another gate

You'll still be able to make a clean getaway

So we analyzed every single video we could find online to see

if we could pick up some clues

And what we learned is it always involves two people where one stays by the car

and the other comes up to the front of the house With some kind of electronic device, but what made it

so effective is it took an average of only 30 seconds

To steal the car without a single car alarm ever being triggered

And this was a far cry from what a lot of people envision

when it comes to stealing a car

Because in Hollywood all you got to do is use a

thin piece of metal with the hook at the end called a Slim Jim Always wanted to do this, which you slide in here then hook this part of the lock

and push down which rocks this teeter -totter thing Which pushes up on this rod to unlock the door

And once you're inside you simply reach underneath rip out a bunch of wires and if you connect the right ones Congratulations,

you have successfully hot -wired a car so hardcore

But unfortunately for car thieves in the 90s automakers added metal shielding above the latch mechanisms to block the Slim Jim attacks,

and then when simple ignition wires were replaced with a sophisticated ECU computer to control the engine, hotwired and came obsolete.

But car thieves weren't about to take an early retirement, so a few years later, if you just got yourself some locksmith tools off Amazon for $21,

you could bypass the door lock security measures entirely by inflating

a little airbag giving you just enough room to slide in

what is effectively a beefed up coat hanger to simply manually pop the lock from inside.

that was like 20 seconds then once you're inside in the case of kia's made between 2011

and 2022 you just remove three screws pop off the steering

column cover snap off the ignition cylinder then slide the reverse end of your charging cable right onto

that little metal hub it's a simple turn

start the car that's wild

and i should point out the bad guys already know all this

so the main purpose of this video is to educate the good guys aka you

because security through obscurity is one of the weakest forms there is

so if you own a kia made between 2011

and 2022 just make sure you have the latest free software update from the dealer because

that will stop the car from starting unless the doors were

recently unlocked by the key fob as you'd expect there's sort of a constant arms race between car thieves

and car makers so for modern cars after it's locked with the key fob, if you manually unlock or open the door from the inside,

the alarm will go off and immobilize the car even if you did manage to make it in.

And the other engine starting hacks no longer work either.

Which meant I need to rely on more modern techniques.

AKA, I need to get my hands on one of those looping electronic devices.

But since that's not exactly something you could just go pick up at your local Best Buy, I would need to venture into some pretty sketchy corners of the dark web.

And out of everyone here at Crunch Labs, there's exactly only one person extensive experience crawling around the internet's seedy digital underbelly.

Hey Mark, can I help you with something?

Ian, what even is the dark web?

An encrypted version of the internet that you access through a special browser called Tor.

And, like, you have Tor?

And Ian did not disappoint.

Because 12 minutes later, we found a website ran by a dude named Dimitri, who claimed for the low price of $12 ,000 worth of Bitcoin, he could have our very own car -stealing device,

which was apparently called a relay attack.

But this raised a lot of thorny legal questions, which was a problem for Crunch Labs lawyer Bill.

Bill.

Find a device that can mimic anybody's key for any car.

Is that legal?

Can you, like, tell me a little bit more about this device?

Not really.

You can't use it to steal a car, but technically you can own it.

That would be legal?

Why do you even...

Thanks, Bill.

And with that great news in hand, I immediately connected with Dimitri on Telegram, and the following conversation actually occurred.

Hello.

Yes, yes.

Just have to go over a few things, okay?

100

Okay.

101

um how old were you when you were first born

102

what what do you i have zero i don't understand what

103

you're i understand the question okay okay don't worry how many

104

years in your 30s are you trying to figure out my age

105

no answer the question how many years have you been involved

106

with the united states government i don't work for the government zero what is your security research company name what

107

I don't have one.

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I'm just a dude.

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I'm trying to buy this thing from you.

110

Yes, that's my final answer.

111

I assume that meant he thought I was the feds and we were back to square one.

112

But then a few days later, I got this message from him with just a crypto wallet and the address I wanted it shipped to.

113

So obviously, I immediately yoloed him $12 ,000 in crypto, and just this morning, this arrived.

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Well, at first, I was excited to assume the mantle of Dark Web MKBHD, beautiful camo bag.

115

I then remembered, I should probably be careful with this.

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I had no idea what was actually in this thing, and it could be much worse than a glitter bomb.

117

This is kind of nerve -wracking.

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At least something works, but instead of glitter and fart spray, I was greeted with all the promised equipment and even bullet pointed instructions.

119

It's an interesting choice.

120

So Ian and I gave it a chance to unlock a car door with a pair of keys

121

that was just barely out of range.

122

All right, so this is connecting that key fob to this car.

123

and yes at first it gave us a bit of a scare bro try changing your channel we saw

124

that with a little finagling it could open appear to be

125

a huge waste of 12 grand did you keep the receipt

126

wait until it wasn't all right but now we also have to turn the car on

127

this is taking way longer than the news clips just keep trying

128

dimitri comes through we would be the worst criminals ever there'd

129

be like 13 police cars by now it had taken us seven minutes to start the car

130

when the key was only a few feet away whereas real thieves can pick a random suburban home

131

and start the car in as little as 15 seconds

132

So we decided to run a field test and see

133

if we could use it to steal an actual bona fide Suburban car

134

and of course we didn't expect to pull this off within 15 seconds

135

But we figured if we were able to start the car

136

and see the key without anyone calling the cops on us There's a neighbor.

137

There's a neighbor Then we chalk it up as a win.

138

But the crucial factor was at the very least, we'd have to unlock the car.

139

Why isn't it working?

140

And at this point, I was pretty sure Dimitri had scammed us.

141

But to understand why I was pretty sure Dimitri had scammed us, you first need to understand how a car key fob works to wirelessly and passively unlock and start a car.

142

Because a parked car is constantly whispering out four times a second, Is my key there?

143

Is my key there?

144

And when the key gets close enough to hear that specific whisper, it yells back, It's me!

145

I'm here!

146

And if it yells the correct secret password, the car will open up and turn on.

147

And it might seem weird that the car whispers why the key yells, but a yelling key is exactly what you want.

148

So if you're far away, you can still deactivate the alarm or lock the doors.

149

And a whispering car is perfect because you'd only want your car to passively unlock

150

and turn on if the key was super close.

151

So the way the old Russian jumpstart works is it's basically a microphone

152

that listens for that quiet car whisper and then uses a bunch of complicated

153

and expensive parts to transmit that whisper through the air to the other device, which is essentially a speaker with an antenna

154

that uses even more complicated parts to receive

155

and then crank up the volume of that whisper and then blast it into the house.

156

And so in the key fob inside the house, here's that familiar car whisper, it's tricked into yelling the secret password to open and start the car,

157

even though the car is really far away.

158

And given all that, I was pretty sure at this point, either the microphone or the speaker part of dimitri's device was essentially unusable bro another channel yeah

159

and mere moments before we were ready to give up we

160

got it our fortunes change thanks bill hey bill you know

161

how you said it's not illegal to own it you just can't use it

162

exactly what

163

if you're just testing it testing it to steal a car

164

six spotify playlists here bill by the way i wouldn't have

165

pegged you as a swifty oh my god are you kidding me

166

where are you going with my car get ice cream yeah

167

bill you want anything yeah what do you want bill this

168

one's on us this tastes way better than someone else's car thanks phil

169

by the way your car's in a red zone should probably move it

170

and while we technically were successful it seemed pretty hit

171

or miss and took about 10 times longer than everything we were seeing in the news clips

172

so like any good engineer would we decided to make it way better starting with the ct scan to see

173

if we could determine what was inside without needing to open

174

it just in case there was a tamper protection mechanism

175

that would fry the motherboard if we took a peek

176

and through the scan we were able to identify every component except for this one

177

and when we questioned dimitri about it he started to get really weird

178

and threatened that if we tampered with the device in any way it would self -destruct

179

and since I've always had a personal life rule to avoid working with unknown Russian -made explosives, I disposed of the package.

180

But not all was lost because thanks to that CT scan, we were able to reverse engineer a blueprint to all the critical components Dimitri used in the old Moscow Motorak

181

and we quickly realized we were grossly overcharged because all those expensive, complicated parts in both the microphone

182

and the speaker could be replaced with a few key components from a circa 2004 video baby monitor

183

because the same camera

184

that watches your baby sleep feeds into a transmitter board that's attached to an antenna

185

that wirelessly transmits the video signal through the air to an antenna on the monitor

186

which catches those signals and process them on a receiver board

187

which ports the video onto the small screen so

188

if we simply open both those components up and then snip them here

189

and here we could replace all the expensive transmitter and receiver hardware in the complicated microphone and speaker,

190

which in eyesight would not only have saved us $11 ,624 and kept me off another FBI watch list,

191

but we'd be left with a much simpler device that actually worked way better.

192

With the entire process, from initial approach to starting the car, taking about 10 seconds.

193

Bro, bro.

194

Awesome.

195

Which gave us an idea.

196

Okay, stay there.

197

Yeah, we got it.

198

Way too easy, Bill.

199

Way too easy.

200

Well, we didn't want to stop at just figuring out how

201

people were stealing cars we want to know what happened to them once they were stolen

202

so we needed to get a car truly stolen off the streets

203

and for this experiment I knew the perfect car to sacrifice no

204

but for the video it would not steal my car again we had to find a car

205

that nobody would mind getting stolen

206

and of all the places the perfect car appeared to me

207

on a Twitch stream this one's for y 'all look at

208

this bad boy right here next week we are They're giving away a free, yes, free, 2026 Sonata.

209

Purring, bro.

210

Not used, y 'all.

211

This is a show car.

212

Brand new one.

213

Despite his best efforts to sell everyone on this car, this bad boy can take you from point A to B.

214

Chat was a little underwhelmed.

215

Why are y 'all swimming W's, bro?

216

Bro, who wants a free car?

217

Whoever says keep it is ineligible.

218

Y 'all are ungrateful!

219

W's, bro.

220

U .S only, 18 +, must have a driver's license.

221

Welp, sounds like I'm eligible to win.

222

So I keep these keys or what?

223

I'll leave them on the back table.

224

And when I saw where he placed the keys, I knew I could guarantee myself a win.

225

The question was, would I feel bad stealing his car?

226

I'm gonna be honest with you, that's y 'all's whip.

227

All right, I drive Maybachs and Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Hellcats.

228

All right?

229

And the answer was no. You just straight up dissed your own giveaway car, bro.

230

So the first step would be finding Jason the Ween's house.

231

And as a pretty popular Twitch streamer, it would be very difficult to...

232

Well, no, actually, he's right there on Google Maps.

233

Okay, so we grabbed our device and a couple days later got ready to win this car.

234

But as we approached the FaZe house, the reality started to set in this would be the first time i'd be stealing a car

235

that didn't belong to someone on my payroll this was for real

236

so am i hopping on vr chat jason was going to be streaming himself playing a vr game

237

while his car sat untouched in the driveway

238

so who would finish first jason setting up a vr headsets let's go buddy

239

or us stealing his car with a baby monitor getting strapped up We're on camera now, it's a little tough.

240

Hello, man.

241

Wrap me up!

242

Head down.

243

Okay.

244

Oh wait, Willis, can you fix the audio after?

245

Yeah, yeah.

246

Alright, you holding up?

247

Yeah.

248

Okay.

249

One more time.

250

Alright, stay there.

251

are you gonna press the button are you slow wait then

252

why is it why is this my right hand this is

253

your right it goes like this what oh it'll it'll fix itself let's go let's go somebody help

254

Once we got far enough away to pull over

255

and pull up Jason the week's stream We were able to

256

virtually return to the scene of the crime Griff called me like twice

257

and said check your phone by the way Oh god Yeah, what happened?

258

What?

259

Say it!

260

Pray tell Say it!

261

Oh my god bro Just, he's stunned Bro Bro Yo!

262

Bro, bro!

263

Yes!

264

They threw y 'all's car, bro!

265

They threw y 'all's car! That was these guys?

266

He hyped up this car, and now he got stolen!

267

He's gonna show it.

268

Wow, these thieves are very handsome.

269

However, the one thing I was wrong about These are the worst!

270

We could be alive!

271

Poor Jason.

272

Was that I did actually feel pretty guilty.

273

I get excited to show y 'all the car.

274

The only good thing that happened this week was I was able to give away a car.

275

Mark, I feel so guilty right now.

276

Hey, look at this, bro.

277

I'm so happy, bro.

278

I'm like dizzy.

279

And I knew I had to make this right

280

because it had tragically sucked all the fun out of being a pretend car thief.

281

But first, I had to get Jason's car actually stolen because it was time for phase two of our operation, which was to rig the car with 12 independent GPS location

282

trackers hidden in a bunch of different car parts to reveal

283

what these thieves are actually doing with these cars after stealing them, which meant it's time to get this car stolen.

284

Again.

285

Stolen again.

286

So we left the car on this specific street because according to a report published by car insurance companies, this neighborhood had the highest auto theft rate in all of Los Angeles.

287

And since no city in America has more car thefts than Los Angeles, all we had to do was wait.

288

And we didn't have to wait long because at exactly 2 15 a .m.

289

this happened and despite pulling the extremely impressive move of shutting the car door with another car let's see

290

that again these were not seasoned pros because if you listen to the giggling

291

you'll realize what we soon realized

292

that this car had been stolen by some kids fresh out of high school

293

and as we would come to find out teenagers are responsible for 75 % of all stolen cars,

294

often in gangs, who are doing it to either joyride and post on social media, which seem to be the choice of our teenage car thief, or to go on a temporary crime spree,

295

like breaking into cars because if someone reports their license plate, it tracks back to a stolen car and not to them.

296

And then organized crime is responsible for the remaining 25 %

297

of Car thefts where they'll either quickly get it out of the country like on a shipping container to Asia

298

or over the border into Mexico

299

Or they'll take it to a chop shop hiding in plain sight

300

because it doubles as a Legitimate auto body shop where it

301

will be stripped for parts in as little as an hour after being stolen But again,

302

our car had not been stolen by a pro Ours had been stolen by a teenager who wanted to flex,

303

but we're gonna be chilling in the whip.

304

That's on God we're not getting calm marcelo where you went

305

but unfortunately for him marcelo are you trying to get picked up

306

or not he couldn't find anyone who cared well you're weird

307

because whenever our thief wasn't driving like a maniac he was desperately trying to convince his

308

so -called friends to join him he tried one friend who didn't want to get in the car

309

and when they did get in, it was so awkward, they left pretty quickly.

310

He tried another person who clearly could use a ride, but they also wanted no part of these bad vibes.

311

And so he took one last crack at getting his white whale Marcello to chill.

312

The problem was, Marcelo didn't realize the thief knew what he was doing.

313

You don't got cameras, fool.

314

You don't have no cameras.

315

Why are you being weird?

316

I know what I'm doing.

317

You're stupid.

318

So our thief decided to cut his losses and head home, taking one last selfie while nearly pancaking a passing cat before parking the car at home.

319

Upon which, he seemed to finally notice there were indeed multiple cameras in the car.

320

And knowing what he's doing, swiftly disabled them despite us having four hours of HD footage of his face.

321

Again, not a pro.

322

Especially considering that, in addition to the cameras, we'd filled the car with 12 GPS trackers, which recorded his movements for the next five days across the city until it suddenly stopped at this location,

323

which turns out was a storage lot for impounded cars the city uses.

324

Which is absolutely poetic that of the 37 broken laws he got away with,

325

the one that took him down was a simple parking violation from a Los Angeles meter maid.

326

So with that, it was time to return to the scene of the crime

327

and come clean to Jason that while I had no way of getting his original car back, I had a much better option I knew his chat would greatly appreciate.

328

Time to give Jason the good news.

329

His housemates told us he was in the shower and since I have no desire to subject anyone to whatever this is,

330

it makes the perfect time to tell you exactly how easy

331

it is to prevent your car from ever being stolen like this.

332

Fundamentally, you just need to stop your key fob from hearing the car's irresistible whisper, no matter how loud the thieves try and make it.

333

So step one is easy.

334

Just never leave your keys right by the front door.

335

But then for step two, to play it safe, you need some earplugs for your key fob.

336

And that can be as simple as a cookie tin.

337

And to prove how well this actually works, as you can see, I can open the door like this, but if I put it in the tin first, the key fob can't hear the car whisper.

338

And that means the car door doesn't open up and

339

that works because the wireless signals want to take the path of least resistance

340

and since metal is much more conductive than air the signal hits the outside here

341

and travels just through the metal before continuing on it's a protective electronic bubble we call a faraday cage

342

which is why this person is perfectly safe inside their metal chainmail now

343

if you don't have a cookie tin on hand one pennies

344

worth of aluminum foil is enough to make a pouch

345

that will plug your keys ears as you can see here by the way this even works with your phone

346

if you wrap it in only a single layer of aluminum foil with no gaps, it will be immediately taken off the grid, dropping all calls.

347

Now, you can buy these key fob protective security pouches online for like 10 bucks, but just make sure you test them

348

because two of the ones we bought to try out were total scams and didn't work at all, which come to think of it may just be Dimitri's side hustle.

349

And as for Jason, now that he was out of the shower, it was time for me to come clean as well hey jason

350

so remember when your car got stolen that one time this is exactly how i did it

351

i came up to the door like this oh my god

352

dude i sent the whole tweet up oh my god bro

353

and he loved the good news

354

but it wasn't all good news um it was stolen after

355

we had it the good news is I have another car for you.

356

It's a 2026 Rivian, brand new.

357

And that's the one you can give away.

358

Really?

359

Yeah.

360

Thank you for being a good sport.

361

I apologize for making you feel so bad for so long.

362

Don't worry about A, this makes up for all of it.

363

Just, you know, don't leave your keys by the front door.

364

Noted.

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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