A great way to hide your keys when surfing is to take them with you, though that’s not really hiding. Also, it might not be practical if you’ve got an electronic key fob or if you have a bunch of other stuff on your keychain. Fortunately, there are several ways to hide your keys when you hit the waves.
To hide your keys when surfing, consider buying a key vault or a magnetic key holder. Alternatively, you can hide your keys under fake rocks at home. There are free alternatives, too, although they can still be risky, such as hiding your keys in your towel, in the sand, or even in a diaper.
In this article, we’ll look at good and bad solutions to hiding your keys when surfing, and whether you want to spend a little money, a lot, or none, you’ll find something that’ll work for you.
Hiding Spots For Your Keys That You Can Buy
If someone wants to steal your ride badly enough, no hide-a-key trinket or ingenious hiding spot will deter them. Car thieves steal about 200 cars every day
because keys were left in them or nearby, which suggests that many of these were crimes of opportunity that could’ve been prevented.
However, no dedicated car thief is out there just hoping to find some keys in ignitions so they can make a living, so hiding and securing your key while you’re surfing is a preventative measure.
Below I’ll cover a few excellent options that you can buy to help keep your keys and your car safe.
All products listed here are available on Amazon.com.
HitchSafe HS7000T Key Vault
If you have a trailer hitch receiver on your vehicle, this gizmo is probably the best solution to this issue. It’s got four number dials requiring a combination to open the vault’s drawer, and the vault itself nestles in the hitch receiver.
And how many car thieves would think to look there?
If you’re worried about potential thieves seeing combination lock dials peeking out from the receiver, there’s a rubber cover that slips over it.
I guarantee you’d never look at this thing and go, “I bet the key is in there.”
Master Lock Lock Box Portable Key Safe
There are other locks out there specifically for hiding or securing your keys, but most of them work and look like those lockboxes realtors hang on the front door of houses on the market.
The thing is, everyone knows that those have keys in them, and if you have one hanging on your car, it seems to me that it’s more of an invitation.
However, this Master Lock Lock Box seems like a great solution if you’re going this route.
It’s got a cable lanyard that’ll add some flexibility to where you can hang it. This would serve best if you hung it from something under the car. That way, it’s out of sight, and if someone finds it, having to work at it from under the car might raise the level of difficulty.
Hide-a-Spare-Key Fake Rock
A bit of a lower-tech solution, this is the hollowed-out plastic rock many homeowners keep in their gardens.
It has always seemed ridiculously obvious to me, but I also know that I’ve never actually found the right rock the few times I’ve looked for them (for completely legal undertakings).
And everyone uses them, it seems, so it would appear this is a good solution. If you put your key in one of these fake rocks, then put it down near your vehicle, the chances of someone finding the key and then stealing your ride seem pretty remote.
This isn’t a good solution if you’re at a busy beach, as someone might run over the rock or kick or otherwise disturb and move it.
If it really blends in well with the other rocks, you could be in for a long afternoon when you just want to drive away. The fake rock also won’t work well if you’re at one of those places where there are no rocks at all. In that case, a fake rock will stand out.
Katzco Magnetic Key Holder
The magnetic key holder nestled out of sight in the wheel well will, of course, hold your key. The problem is that the key-hidden-in-the-wheel-well trope is pretty worn.
I’m not a teen hoodlum looking for a joyride, but if I were, I figure running my hand up into the wheel well in search of one of these would be near the top of my list of things to try.
There’s also the magnet itself. If you leave this box in place all the time, and you encounter any rough terrain– bad pavement or any off-road stuff — there’s a chance the magnet can’t keep up with the demands of gravity and inertia.
I don’t care how strong they say the magnet is. It’s a possibility.
Diversion Safe Water Bottle
This water bottle may look like any other reusable water bottle to keep you hydrated after some time in the sun, but it’s also got a hidden compartment in the bottom.
The top is still a water bottle, so if anyone is looking, they’ll see you filling it up and taking a sip.
But the bottom is a different story. It looks like all the other pedal-designed bottles, except it unscrews to reveal a dry, hidden compartment that you can keep your keys and money inside.
The best part is that the water bottle does its job, too. If you have cold water inside, it will still be cold after your surf.
Tips on Hiding Your Keys for Free
Again, if a thief wants your car badly enough, they’ll get it because their inability to find your key or your fancy alarm likely won’t deter them.
Still, hiding your key is better than leaving it out in the open, and there are a few free options if you’re looking to save money.
Hide Your Keys Under Your Towel
Perhaps the least secure thing you can do is put your keys in your shoe or under your towel.
Sure, if you and your mates are the only people on the beach, this might be a secure system. But how many times has that happened?
Given no other alternatives, sure, this is something to do. But it’s not secure in any way.
Bury Your Keys in the Sand
One other option would be to bury your things in the sand. If you slot your keys into a ziplock bag and cover it with sand, and then cover that with your towel, it would be harder for a thief to find them.
However, you run the risk of losing your keys if, say, the wind moves your towel. If that happens, you will have a hard time searching the sand for your things.
Hide Your Keys in a Diaper
This is a very popular free hiding spot. You can find this suggestion in many places because it’s a good suggestion.
Take a diaper, put your keys in it, wad it up like you would a diaper that was full of other, non-key materials, and stuff it under your seat.
Chances are, not many people would think to look in a “dirty” diaper for car keys.
The problem here is that you’d need to leave your car unlocked so that you can get to the key when you return to your vehicle.
If you have nothing in your car worth stealing, no problem. But then again, an unlocked vehicle can be hotwired even if the key is in a diaper the thief never touched.
Making Yourself Less of a Target
Any thief worth his salt isn’t stupid. If he were, he’d have been caught already. This means that he’s figured out that surfers’ cars will be easy pickings because the vehicles will be unattended for a bit.
If I’m a car thief, I’m going to check the surf forecast, and when the surf is up, I’m going to work. And what will I look for? I’ll look for rides with surfboard racks on the top of them.
Admittedly, there’s not much the surfer who uses one can do about that. But I’m also going to look for bumper stickers because surfers have a lot of those.
How else will anyone know they’re surfers when they’re driving on the 405?
Anyway, if I, the car thief, see these things, I’m going to be pretty sure I’ve found a surfer’s ride.
Just like you don’t post on Facebook that you’re going to be out of town for three weeks, and how you set your lights on timers, so it looks like someone’s home, you should take some precautions with your car, too.
Conclusion
If you’re not going to take your car key into the ocean with you, you need to come up with a good hiding place for it. While there’s nothing that will stop every single thief out there, you can take steps to make stealing from you more difficult, and if your car is tough to steal, the chances are pretty good that the guy looking to boost it’ll move on to an easier target.