A woman in California named Shiffra Steele found out the hard way that a cheap Amazon decoration can kill your car.
Ms Steele was driving her trusty Honda Element for years and nothing had ever gone wrong.
Until it did for the weirdest of reasons.
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Speaking to San Francisco ABC station KGO-TV, Ms Steele said she tried everything to figure out why her car wasn’t starting.
Steele further added that she’d spent hundreds of dollars trying to get her car fixed.
She was running out of options, and presumably patience, when she casually mentioned the bling ring she’d bought from Amazon.
At which point the mechanic, who clearly had seen this happen before, simply removed the sticker and the car started again.
As easy as pie.
As it turns out, the $4 bling ring sticker contained metal components that interfered with radio-controlled anti-theft systems.
What happens is the key fob sends a radio signal to the car, and waits to receive a signal back.
If it does, the car starts, if it doesn’t, the car’s ‘brain’ assumes it is being stolen and simply doesn’t turn on.
This cheap gadget was essentially blocking the radio signal.
To be fair, the manufacturer tells people not to use it if their car is equipped with such anti-theft system because “it messes with [the] electrical system and won’t allow the car to start and stay running”.
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Ms Steele no doubt felt relieved that nothing was broken.
Still, a $4 sticker cost her hundreds of dollars and wasted hours trying to work out what was wrong.
Not ideal.
