Droid13's explanation sounds right to me. I doubt that there's any potential theft issue here — it's simply that the electronic circuitry is misbehaving in intense radio frequency fields, and corrupting the flash ROM holding the security codes. A redesign of the circuitry could likely correct the problem. Incidentally, the electrical (and magnetic) field strengths drop off as the inverse 1st power of the distance; it's the radiated power that falls off inversely as the square of the distance. I think that the problem is due to the field strength and not the power.

Stan

 

And which pocket they are exploring.

 

And thanks for the input Stan.