Car key raiders have struck nearly 1,000 times across the Black Country in the past five years, the Express & Star can reveal today.
Gangs of burglars target affluent areas, sometimes threatening terrified householders with guns, in order to steal millions of pounds worth of high-performance cars such as BMWs, Subarus and Mitsubishis.
Today the full extent of the relatively new breed of organised crime was laid bare with figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
In the Black Country, Smethwick has been hardest hit by the raiders, with 192 car key burglaries over the last five years.
Attacks in Wolverhampton - where homes have been hit in areas including Castlecroft and Tettenhall - declined for four years, with just 16 in 2005. But that figure soared to 42 last year.
Walsall has also seen a big rise. Eighteen households were targeted in 2002, with that figure climbing to 75 last year.
People living in the Bloxwich area are at the lowest risk from the criminals, the trend suggests. Yearly numbers have remained relatively steady.
There were 906 car key burglaries in the Black Country in the past five years.
Major improvements in car security have meant thieves increasingly need the keys to make off with cars rather than forcing the lock.
Even then, vehicles will often be left parked on a street in the hours after being stolen as gangs know hi-tech tracking equipment will often be hidden on valuable vehicles.
If the car is not recovered by police shortly after it is stolen, the raiders will return and drive off.
Many are stolen to order before being sold on with new number plates and shipped off to destinations such as China and India.
The cars are often used to carry out smash-and-grab raids on shops and pubs, netting the gang tens of thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes and alcohol.
Vehicles of lower value have also been stolen and used as “runarounds” to transport crooks from crime to crime.
Today police urged people to take extra care to lock doors and windows as the summer approaches.
By Crime Correspondent Mike Woods
7 Comments
“sometimes threatening terrified householders with guns”..\
I thought guns were Illegal in the UK. Why aren’t Criminals following the law !?!?!?
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Welcome to Britain 2007.
Tony Blair, tough on crime?
Don’t make me laugh.
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FOLKS - JUST DONT LEAVE YOUR KEYS HANGING UP IN YOUR HALLWAY!!! I’ve had two friends who left their keys on a key holder in their hallway and they had their cars stolen. Or better still if you have a garage use it!
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Crime going down????
Rubbish….looks like its going up!!!!
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Leave your keys out.
It is only a car.. let them take it.
Always leave your keys in the kitchen or on the landing.
You do not want to be approached in the night by gun holding headcases beacuse they can not find the keys.
The car is insured. Your life is not replacable
THINK ABOUT IT
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One must not be too hard on these perpertrators …… many have had aweful childhoods and some have even been deprived of schooling through Anti-Social behaviour …… Better yet leave your keys in the ignition and then they can make off with your property without having to disturb you!!…….
Britains Judiciary have a thorough understanding of these characters psychology and know how to deal with them adequately……….
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Another problem here is that modern cars are now having sophisticated alarms fitted as standard, thats not a bad thing… but!
Why are manufacturers not using strenghtened glass, and dead locks that cannot be opened from the inside ….. WHAT ? …. crazy I here you say ? ….. think about it.
If your car is stolen, either by having the keys stolen or by car jacking, how much pleasure would you get knowing that passive arming would take over because the drivers door has been opened and the car will come to a controlled stop and would be recovered by the police still with the occupants stuck inside it.
I think its a good idea waiting to be slaughtered by the “nimby” brigade or by some government rule protecting the guilty.
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