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Brazen crooks are going on crime sprees in the dead of night to rip cruise control sensors from the front of vehicles in seconds.
Fitted behind the badge of some motors, furious drivers have hit out at manufacturers for a ‘design flaw’ that they say is making it easy for their beloved cars to be targeted for the speedy thefts.
It is leaving anguished car owners to foot the £1,500 bill to have the sensors replaced.
Thieves have been captured on Ring doorbell cameras ripping the badges in seconds, before moving on to other vehicles in adjacent streets minutes later. Volkswagens, BMWs, and Mercedes appear to be at the centre of the targeted thefts.
They are then selling them online on places such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace for as little as £200 – with the cut wire dangling from the sensor still visible in the picture.
Stratis Alisafakis, 40, from Ealing, in London, watched doorbell footage back in horror when he captured his Volkswagen GTI being targeted in March.
He is now driving around with a ‘cheapo badge’ and an orange warning light constantly on display on his dashboard after scoffing at the £1,500 cost to replace it, reported The Sunday Times.
Mr Alisafakis said he had been told at the dealership that they are seeing up to four people a week asking them about their cruise control sensors being stolen.
But he has hit out at Volkswagen who he has accused of ‘washing their hands of it’ after receiving an email from its headquarters in Milton Keynes that the firm was ‘unable to provide any goodwill support regarding this issue’.
‘I am really frustrated. It is rife and it is getting worse,’ he told The Sunday Times.
He has since started a petition calling on VW ‘to address [the] widespread theft’.
Mercedes and BMW drivers in London have also seen their cruise control sensors taken.
One owner of a BMW M3 Touring – where the sensor is located behind the numberplate – told an online forum it appeared ‘all someone had to do to make off with it is simply unscrew it, unplug the connectors and pull it off’.
He claimed through his insurance when he was quoted £3,546 to fit a new one.
Andrew Perry, 42, from Balham, vowed never to buy another BMW with a radar system again, and, like Mr Alisafakis, has not bothered replacing his sensor.
Calling it a ‘real flaw in manufacturing and common sense’, he added: ‘What blows my mind is that BMW would make it so easy to steal such an expensive component.
‘If you look online you can see that the radar unit can be removed from the car in about 30 seconds.’
Last May, VW owner Tara O’Driscoll told The Guardian she had heard of more than 50 thefts in Clapham where she lives after posting on social media about being a victim.
She said: ‘Every VW car in our area that has this sensor has been targeted and it has been the talk of the community on WhatsApp and other media, not least as the bills to fix it are so big.
‘It seems the part itself is expensive and only VW can calibrate it to work with your car.’
Mike Orford, head of PR for VW UK, denied there was a ‘design flaw’ and said people should report the theft to police with the vehicle’s VIN number.
He said: ‘The average replacement rate for the part in question is only a handful per month, per retailer, across the country. There are only one or two retailers where this number is higher, and they are both in London.’
A spokesperson for BMW UK told the Daily Mail: ‘BMW Group specialist security teams work continuously to design and enhance the best possible security systems in our vehicles.
‘The challenge of targeted vehicle component theft evolves as organised criminals targeting cars become ever more sophisticated, and BMW works in partnership with police and other authorities in the UK and around the world in responding to the latest threats and anticipating new ones.
‘To combat this constantly evolving threat, the company continuously innovates and strengthens the layers of security across our vehicle range, although we do not publicly disclose all of these security measures because maintaining secrecy is crucial to staying ahead of criminals.’
Mercedes-Benz said: ‘[We] strongly condemn all forms of criminal activity and any unauthorised reuse or secondary use of genuine Mercedes-Benz parts.
‘Our highly complex and safety-critical sensors are permanently integrated into specific components — such as the front bumper — and are precisely positioned, engineered and certified for each vehicle to fulfil their specific function.’
The Daily Mail has contacted VW and Mercedes for further comment.
