Chilling moment thieves steal car with wireless device in seconds as new doc reveals how Brit motors end up in Lithuania
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CHILLING footage shows the moment thieves stole a car in just seconds using a wireless device.
Investigative reporter Matt Shea went undercover for Channel 4 Dispatches to shed light on organised criminal gangs specialising in car thefts.
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Investigative reporter Matt Shea exposed criminal gangs specialising in car thefts
Credit: Channel 4 Dispatches
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One of the thieves is pictured holding an amplifier outside the property during the staged theft
Credit: Channel 4 Dispatches
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The thieves explained in detail how the device worked
Credit: Channel 4 Dispatches
In the show, which will air in full tonight, Shea met whistleblowers and car thieves in a bid to expose the truth.
A sneak peek at the much-anticipated programme shows two car thieves demonstrating using keyless technology bought from the dark web.
Footage shows the pair revealing to Shea exactly how they can steal a car in just 20 seconds.
Thief 'T' and an accomplice demonstrated how they use an amplifier, which looks similar to a radio or walkie-talkie.
It picks up the signal from the "key" inside a home and uses it to unlock a car parked outside.
The device works by scrambling the signal from a remote key fob, and was used in nearly 60 percent of car thefts in the UK last year.
After just a few seconds of holding the amplifier outside the window, the car door unlocked, allowing T to simply open the door and start up the engine.
Once the engine had started, the accomplice could take the amplifier, jump in the car and they drove off, with the entire theft taking less than 20 seconds.
Asked if they feel anything for the people they steal from they respond: 'These cars are insured, that's like, that a first world problem, you know, there's bigger s*** going on out there,.
"Like your f***ng Range Rover's gone, boo-hoo, go and buy another one, man.'
"The Teslas aren't easy, I don't think anyone's figured that out yet, because they are proper high tech' the thieves claim.
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However, they brazenly boasted that others makes and models are easy to steal.
The men claimed they have taken up to 20 vehicles a month for as much as £5,000 per car, depending on its value.
They told Shea that up to 90 per cent of cars are broken down for their parts.
Last year approximately 355 vehicles were stolen every day in England and Wales.
The shocking finds equate to a stolen car every four minutes, and more than 70 per cent the amount stolen a decade ago.
Freedom of Information requests to police forces in England and Wales also reveal that – for the 18 forces who responded - only 3.4 per cent of reports of a car being stolen between 2020 and 2024 led to someone being charged or summonsed.
In the documentary, criminals revealed how highly organised gangs stole cars, dismantling them at so called 'chop shops' before shipping them out of the country to Eastern Europe.
The programme reveals how a blue Audi A4, fitted with a hidden tracker, was stolen from a woman's driveway in north London on March 15.
The car's GPS signal showed the Audi moving east towards the borough of Enfield and then switching off.
Five weeks later, the tracker suddenly reappeared in Kaunas, Lithuania, and was tracked to a business in the outskirts of the city called Baltic Car Trade.
Dispatches filmed the police raid on the property, but instead of finding a blue Audi A4, all they found that was left of the vehicle was a bunch of wires.
The car, like many stolen off British streets, was long gone having been torn apart.
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One Audi A4 tracker was found in Lithuania with the car long gone
Credit: Channel 4 Dispatches
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