Disgruntled motorists in well-to-do Crouch End have become so irate at bits of their flashy cars being stripped off that the police have come up with a new tactic: decoy BMWs to catch thieves red-handed.
While your car radio and alloy wheels used to be the only parts at risk from thieves with socket sets, the prices that high-end car parts can fetch on the black market means that all sorts of bits are being stripped off cars in the capital. Front and rear BMW bumpers are a regular favourite, but an entire soft-top roof was lifted last month – spurring local police into action.
Special police-owned BMWs will be parked in streets around Crouch End and Stroud Green, aiming to lure the light-fingered culprits into stripping them bare – and getting caught in the act.
Whether the cars then mutate into Transformers-style killer robots is unknown; but this is surely the future of car-theft crime fighting. Bumper thieves beware: that could be Optimus Prime’s arm you’re levering off with a screwdriver…
Photo courtesy of The Wong Family Pictures Photostream under the Creative Commons license.
