Red faced Kiwi coppers met their match when it came to breaking into a new BMW protected with a hi-tech security system.
The new BMW 7 Series ($210,000) - one of only 20 in the country - was taken from the Mt Wellington headquarters of BMW New Zealand early on Wednesday. It is one of eight new high-performance European cars stolen this year. The thieves were in and out of the building within six minutes!
The car was eventually dumped at Auckland Airport, the thieves pocketing the keys and turning the security system on. Police and the car's owners could not crack the security code to get inside, and had to tow the posh motor all the way to the North Island, to the Mount Wellington headquarters of BMW New Zealand.
Even BMW's staff could not break into the car and have had to wait for a master key to arrive from Germany. All three of the car's key-cards were stolen. BMW New Zealand company secretary James Mitchelson said the car had to be started in a manner that would be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with late model BMWs.
New Zealand police usually rely on a few bent coat hangers to help people who lock their keys in the cars. But detective sergeant Wayne Lendrum told The New Zealand Herald that there was nothing they could use to get into this model.
"We could always smash a window or do a little bit of damage, but we can wait three days for the keys to get here. With the price tag on it, I'm too scared to touch it," he said.
Question is, if the security on the car was that great, how did the thieves nick it in the first place?
News source: vnunet
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