While the proportion of keyless cars stolen is small, thieves are adapting to new technology. File photo. Photo: 123RF
Car theft numbers from the start of the year suggests thieves are becoming more sophisticated, an insurer says.
AMI Insurance has received almost 700 claims relating to vehicle theft and attempted theft since the start of the year for Auckland alone.
Twenty-two of the stolen vehicles had keyless entry and were locked at the time.
AMI executive general manager of claims Wayne Tippet said while the proportion of keyless cars stolen was small, thieves were adapting to new technology.
"Now, keyless entry is, you know, super common," he said.
"So no surprise that, as technology changes, people looking to access those vehicles are also thinking about how they leverage technology to gain access to vehicles."
Auckland had the most car thefts, followed by Canterbury and Waikato.
Tippet said a car's age had a part to play.
"Those 20 years old now, 2005 to 2007 models appear to be the most common that thieves are looking at, and I think that relates to one; there's a lot of them around, and two; they're a little bit easier to enter in."
Takapuna woman Susie Gibbs was woken by someone going through her car last month.
"When we finally called the police, should have done that first, they told me that that's what he would be doing, he was copying a key, he was able to copy a key by downloading my computer system," she said.
Overseas, there have been reports of thieves targeting car computers to make copies of the electronic keys they can then use to unlock and even start a vehicle.
Police said, in the end, that did not happen in Gibbs' case, but the whole ordeal left her on edge.
"It's terrifying because that following week, you know, I went to the supermarket, and I'd spend five minutes in there and then have to run to the door and see is my car still there in the carpark?"
Auckland's Fredco Motors director Craig Draper believed more advanced theft tech was on its way.
"These sort of crimes often start up in the Northern hemisphere, somewhere, and yeah, eventually they'll whittle their way down here," he said.
"I have heard of instances of lots of Range Rovers, Land Rovers, Jaguars being stolen in the United Kingdom with cloned software, so the thieves are using pirated software, and they're actually hooking into the vehicle and cloning the ignition keys, and stealing the car without literally breaking anything."
Toyota Aqua's were the most stolen car in the country, followed by the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Tiida.
Tippet said there has been a 20 percent decrease in claims compared to the same time last year.
As for car owners protecting against theft, police said they should always lock their car, park in secure, well lit places, and consider installing a professional alarm system.
But Draper said it might not be so simple.
"Over the years we've had theft and we go, 'what do we do,' we put steering wheel locks on, or we put an alarm in, but .... alarms are part of a car now, but of course these thieves are clever enough that they're actually getting around that problem."
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