Thieves Embrace Globalization

A supply chain of car thieves, brokers and crime syndicates track preferences of global customers and provide vehicles accordingly. Thieves act on the lists provided by foreign buyers, and 4x4 trucks are among the most popular, reports Lee Shi-Ian for New Straits Times Online. The crimes follow a pattern of thieves receiving requests from buyers in Cambodia, China or Saudi Arabia; finding the target vehicle in an isolated parking lot; working in pairs to disengage the alarm while accomplices make duplicate keys and registrations; and then whisking the stolen goods into a shipping container for delivery, often before the owner realizes the vehicle is missing. Minimal face-to-face contacts combined with globalization's speed and coordination hamper recovery by police. – YaleGlobal