Car-jack bandits !

It's official. Drivers are urged to keep their car doors locked when driving in Sydney.
We have entered a new age of car theft. No longer do thieves break into cars in the dead of night, hot wire the ignition and make off with the vehicle. Car manufacturers have made them extremely difficult to steal and so thieves have started taking the easy way to acquire a car - simply require the driver to vacate and drive it away !
The whole car stealing racket has changed. Cars of choice are now at the high end of the price range and head of the lists are Porsche, Mercedes, BMW's, Audi's, - and the famous WRX used by ram raiders as an escape vehicle.
At the other end of the theft scale locked doors also make sense. Thieves have noticed that women driving alone usually have their handbag - containing their purse - on the passenger seat beside them. When the car is stopped at traffic lights a thief can easily open an unlocked door, grab the bag and be away in seconds.
Car-jacking is mainly concentrated on the high priced end of the market and it seems that these vehicles are destined to re-birthing gangs for disposal in other states or for shipment overseas to countries with no interest in the previous history of the vehicle or the fact that it is on an international stolen list.
Unfortunately car-jack gangs are ruthless in their methods and lack of provocation by the victim is no guarantee of safety. Attackers are usually armed with some sort of weapon, ranging from guns or knives to baseball bats. We live in a changing world - and evidence of material success such as owning a luxury vehicle makes us conspicuous targets of crime !