Smart thieves target city carparks

Salmana Khan's car was stolen from a Nelson St parking building. Photo / Richard Robinson

Police believe skilled professional thieves are behind a sudden jump in the number of cars being stolen from Auckland City carparks.

Twenty-three cars worth about $200,000 were stolen from carparks in the first nine days of this month.

"We were averaging one or two a day in the last three months; at the moment it's three a day," said Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Breach of Auckland Central police yesterday.

The spate of thefts was of particular concern as the thieves appeared to be skilled.

"Very few people found broken glass when they went back and found their car missing," said Mr Breach.

"These guys are not just going 'wham bam' to break a window ... They appear to have more knowledge and the skills needed to force door locks."

He said the model of choice seemed to be the Subaru Impreza.

The thefts have been mainly from Wilson and Tournament carparks in the Cook St, Sale St, Victoria St West and Wellesley St West areas of the central city.

Sales co-ordinator Salmana Khan's Honda Integra was stolen from the Tournament carpark in Nelson St on Tuesday night.

The 23-year-old was devastated at the loss of her first car, which was fitted with an immobiliser and an alarm.

The thieves smashed a window to get into the car, and Ms Khan said they had little choice as an earlier break-in attempt had damaged the locks.

"You can't get in from the outside without the alarm control. I think that's why they had to smash the windows."

Tournament Parking manager Simon Rowntree said his staff had "worked extensively" with police over the past six to 12 months to combat car thefts.

Tournament was installing security cameras at central-city sites and security staff made frequent patrols of sites.

Wilson Group New Zealand chief executive Joseph Phillip Griffin said his company's carparks were patrolled by "a roving team of both branded and unbranded security cars" several times a day.