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When a late-night thief snuck into Auckland’s Portage Cars car yard, he probably didn’t anticipate he’d be made into a viral gaffe.
That’s because he probably didn’t realise he was breaking into what’s been dubbed the ‘funniest car yard’ on the internet.
Often going viral for their honest car reviews, the dealer posted a hilarious edit of the thief being caught.
“The TikTok is sped up quite a lot,” Portage Cars general manager Craig Rutherford told Focus.
“He’d actually jumped over the fence after trying to unscrew 30 or 40 bolts and realised he couldn’t remove any part of the fence itself, and then he had shimmied all the way along one row of cars on the ground.
“Our guys at Vanguard Security, the technology they have on here and all our yards is amazing, they watched him, kept us in the loop the whole time. The police knew what was happening.
“I think it was when he realised that we put the spotlight on him, he went and hid in a car.”
Rutherford said they believed the thief was after a specific car part - the catalytic converter.
“The catalytic converter is made of like a crystal-based metal which filtrates the exhaust system to cut out all the exhaust admissions. They’ve been put into most cars that are newer than 2004.
“The metal itself is very expensive.”
“Cat burglars” have become a growing problem in New Zealand and across the world.
Last year, police in the United States and United Kingdom noticed a surge in cat converter thefts before police here confirmed dozens of thefts reported in Canterbury alone.
And it’s not just car yards, with many Kiwis reporting having their cars hit.
Wellingtonian David Pettengell said he noticed his had been nicked when his car “sounded like a dragster”.
“It was too noisy to drive, so I had it towed to one of the local Toyota agents and they said look, it’s going to be at least four or five months.
“I was about fifth in line and I had to start using Ubers and so between Uber and taxis, I probably spent quite a bit of money, let alone the nearly $5,000 it cost to replace it.”
Thankfully there are a range of things vehicle owners can do to deter thieves.
“Park your car up your driveway as close to your house as possible,” Rutherford advised. “Have a really good security system if you’re a business.
“Just be really vigilant, if you see something happening, if you see someone laying underneath your car, call the police straight away.”
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