Gone in 60 Seconds: Thieves Take Family’s 2 New Mercedes SUVs From Their Home

A family in Wembley, London, UK thought their cars would be safe right in front of their house, so they didn’t bother with that. On November 20, both their cars (brand new Mercedes SUVs) were taken in less than 60 seconds by 3 thieves with all the right (and very cheap) equipment.

This type of car stealing is known as the relay technique. Thieves use a relay to capture the signal from the fob from inside the house (or purse, or wherever the owner puts it) and then clone it to command the car to unlock and start.

It’s what they did to the Tuma family. Husband, wife and son took turns driving their brand new SUVs, for which they paid a total of £140,000, a white GLS and a dark blue GLE. They had gotten the cars only 6 months ago and thought that, what with surveillance cameras around and the fact that they were parked in front of their house, they would be safe.

Surveillance footage shows that they weren’t. The thieves came at 2 in the night and made off with the cars in under 1 minute.

“My family is fuming,” Ali Tuma, the son, tells The Sun. “We have had the cars for less than six months. I just can not believe it, but when you see the footage they are more or less stolen in the space of a minute. The whole experience has been extremely shocking and upsetting. We really hope that we get our cars back.”

That’s not likely to happen, though. Statistics show only 5 percent of cars stolen in the UK are ever recovered, and they’re rarely in the same condition they were when they were taken.