Since this summer, over 200 thefts were registered of BMWs in southern Norway. Police believe the equipment and parts end up in Eastern Europe.
Currently there are no arrests, but police believe Eastern Europeans are behind the thefts, said NRK news.
The thieves are good at hiding their tracks. They operate at night and in several police districts, switching from one day to the other. They know how to do this. They are professional and very fast’, said police superintendent Stig Vasbø, head of the Intelligence- and-Gain Section (Etterretning- og Vinningsavsnittet) at Majorstua police station in Oslo.
He said navigation systems, steering wheels, airbags and headlights are among the items thieves are after.
‘These are probably transported to Eastern Europe where they are installed in other cars. There is obviously a market for this right now. In Sweden, there have been up to 1,000 similar thefts’, says Vasbø, adding that Norwegian police are collaborating with colleagues on the other side of the border.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
A lot of these wheels are making their way to the US, and they sell them on Ebay.