Police have received over 200 reports of car burglaries since July, and BMW’s are most vulnerable. At least two gangs are at work in Norway, one in Trondheim and one in southern Norway.
Most often it is the steering and navigation equipment that is stolen, says Police Superintendent Stig Vasbø, head of Intelligence and Profit Department at Majorstuen Police Station in Oslo to Aftenposten.
The police are coordinating the investigation of car burglaries in southern and eastern Norway.
The last two months there have been 115 cases in Eastern Norway, 51 of them are residential addresses outside Ring 3 in Oslo. Earlier there were many cases in Agder, Telemark, Vestfold and Drammen.
– We are very interested in photos, descriptions and times for any suspicious activity. Indications are that the thieves are doing reconnaissance beforehand.
They are professionals and only need a few minutes to break into a car and remove valuable equipment, says Vasbø.
Car parts are often marketed for sale on-line. According to Adresseavisen there are now 15,000 BMW steering wheels for sale on eBbay, and many of them are sold from Eastern Europe.
– There is a market for it here. This type of car burglary is a problem throughout Europe.
In Sweden there have been over 1,000 such burglaries so far this year. Only recently there has been a decline there, so it is conceivable that some perpetrators have headed for Norway, says Vasbø.
So far no arrests for such burglaries have been made in Norway, but Swedish police have arrested individuals who are known to have been in Norway.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
