Cars are intensively photographed in Vilnius yards: they explained why they do it – MadeinVilnius.lt

Images of suspicious men taking pictures of cars have been circulating on residents’ Facebook groups – it’s not yet clear what their motives were, but some residents are worried they could be thieves. And so the Vilnius County Police and the editor-in-chief of Auto Bild Lietuva magazine Vitoldas Milius warn to be careful, because thieves of car parts are really active at the moment.

Similar events were reported in Facebook groups of residents of Naujamiestis and Pilaitė districts.

For example, one resident reported that a man in Pilaite took photos of luxury Lexus cars parked on the sidewalk at night.

Warns of car parts theft

Vitoldas Milius, the editor-in-chief of Auto Bild Lietuva magazine, assures that recently there are very frequent cases when car thieves seek to steal parts of luxury cars.

“There are two types of car theft – either they steal the car itself, or they steal something from inside the car. You should not have any items in the car interior, do not tempt thieves.

Well, or steal car parts. I think that these are the most popular thefts at the moment – the theft of parts of certain car models. The parts of new cars are expensive and also quite easy to remove,” said V. Milius.

According to the expert, this happens because it is extremely easy to remove the parts of new cars, and their prices on the market are extremely high. These details are needed when cars that have been involved in accidents before are brought to Lithuania from the USA.

“New car headlights cost a lot and can be removed in a second. There are quite a few such thefts, because these thefts can be realized quite successfully”, explained V. Milius.

“A lot of wrecked cars come to Lithuania from the USA – usually the front is wrecked. Then you need those details. It costs a lot for repairmen to buy new parts, so thieves are interested in stealing them,” added the editor of Auto Bild Lietuva magazine.

According to V. Miliaus, sometimes thieves take pictures of cars first and only later try to steal them – sometimes they need to check the data, for example, if a car’s rear light is stolen, thieves can check whether it will fit a car brought from the USA.

The expert said that he had to deal with thefts of a similar nature in his environment.

“I’ve actually heard about it from people I know. They keep the cars in really safe places. Even if they spend time in the underground parking lot of a good house, they still manage to steal,” said V. Milius.

Police – there have been no thefts in recent weeks

However, the representative of the Chief Police Commissariat of Vilnius County, Julija Samorokovskaja, said that there were no registered incidents of theft of cars or their parts in recent weeks either in Naujamiestis or Pilaitė districts.

The police representative assures that the officers of the public order department of the municipality occasionally take pictures of cars at night.

Author: Aleksandras Znamerovskis, TV3.lt