Stolen cars have been big news in Melbourne of late – with the headlines mostly featuring Holden Commodores.
But there’s a 'new wave' of crime also hitting the suburbs, Drive understands, and that’s the theft of specific car parts, including doors, grilles, headlights, panels and wheels.
The problem was highlighted last week by the wheels being stolen off former AFL star Jimmy Bartel’s car in Melbourne’s while he was away on holiday.
The Brownlow medallist received a call from police who told him his car was up on blocks, with all four wheels missing.
Bartel is by no means alone, though, with numerous reports coming in recent weeks and months about similar crimes happening, particularly in Melbourne’s Bayside suburbs.
Last month Port Melbourne resident Mia found the door of her Mercedes had been stolen, while a Nissan Pathfinder was recently discovered out in a field near Tullamarine abandoned and missing parts.
Commenting on 3AW presenter Jacqui Felgate’s Instagram post on the Bartel theft, locals said the crime wave has turned Melbourne into “Gotham City”.
“This happened to my 80-year-old dad two weeks ago in Middle Park but the full front end of his Mercedes, lights, grille, bumber [sic] etc,” said user @mellymcgregor.
“He works so hard for over his life he would have a nice car in retirement, now the insurance company is just going to write it off because it will cost just over $20K to fix, so not worth it to them to fix it better just to scrape [sic] it!
“So now my father has to buy a new car with the little he is getting back to for it… and the police didn’t even come to investigate… so disheartening on all fronts.”
Stealing cars and parts "out of control"
Dean How, owner of Peninsula BM in Mornington, said his BMW parts business has seen the problem playing out first-hand.
“One customer had the headlights of his 3 Series stolen, he went out in the morning and his whole bumper bar had been removed and they were just gone,” How told Drive.
“We were getting calls for catalytic converters, but that seems to have died off because I think the price of the precious metals in them plummeted and now they’re not worth as much.
“Our sales team has had a few calls, though, even one recently from a dealer in Albury looking for a set of wheels because someone went through their car yard and stole multiple sets of wheels off the cars.
“And we had another guy who wanted a door lock for his X5 because someone had tried to break into it. Despite the inquiries, we’re not necessarily getting the sales because the parts being stolen are so expensive it is cheaper to go back to the insurance company and pay the excess.”
Emma McIndoe, Managing Director of Melbourne-based Pick-A-Part, said her business was also targeted by thieves looking for catalytic converters in recent years, but other parts have become the new wave.
“It feels a little bit out of control at the moment just with the amount that's happening,” she told us.
“The type of vehicles that have been targeted – essentially for this type of special order – will be more of your newer luxury-type cars.
“There's a very big demand for paying people to steal cars that are newer and more exclusive. But it is getting broader with brands and not always necessarily those that are top of the range, but older cars as well.
“It is interesting because while the door's not too hard to take off, you do think it would probably be easier just to drive the whole thing away. Surely it would raise suspicion if a group of people were surrounding a car door in the middle of the night, but maybe it’s still easier than trying to work out how to get the keys and start the car.”
Car part crime is on the rise
In the year to September 2024, there were 739 incidents in the Bayside area involving ‘stealing from a motor vehicle’ according to the Crime Statistics Agency, though it is not clear whether these were parts taken or items stolen from within a car.
There were also 318 instances of criminal damage.
Victoria Police would not comment on the numbers, but said “Victoria Police urge residents to take steps to avoid items being stolen from your car.
“We recommend locking your car and parking in a secure, well-lit area. If possible, park off-street and consider installing a sensor light at your home.
“If you are the victim of theft, ensure you report the theft to the Police Assistance Line on 131 444.”
Repairable write-offs the source of the problem
The reason why the problem has escalated, however, say both McIndoe and How, is that criminals are buying repairable write-offs through auction houses and then stealing the parts to get them fixed and rebirthing them as new vehicles.
According to How, his business has repeatedly seen cases where someone will steal parts off a car, then come to them and buy a part, say a headlight globe, to get a genuine invoice, but will then make a copy and doctor it to pass the required Vehicle Identity Validation (VIV) inspection.
Known as a VIV Inspection, this checks whether a damaged vehicle has been repaired correctly and is safe to be on the road, and also confirms the identity of a vehicle and of any parts that were used to repair it.
“The only reason this [stolen parts problem] happens is because the auction houses are selling a repairable write-off vehicle to the public,” said How.
“When they buy a damaged car, they've got to take it to a VIV inspector to get it inspected, and they've got to prove that they've bought the parts from a legitimate business.
“If it’s a good inspector they will ring us and double-check if the invoice is correct, but a dodgy one will just say ‘yeah okay, tick, stamp, off you go’.
“I'm a firm believer that we should just have one category of write-off, not a repairable write-off. The minute the insurance company writes the car off, it should then be sold only to an authorised treatment facility that can then dispose of the vehicle and recycle it correctly," said How.
“But that won’t happen because if all written-off vehicles were statutory write-offs and only sold to an authorised treatment facility, they’d be worth $5000 instead of $20,000, and the insurance companies would hate that with a passion.”
Interstate changes driving crime across borders
Around 15 years ago, New South Wales introduced stricter laws that mean you can only get approval to repair and re-register a written-off light vehicle in very limited circumstances.
This, says How, is what Victoria needs too – but NSW changing the rules has had unintended downstream effects on car crime here.
“New South Wales has done it, and it has worked a treat, but what it has done is it has moved the problem from New South Wales down to Victoria and up north to Queensland, and now all those [criminal] activities happening in Victoria and Queensland instead.”
Emma McIndoe is on the dismantling committee for the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC) and says it is advocating for end-of-life vehicles to go to the appropriate premises.
“The majority [of vehicles being rebirthed] would be coming through the auction houses,” she said.
Drive has contacted the Department for Transport, which is responsible for the legislation concerning written-off vehicles, and will update this story if a response is received.
Drive also contacted VicRoads regarding its VIV inspections but the organisation declined to comment.
A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.
