WHY ARE PORSCHE HEADLIGHTS ON THIEVES' TARGET LISTS?
If you’re into cars in any way, shape or form, then you’ve no doubt seen images of cars with missing headlights pop up in WhatsApp groups and TikTok videos and the like. In the UK things have been on the rise, and there’s been more of a spotlight (haha) on this scourge thanks to the thieves in question stealing the headlights from a Porsche. This image found its way to local social media accounts too, but while this isn’t really a new thing, this image that was circulated was very different to the others we’ve been seeing. In most cases, the headlights are forced out because the retaining clips are quite easy to break. Owners are left with a car that’s not too damaged and a pair of replacement headlights can just slot back in. Sometimes the bad guys do jimmy the fenders out a little and also break the bumper clips to be able to get access to the headlights - depending on the car in question. The Porsche that’s become famous for being a target is completely different to the norm, the way the lights were removed caused the most damage we’ve ever seen with something like this. The result of this crime makes it look like the headlights exploded out of the car with the surrounding bodywork ripped up and split. It’s actually impressive considering how fast these crimes take place. In this specific Porsche’s case, the repair bill will be astronomical as the whole front end of the car will need replacing. Here in SA, we haven’t seen local crims stealing headlights from such high-end cars, but owners of modern Volkswagens are a definite target. We’ve seen loads of cases where new Polos and Mk7 Golfs have lost their headlights to this worldwide phenomenon. We’ve always assumed that the Volkswagens are a target because of how easy it is to pull the headlights out in under a minute, but it seems that the bad guys are now into quality and will happily take their time to rip a car apart. But why are these headlights a target anyway? Well, it’s not because there’s a market for OEM headlights…
It seems no Porsches are safe, Taycans, Panameras and 911 are on the hit list, as well as many other cars. These lights are used by the bad guys to light up marijuana grow rooms, the new LED lights emit the right light spectrum for optimised growth. LED grow lights are preferred for indoor gardening because they produce much less heat compared to traditional lighting sources and lower fire hazards, and they use considerably less power to keep them lit because they’re originally meant to run off a car’s 12-volt electrical system. While here in SA growing marijuana is no longer illegal, in Europe it will get you some jail time. Our policing in SA is not as effective as in Europe, on that side of the world the police have specialised equipment to trace the heat signatures from the excessive lighting needed to keep the happy plants happy. They can send a drone equipped with a special heat vision camera over an area and they can see which properties have more heat than usual signifying a possible marijuana growing operation. That’s where the modern LED headlights come in. They’ve been designed to be as efficient as possible and so they use less power while providing brilliant lighting and the most important thing of all, they operate at a much cooler heat range. This means the bad guys can set up a decent grow room operation that quite literally flies under the radar. Dedicated indoor grow room headlights are expensive, and stealing car headlights is, well, free. Headlights are also one of the components in a car that don’t have tracking information or tracking tags on them, so when someone is caught with a room full of them, there’s no way to know if they’re stolen or not. Check out all the details that Mat Watson and the Carwow crew have uncovered in regard to this horrible scourge.
Take a look at the YouTube video put together by the chaps at Carwow as they delve into the criminal underworld to find out why there's been a surge of headlight thefts from modern Porsches - and a bunch of other cars. Oddly, this phenomenon is not endemic to the UK, it's a worldwide problem: Why are thieves stealing Porsche headlights? | carwow
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News Grow Lights Grow Room Marijuana Criminals Mat Watson CARWOW SXdrv Stolen Theft Porsche