Residents frustrated after thieves get into locked car: 'It's so violating'

WEST DEPTFORD, N.J. (WPVI) -- Police in West Deptford are warning residents to lock their car doors as reports of stolen vehicles are on the rise.

But with new technology, even that's not enough to keep thieves away from your car now.

Doorbell video shows three individuals in West Deptford Township checking five car door handles in a matter of 20 seconds.

They weren't successful in that particular spot, but before long, the group was driving off in a stolen BMW.

The theft happened Tuesday morning, just before 5 a.m., in a development called the Grande. But it's an issue that's been plaguing the entire West Deptford community recently.

The police department posted on social media Tuesday, "We have received numerous reports of stolen motor vehicles and thefts from motor vehicles in recent weeks. Last evening, there were vehicles reported stolen from within The Grande as well as in the area of Hessian Avenue."

"This has been going on very consistently since like June," resident Tara Timms said.

Police believe there are several groups committing the crimes throughout the township and Gloucester County.

Officers recovered one of the stolen vehicles in West Deptford on Tuesday. Tara Timms and her husband weren't so lucky.

"It's so violating and it's just infuriating. We don't know if we'll ever get his car back," Timms said.

"He was like, I need your cameras, my car was stolen," Jen Williams recalled. She lives across the street from Timms.

Williams' home cameras caught one of the thieves going through her car, which was locked, before giving up and moving on to Tara's husband's vehicle across the street, and driving off with it.

"So they had some sort of fob. They got in and then I guess the theft deterrent, they didn't start it within enough time, so it started to beep. So they got out before the actual alarm went off," Williams said of her vehicle.

"That's the new thing that they're using, ghost fobs, or they're cloning the key fobs or something, like that, which is crazy," Timms told Action News.

Police could not confirm that was how the suspects accessed the vehicle. Action News spoke with Philadelphia police last week about the key fob cloning trend.

A few miles away from the Grande in Colonial Manor, Albie Sittineri's car was ransacked overnight on Monday. She's diligent about locking her car door.

"I think the most shocking part is that they literally don't care. I've seen a ton of videos where they just, like there's floodlights on, there's cameras, there's alarms and they're still going," Sittineri said.

West Deptford police say they're investigating several possible leads. Residents in this neighborhood are hoping to see some more patrol cars around their area.