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2019+ BMW 3 AND 4-SERIES FORUMS (G2x Generation) Local Forums UK From the Times - Car thief trapped in BMW

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      03-25-2020, 06:46 AM   #1
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From the Times - Car thief trapped in BMW

Tuesday March 24 2020, 5.00pm, The Times

The final — and perhaps most important — part of any meticulously planned theft is the successful getaway with the loot.

There was no such luck for one hapless car thief in Bournemouth earlier this month after it emerged he was locked inside a BMW when the car’s owner saw the crime taking place from his bedroom window and used a remote key to trap him.

Scott Hunt, 45, was busy stealing from the car parked in a residential street when he was rumbled by the owner in the early hours of the morning.

Hunt, who had lost £300 on gambling machines the day before, could do nothing but wait for officers to arrive and arrest him on March 5.

Police searched him and found a sat-nav device he had stolen from another vehicle parked near by.

Dorset Police said they received a report at 4.10am of an attempted theft in progress involving a car and when officers arrived shortly afterwards the offender was sitting inside the vehicle.

Hunt was foiled by the deadlock system used by BMW cars which means that once the driver has left the vehicle, closed the door behind them and then locked the car using the key fob, it cannot be opened from the inside using the door handles.

He appeared at Poole magistrates’ court on Friday, before the coronavirus lockdown caused many courts to close their doors and delay public hearings.

Jane Nott, for the prosecution, read a victim impact statement which said the incident had frightened the owner, who was not named in court, and his family.


The owner said he had suffered “a real intrusion” of his privacy and the fact that Hunt had moved a picture of his child that was in the car left him feeling “very uneasy”.

He added: “I am not sure how this man got into my car.”

Harry Price-Smith, in mitigation, said that in the early hours of March 5 Hunt withdrew £300 in cash, which he lost on fruit machines.

Mr Price-Smith told the court that the defendant, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, decided he needed more money so he stole the sat-nav and tried to steal from the other vehicle.

Hunt, from Bournemouth, admitted theft from a motor vehicle and attempted theft.

The hearing was adjourned and he was given unconditional bail before sentencing on April 20.

His experience of becoming trapped inside a locked car has been shared by many people of a less criminal persuasion.

The parental-advice website Mumsnet has several reports of wives being locked inside their husband’s BMWs seemingly by accident.

One user, called Anne, reported being terrified at being locked inside a car with her three-year-old son in London after her husband had left them playing with the steering wheel.

“I stayed behind in the car with [my son aged 3] because he wanted to pretend to drive the car,” she wrote to the network of fellow mothers.

“[My husband] locked the doors of the car as he walked in the house. The car starts getting warm so I try to open the door. It won’t budge. It stays locked. I try the centre console button to unlock all the doors. Nothing. I try all 4 doors — none will open.

“It’s getting hotter in the car. So I try to honk the horn. Nothing. Now I start to slightly panic. My husband took my purse in so I have no phone and I can’t get out of the car. I feel like a fool. But it’s getting hotter and hotter . . . I try to wave at people passing. No one notices . . . It’s really warming up. I start looking for something to break the glass. There isn’t anything . . . finally, finally a guy sees me frantically waving and banging on the glass and I shout to him that we are trapped and our house number . . . Who makes a car that you can’t unlock from the inside?!”

Anne ended her post by explaining that she has now ordered an “emergency hammer” to help her escape any future lock in.

Hunt must be kicking himself that he didn’t ask the users of Mumsnet how to prepare for the worst before he started his car thieving spree.
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