Thieves have found an alarmingly novel way to bag themselves a car, freshly serviced and washed, some even with the keys in the ignition - they're preying on the service departments of motor dealerships.
Imagine taking your car for a service and being told by the dealership later that day: "So sorry, we can't seem to find your car..."
That thieves are choosing to steal used cars from the service department rather than new cars from the gleaming showroom floors on the other side of the dealership says volumes about which is considered to be the softer target.
There is talk of syndicates acting with help on the inside, but in any event, in many cases the brazen crime is successfully carried out thanks to appalling negligence, with keys being allowed to be left in ignitions and none of the prescribed security safeguards, such as signed security slips, being enforced.
You'd think the dealerships would be mortified at allowing their client's second most important asset to be stolen while in their care, and do everything possible to ensure they - that's the clients - don't suffer any financial loss as a result. But you'd very likely be wrong.
Allowing the victim to use a loan car temporarily, and paying their insurance excess of a few thousand rands, is about as much responsibility for the lapse that most dealerships are willing to take, almost always requiring the victims to dig into their own pockets for a similar new set of wheels.
Pensioner Franco Simonetti took his Audi A3 Sportback, which had done about 80 000km, to The Glen Volkswagen on September 2 for a check-up, as he was planning a trip to Kruger National Park. He'd bought the car new from the dealership in 2005.
The car was stolen from the wash bay that afternoon, the keys having been left in the ignition.
"What a shock!" he says.
"You worry that your car may be stolen from a street or a shopping centre, but not your motor dealership."
Simonetti's insurance paid out R137 500, quite a bit short of the car's book value of R150 000, and he expected the dealership to pay the difference. They refused.
"Instead, they are offering me cars to the value of R137 500, all of which are vastly inferior to the car which was stolen," he told me.
"They have given me a Polo as a loan car and have threatened to take it away if I go to the newspapers. Can you please help?"
Asked to respond, Paul Boyce, general manager of The Glen Volkswagen, said it was not normal practice to leave the keys in the vehicle "unless we are moving the car".
"Unfortunately the car was in the wash process when this incident occurred and this is being investigated by our wash bay and security companies as well as by our own investigators," he said.
Boyce said Simonetti had been offered second-hand Audis and a new Polo, which the dealership offered to service up to the 45 000km service, all of which he had refused.
"We understand that Mr Simonetti does not want to be in a position where he is worse off than before this incident, but we are not in a position to enrich him with a newer or more expensive vehicle through the process," he said.
Simonetti is adamant that he's not seeking enrichment, just a replacement car as similar as possible to the one which was stolen, something which is apparently not possible with his insurance pay-out.
Given that the dealership failed to exercise due care to safeguard his car, he feels they should pay the shortfall. The dealership refused and insisted that he return their "courtesy" car last Tuesday.
Boyce states: "We are being asked the impossible by Mr Simonetti in terms of what he expects as a replacement.
"Within reason and the money he has available we have offered every vehicle we have come across to him. What we have tried to do is to assist in the replacement of the stolen car. At no point have we tried to make 'a sale' or a profit.
"What needs to be clear is that we are not in a position to just hand over a cheque for a perceived amount.
"Our dealership staff members were not involved in this theft issue; the staff members from the security company have been dismissed.
"If Mr Simonetti wants more money than the insurance pay-out he needs to take some action either through his insurance or the ombudsman from either the insurance or motor industry.
"His insurance payout is the value of the car that was stolen," Boyce insisted.
Strange, then, that a similar replacement can't be found at that price.
"That car was supposed to be my last car, my retirement car," Simonetti says. "I looked after it like a baby; it had new tyres... but they don't seem to care."
It was reported last week that the Sandton car theft unit was investigating several cases of theft of cars from motor dealerships, including that of Ralph Manhile, whose two-year-old Hilux 4x4 was stolen from Rivonia Toyota about 10 days ago.
The last person to park it was reportedly a car washer employed by Africa Cleaning Services, a BEE company sub-contracted to Toyota.
In April, Ryan Polayya responded to an appeal from Volkswagen South Africa to take his 2007 Polo TDi Sportline to a dealership as part of the manufacturer's turbo recall.
He booked his car in at Lindsay Saker Midrand and by mid-afternoon staff admitted they had no idea where his car was and asked him to activate his tracking device.
That was unsuccessful and Polayya was loaned a dilapidated car for the Easter weekend.
The dealer principle at the time, who has since left, said he was prepared to pay Polayya's insurance excess of R2 000, and that was it.
He told me a security company was investigating how the car came to be stolen, without a signed security slip, but neither Polayya nor myself were ever told the outcome of that investigation, despite frequent requests.
Two months later Polayya was paid out by his insurance company, which was just enough to settle his outstanding loan amount, leaving Polayya out of pocket.
Two months after the car was stolen it was recovered in Ivory Park and two people were arrested.
"The car had been in an accident, though, so the insurance company did not give it back to me," Polayya said.
He is due to give evidence as a witness in the theft trial next week.
"The dealership still has no clue how the car was stolen and I don't think they are really bothered, not even after I told one the sales managers that people have been arrested," he said.
The incident has prejudiced Polayya in terms of motor insurance.
"I have a problem getting reasonable insurance as I am now regarded as high-risk because of claiming for my car being stolen," he said.
Jeff Osborne, CEO of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), said he wasn't aware of the trend (of cars being stolen from motor dealership service departments) but said it was "very worrying indeed".
"We will send a circular to the dealerships stressing the need for them to tighten their security procedures in order to safeguard their customers' cars while in their care, because they are responsible for the negligent actions of their employees."
If it was the dealerships, rather than their customers, who suffered the biggest financial loss when cars were stolen from their service departments, they'd no doubt regard this trend in an altogether different light.
As always, companies ought to be judged not by their mistakes, but how they choose to take responsibility for them.
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