Why we need to do a U-turn on car tech to beat the thieves

When you are woken at 6am by your wife telling you that the family car's been stolen, it's never a good start to the day.

- JAMES MOORE

Our lovely Nissan Leaf, electric blue and clearly recognisable around the neighbourhood, had disappeared in the night, targeted by a group of professional thieves.

This is the problem with keyless cars - they are nowhere near as secure as one would hope. The BBC has found that theft gadgets used by criminals to steal my car and thousands of others like it, are available online for a relative snip at £20k. It's not (yet) even illegal to possess these things. The report revealed price lists and video guides for how to half-inch your buyer's required vehicle, with claims that even Lamborghinis and Maseratis can be taken, along with our modest Leaf.

I hadn’t even taken the news in, until my wife disappeared for 10 minutes, returning to say that not only had she found our car returned at the bottom of our road, but that “they’ve parked it really nicely”.

Just like that, the morning improved dramatically, although I admit my initial response was, “What the fuck?” How had this happened?