A MOTORIST who parked at a railway station for the weekend returned to find the bonnet, bumper and headlights gone.
Alex Christian, 32, first thought another car had smashed into his Vauxhall Corsa.
But thieves had broken a window to get to the bonnet release before stripping out the entire front end.
Alex, who had left it at Marston Green Station, Birmingham, said: “The recovery driver said gangs strip a car within minutes because car parts are so expensive.”
“He said gangs with the skill and speed of an F1 crew go at the car can strip it within minutes.”
Alex caught a train for the three-minute journey to Birmingham Airport before boarding the 12.05 Easyjet flight to Belfast to visit family for the weekend.
But when he returned just before 7pm on Sunday he was greeted with the bizarre sight of the entire front end of his £8,000 car missing.
Alex, of Gloucester, Gloucestershire, who has only owned the car since December, said: “As I walked through the car park and saw it from a distance I thought another car had crashed into it and wrecked the front end.
“But as I got closed I realised that the front end wasn’t even there.
“I stood there in shock looking at it. I had a real mixture of emotions. I was absolutely furious but shaken as well and also upset that someone had been in the car.
“I have used that car park for years and never had any trouble. There were no other cars that had been done, just mine.
“It’s an official station car park with CCTV all over it and it’s well-lit and well used but that didn’t stop them.
“You might think that only high end vehicles such as Ferraris and Porsches would suffer this type of crime.
“But a lot of kids drive Corsas and they are the ones that struggle to afford car parts.”
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