A LAND Rover theft epidemic is so rife that owners are chaining their pricey motors to trees to stop them being pinched.
Crooks are taking advantage of keyless entry to hack in and steal the 4x4s in seconds.
A still from a video taken in a London street showed a Land Rover Defender, which can cost well into six figures, tethered to a tree.
One social media wag said: “Imagine paying £100,000 for a motor and having to lash it to a tree like a cheap bike.”
Others reckoned a thief would just rip off the bumper as they drove away.
Insurance prices for new Land Rovers and Range Rovers have soared and Cambridgeshire cops revealed that 25 of the motors were stolen from their patch alone last month.
One driver was quoted £10,000 to insure her Range Rover.
Sun columnist and former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson said of the thefts: “This sent insurance companies into a tizzy and now getting cover is both expensive and tricky.”
Some drivers in the capital have even found they could not insure them at all, prompting Jaguar Land Rover to create its own policies.
JLR UK managing director Patrick McGillycuddy said it was “constantly developing our systems and security features”.
As well as aiming to make its motors less vulnerable, the firm said it was working with police to share information, helping to recover stolen vehicles and providing training for 650 officers.
