DENVER — It's been a bad couple of weeks for Audi owners around Denver.
Denver7 found at least ten Audi cars were broken into, and one of them was stolen.
Aaron Marshall owns Berg Performance, a body shop specializing in Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi. In the middle of the night last week, thieves went car to car in the body shop's front parking lot.
"They came in and took a center punch and walked around the Q5 that was in our lawn, broke the window, reached in the glove box and found the spare key, took the car," Marshall said.
The video shows the thieves taking off with one of the cars. Then, going around to the next Audi. The process appears to be the same: break the window, look for the spare key in the glove box and, if it's there, they take the car. The thieves got away with one car that night.
Marshall has been working on Audis since he was 14. He says they are some of the most difficult cars to steal because of the cars technology.
The problem is there's a place for a valet key in the glove box. Marshall says sometimes a car dealer may place that extra key in the compartment. So while the driver may not know it's there, these thieves appear to know just where to look.
Both the Denver Police Department and Adams County Sheriff's Office say they haven't seen an uptick in targeted Audis, but Berg Performance isn't the only body shop to get hit. Another body shop in Denver specializing in Audi repairs told us they had three break-ins also last week. Again, Audis were the target. That shop also says three more cars were in the shop for the same reason: a right window busted out.
Randy Simon's car was in the shop at Berg Performance when the break-ins happened. His Audi's passenger window was also broken. He said his neighbor had the same problem.
"My wife had mentioned that a neighbor of ours had also noticed she had her Audi vandalized. Same passenger side window had been broken out," Simon said.
Marshall believes it's too much of a coincidence, and he has a warning for his customer and any car owner who will listen.
"If you have a key in your glove box, take it out," Marshall said. "There’s no reason to have it."