For years, Victoria Police have described a shift in how cars are stolen in Melbourne. Modern cars are hard to start without their keys, so offenders go inside to find them. Three cases reported this year show what that looks like on the ground.
Hampton Park, January
Just after 3.30am on Friday 16 January, three offenders entered a home in Hampton Park where a 75-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman lived, the ABC reported. They took the man's car keys and his Holden Statesman. He suffered minor injuries. The woman was not hurt.
Police found the car about half an hour later in nearby Officer, and three teenagers aged 13, 15 and 16 were arrested, with two knives recovered. Acting Inspector Dale Maxwell said confrontation is rare, and that offenders are usually there to steal a car. The teenagers were expected to face charges including aggravated home invasion and theft of a motor vehicle.
Balwyn North, Bulleen and Templestowe, August
Between about 1.35am and 5.45am on 28 August, police allege a group carried out a string of aggravated burglaries and car thefts at homes across three suburbs in Melbourne's east, according to a police release. Among them, police allege:
- an Audi was taken from a home in Bulleen at about 3.50am and later recovered nearby;
- a set of car keys was taken in a Balwyn North burglary at about 4.50am;
- a Volkswagen Golf was taken from another Balwyn North home five minutes later, and later recovered at an address in Darebin.
Boroondara and Manningham detectives arrested three teenagers in Darebin the same day. They were charged with multiple counts of aggravated burglary and theft of a motor vehicle, among other offences, and remanded to appear before a children's court.
Brighton East, October
Just after 5.30am on Tuesday 6 October, intruders entered a Brighton East home where a couple and their infant were inside, the ABC reported. The couple believed the intruders came in through a side door. Two cars were taken: a Nissan 4WD and an Audi.
Police say both cars were then used in a home invasion in Hampton Park at about 7.45am. The Audi was later recovered in Endeavour Hills after a collision. The Nissan was followed through the eastern suburbs and boxed in by unmarked police cars on the Monash Freeway near Chadstone just after midday. Six people were arrested, four of them aged 16 and 17. Nobody was injured.
All of the charges and allegations above are yet to be tested in court.
The keys are the target
Inspector Maxwell's point is worth sitting with. In most of these cases, the house is the route to the car, not the prize. That is consistent with Crime Statistics Agency figures reported by the ABC in March, which showed record car theft in 2025 and a high share of home invasions and aggravated burglaries committed by offenders under 18. We look at those figures in more detail in our piece on the 2026 numbers.
The Brighton East case shows something else. A stolen car is rarely the end of the story. Police say those cars were used for another home invasion within about two hours. Stolen cars become getaway vehicles, ram raid tools and transport for further offending.
What helps, and what doesn't
A physical barrier at the driveway does nothing to stop someone entering a house. Locks, lighting, alarms, sensible door security and, above all, police work are what deal with that. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise.
What a barrier does is break the link between the keys and the car. If a removable bollard is locked in place in front of the car, a stolen key starts the car but doesn't get it off the property. The bollard has its own key, which isn't on the car's ring and isn't what intruders are looking for.
We haven't seen any of these properties, and we're not suggesting a barrier would have changed any of these events. The point is general: once keys are taken, a barrier is one of the few things still between the offenders and the car.
Practical steps
- Don't keep car keys by the front door or anywhere visible from outside.
- Lock side and back doors as carefully as the front. In Brighton East, the couple believed the intruders used a side door.
- Garage the car if you can, and lock the internal door between the garage and the house.
- Put a physical stop at the driveway if the car has to stay outside, and keep that key separate from the car keys.
- Don't confront. If you hear someone, stay in a locked room and call triple zero.
Police are clear that most of these offenders want a car, not a fight. Making the car harder to take without making yourself the obstacle is the safest plan.