Footage shows thief stealing £350,000 Rolls Royce in under 30 seconds using crazy method to unlock the car

If you've ever thought you had a pretty bad night, check out this CCTV tape to see one that probably went worse.

The owner of a premium Rolls Royce had their car nicked in the middle of the night - and the thief didn't even need to use any force.

Instead, they used what looks like a simple but pretty ingenious method that gets them the car in less than 30 seconds, using what appears to be a homemade antenna of sorts.

It's set up to amplify signals, and the thief seems to use it to catch and broadcast the car's key fob wireless signal, strengthening it so that the Rolls Royce thinks the fob is right outside its door.

This activates the car's automatic unlocking system, and just like that the doors are open, the lights are on, and the car is driveable.

Rolls Royces are already expensive - but as this one looks like the SUV version it's even pricier, with Auto Trader saying it starts at £316,580 ($399,290) and can go up to around £360,380 ($454,520).

It's a true nightmare for any owner and has left people pretty baffled (and a bit impressed) in a recent Reddit thread chewing over the footage.

There are some parts of the video that are a little confusing, to be fair - not least the fact that a car as insanely fancy as this is parked in what looks like a pretty normal-looking neighborhood, not in a garage or on a country estate, like one comment noted: "This is exactly why I don't park my Rolls Royce at random neighborhood."

Extreme-Elevator7128 / Reddit

That's a somewhat reckless choice in the first place, some would say, but it doesn't change the fact that the thief had criminal intent.

It raises the question of how you would prevent this from happening - short of a giant Faraday cage to lock your car in, blocking all signals.

One option could be to have a small Faraday box for your car keys, since that would stop their signal escaping, and you can easily get boxes that do this, although a standard garage would also go a long way to protecting any car, let alone a Rolls Royce.

People on the Reddit thread couldn't get over how bad it would be to wake up to this footage, though, not least when it comes to making an insurance claim. One funny comment with nearly 10,000 likes of its own jokingly pictured the scenario: "Insurance guy: you lost a what?"

After all, when you hear the phrase 'car theft', you very much don't imagine something like this, at least until you've seen it. Still, you can only hope the video evidence might make finding the criminal involved a lot easier.