Motorists have been urged to stay with their car while it is defrosting during the winter months.
The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) has warned that there is an increasing number of cases where people have left their car running to melt frost in the morning and come back to find it has been stolen - a type of theft also known as 'frosting'.
"Unfortunately gone are the days when you can leave your door open … and the same goes with your car. You do need to take security measures there," commented Graeme Trudgill, technical and corporate affairs executive at Biba.
The offender may be someone who has observed the car on a number of mornings or simply an opportunist, he added.
Mr Trudgill explained that the majority of car insurance providers will not cover this kind of theft as the drivers are not deemed to have taken sufficient care of their vehicles.
Research by Sainsbury's Bank found that between 2000 and 2005, there were 121,730 cases of 'frosting'.
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