EV thief caught red handed at out-of-service rapid charger

Here’s TopGear.com’s roving correspondent, Cory Spondent, with his mostly incorrect exclusives from the world of motoring

A car thief who stole an electric vehicle has been arrested by police after his daring getaway was stopped in its tracks by a broken charge point.

The miscreant had made off with the unplugged Ioniq 5 in the middle of the night, but was forced to abandon his planned rendezvous with a boat bound for the Mediterranean Sea when he realised he didn’t have enough range to get there.

He was then met with a succession of charging stations that either didn’t work, refused to accept payment or wouldn’t re-authenticate his account because his email address was ‘already in use’.

The as-yet unnamed male was eventually apprehended while sobbing in front of an out-of-service 350kW charger, having completely drained the car’s battery and forced it into limp mode.

“Although it gets a bad rap, people need to realise that our dodgy infrastructure is actually a massive deterrent to car thieves,” said a police spokesperson.

“In fact, it’s putting a new generation of criminals off car crime altogether: nicking an e-Up just doesn’t have the same thrill as joyriding an old Nova.

“There’ll be no GTA 7 when everything’s electric, mark my words.”