Brazen thieves drive off in woman’s Fiesta as she watches in shock

THIS is the shocking moment brazen thieves steal a woman’s car from outside her office as she watches on in horror.

The woman can be heard screaming “he’s stealing my car” as one of the hooded thugs hotwires the Ford Fiesta from inside, in Harlow, Essex.

She shouts "no, no, no" while the pair speed off in the £8K-motor almost hitting bystanders as they flee.

Cos arrived at the scene shortly after on December 18, but sadly could not apprehend the thieves.

A witness claimed employees had confronted the crooks and tried to force them out of the car when they first spotted them, but ran back inside the building and dialled 999 after one of the men threatened them.

A 26-second clip of the incident - filmed by an onlooker - was shared on social media in an urgent appeal to find the car and has been viewed more than 100,000 times.

It shows several employees watching the crooks from the doorway of the building, as one asks: "Is someone calling the police?"

A hooded thief sat in the driver's seat is seen tampering with the car's ignition and the owner cries: "Oh, my God. They're stealing my car. No, no, no, no."

The tyres screech as the driver then starts the car and ploughs forward - forcing two women to jump out of the way as he flees the scene.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: "We responded to reports that a car had been stolen in Edinburgh Way, Harlow, on December 18.

"The vehicle, a blue Fiesta ST-3, is believed to have been taken by two men just after 5.05pm.

"Officers attempted to follow the car, but it is believed to have travelled into Hertfordshire.

"We continue to liaise with Hertfordshire Police in relation to this incident."

The footage sparked a row among social media users, with some arguing the staff should have done more to stop the thieves.

David White said: "Nice to see with about eight people standing about not one person was doing anything."

Gavin Robinson said: "I would be smashing the windows and getting him out."

Bradley Trippitt asked: "Why does the public insist on filming incidents like this instead of acting and stopping the scum who are stealing the car? Utter joke."

But a colleague responded: "We all tried opening the car. At one point the owner opened the car and the thief aggressively took the door back. We did not feel it was necessary to risk anything happening to us.

"We constantly spoke about what could've happened and what we could've done but to be honest we were all in shock that they had the audacity to do that with an audience. We recorded to help catch whoever it was."

Ford Fiestas - Britain's best-selling car - are a prime target for tech-savvy thieves using electronic gadgets to bypass the security systems of keyless vehicles.

Without having to break in or hot-wire the engine, professional crooks are able to get inside and drive away in a matter of seconds.

There are currently around a million keyless Fiestas on the roads and earlier this year Cleveland Police revealed that Fiestas accounted for half of its keyless vehicle theft reports.

Drivers are advised to fit steering wheel locks and keep their key fobs in metal tins or Farraday cages when not in use, as this can block the signal transmitted from the fob and prevent it being cloned.