HID headlights have always been a target for thieves, and some brands of automobiles have earned a reputation for being easy to steal from. Such is the case with Porsche, which is why a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge recently approved a class action lawsuit over Porsche’s headlight design.
Not every HID headlight stolen winds up in another car, however, as thieves in Amsterdam have recently begun harvesting xenon headlamps from Porsche Cayenne and Panamera models for a decidedly different purpose: growing marijuana.
The xenon bulbs used in Porsche’s lighting systems coincidentally deliver a just-right blend of light and heat for budding amateur horticulturists, and they offer the side benefit of being energy-efficient, too. Nothing says “grow house” to the police quite like a tripling of the electric bill from month to month.
As De Telegraaf’s AutoVisie reports, some 20 Porsche owners have had headlights stolen in the last week alone. Adding insult to injury, prying the headlight assemblies from the cars with a screw driver often results in thousands of dollars worth of additional damage on top of the cost of replacing the headlights.
If you have a Porsche Panamera or Cayenne and park it outside, you may want to sleep in your car until this latest trend blows over. As you can see from the surveillance video below, even security cameras fail to act as a deterrent.
