A TEAM of car thieves has hit a rural area of Huddersfield hard.

The thieves were prowling around Shelley looking for prestige cars to steal.

And they hit the Shelley Park estate in the early hours of yesterday morning.

They committed a spate of burglaries to steal keys to the victims' high value cars, which were left on driveways.

They escaped with two Audi cars, but failed in a bid to steal two other expensive motors.

The same thieves are thought to have stolen another car earlier this week.

Now people are urged to be extra vigilant.

The thieves will use any method to get the keys which are often left on view on kitchen work surfaces, table tops or even door mats.

The thieves struck at the Shelley Park estate between 2am and 3am yesterday.

They used a 6ft clothes prop to hook the keys from inside a house at Hawthorne Way and drove away in the £25,000 Audi A4.

The black car, registration number MT05 LZX, is still missing.

At another house on the same road, the thieves stole keys through a letterbox and stole a second black Audi A4, registration number YE04 NKH.

They tried in vain to steal cars at nearby Westerley Lane.

They hooked car keys through the letterbox from one house, but tried them in the wrong car and left them on a window sill.

They also tried to break into a nearby garage, but failed.

The same gang is thought to have smashed a house window to get the keys to a gold Toyota Avensis on Wentworth Drive in Emley at 2.30am on Monday.

This car's registration number is NA54 NTF.

Det Con Russ Conlon, of the Police intelligence unit in Kirklees, said the keys could be the cars' "Achilles heel".

He said: "Security on prestigious cars is so good these days with immobilisers and alarms, the only way thieves can steal them is to find the keys.

"They prowl around targeting the cars they want and then peer through windows and letterboxes to try to spot the keys.

"Yet these crimes can so easily be thwarted simply by hiding the keys or taking them upstairs with you at night."

He also urged people to make a new year's resolution to clear their garages of junk and use them for their cars instead.

He said: "Tot up how much the stuff stored in your garage is worth. It'll probably be £100 or so.

"Yet cars worth more than £20,000 are left outside as targets for thieves.

"Use common sense - and use your garage."