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A woman from Bounds Green, north London, described her frustration after thieves broke into her car solely to steal the parcel shelf, an item she noted had been listed for sale online within hours of being taken. Sam Phipps faced an £800 expense to replace both the rear window and the parcel shelf, a process delayed by weeks due to a surge in demand for replacement car windows across the area.
Phipps recounted that her car was targeted despite containing only a gym bag hidden in the boot. She chose not to file an insurance claim because of the deductible cost. “It didn’t look like anything had been missing initially until we noticed the retractable parcel shelf had been removed,” she said. The wait for a replacement rear window was notably long, with suppliers overwhelmed by the number of similar repairs needed in north London. She was even advised to remove the parcel shelf at night to avoid further thefts.
The parcel shelves themselves can fetch up to £150 on online marketplaces. Sam Phipps conducted some online detective work and found a parcel shelf matching her car’s exact make and year listed for sale just a day after hers was stolen. After some searching, she identified the seller, most likely a young woman in her early 20s, living in a flat on Caledonian Road, approximately 20 minutes away. When asked if she confronted the seller, she chose to leave the matter to karma.
According to a representative from the Metropolitan Police, there has been “significant progress” in addressing vehicle crime with all reported incidents being investigated thoroughly. Additionally, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London highlighted a nearly 20% decrease in thefts from vehicles in 2025 compared to the previous year, alongside a reduction of 16,000 neighbourhood crimes in total. Despite these improvements, officials acknowledge that more work is needed, and recent plans were announced to increase funding for the Met to improve police visibility and presence across the city
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