Porsche Cayenne & Panamera HID headlights stolen for pot growing

A spate of thefts of Porsche Cayenne and Porsche Panamera HID headlights is blamed on pot growing amateurs.

If you’ve ever owned a Porsche, you’ll know that changing a headlight bulb means removing the headlight assembly. Thankfully, Porsche has made that quite easy with a simple locking mechanism that takes just a turn to free the light.

The problem with the ease of which Porsche headlights can be removed is that, with a deft twist of a screwdriver from outside, they can also be easily removed by any passing tea-leaf, much to the consternation of the owner. And now, it seems, the problem is growing.

And the problem is growing because enterprising growers of marijuana in Holland have discovered that the HID lights fitted to the Cayenne and Panamera make the perfect growing lights for their illicit crop. Suitably wired up and pointed in the right direction, the HID lights emit just the right amount of light and heat for a bumper crop, and they use far less power than a regular mains system.

So not only do the Porsche lights do the job, they also manage to disguise one of the big clues that there’s more going on in the loft than a new train set – big electricity bills.

De Telegraaf is reporting that there have been twenty such thefts in Amsterdam in the last week alone, all linked to light-fingered home growers looking for a free set of the best lights for their hidden crops.

So, if you live in Amsterdam (or anywhere else as this will probably spread) and you have HID lights on your Porsche you’d better make sure you’ve parked your car in the garage or pop the lights out before you leave your pride and joy and pop them in the boot.