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Two Lithuanian brothers aged 33 and 28 were convicted on Friday in Hasselt for the theft of jewelry and nine SUVs in Limburg. The duo mainly targeted cars from the Range Rover brand. They say they got their inspiration from TikTok to open the cars.
The brothers struck between June and August 2022 in Beringen, Hechtel-Eksel, Oudsbergen, Pelt and in the province of Antwerp, among others. It was striking that the two come from a village where several residents have already been convicted for the theft of luxury cars in Belgium. “They operate in a gang. Like previous convicts, they come from the same village,” he said. They operated from a Weerterbergen holiday park just across the border in the Netherlands. By making a hole in the bodywork, they managed to outsmart the alarm system every time.
“Learned on YouTube and TikTok. It seemed simple to me,” stated the eldest brother, who is 33 years old. He said he started it after his wife died of cancer and he was left with a large mountain of debt. The man has now been in jail for eleven months. They then sold their loot – mainly Range Rovers, but also a Lexus and Toyota – to buyers who shipped the cars to West Africa.
Previous convictions
His 27-year-old brother has been in prison since the summer. “I knew my brother had a lot of debt and I helped him.” The word brotherly love was often used in court, often in combination with misplaced. Each time they worked in the same way by intercepting the frequency with a special device to open the car.
The Hasselt criminal judge had 40 months in prison in store for the eldest. He received a harsher sentence after previous convictions in Germany, France and the Netherlands. His younger brother has to go to prison for 37 months. They both pay legal costs of 11,350. Finally, the perpetrators owe more than 10,000 euros to the civil parties.
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