The crime involves up to four vehicles, all usually stolen — a 4WD for the ramming, a van to take the ATM and two high-performance cars for the getaway. Hence the crime wave in Sydney’s most expensive suburbs as gangs seek late-model cars. The cars are usually dumped and torched after being used in one or more crimes.

IT’S a crime more common in Miami than in leafy Mosman on Sydney’s north shore.

On Saturday evening, a couple were “bumped” by a Subaru Outback 4WD as they drove their silver 2005 Audi S4 sedan.

The 45-year-old man was then dragged away when he went to inspect the damage, while a second man armed with a gun pulled the man’s wife from the car. The thieves then drove off with the Audi.

The incident happened at Spit Road and Awaba Street, Mosman, just before 6pm. The Balgowlah couple is unhurt but extremely shaken.

Strikeforce Piccadilly, set up last August to investigate carjackings, is looking into the matter.

In recent months, police have been forced to issue warnings to drivers of expensive cars to take extra security precautions.

Stolen high-performance, late-model vehicles are typically used as getaway cars in ATM ram-raids and dumped shortly afterwards. ATMs can hold up to $300,000 in cash and with increasingly high security at banks, ram-raids have become the crime of choice for Sydney’s criminal gangs.

The crime involves up to four vehicles, all usually stolen — a 4WD for the ramming, a van to take the ATM and two high-performance cars for the getaway. Hence the crime wave in Sydney’s most expensive suburbs as gangs seek late-model cars. The cars are usually dumped and torched after being used in one or more crimes.

Police report that because immobilisation technology has made theft of unattended, late-model vehicles almost impossible, thieves, driven as much by the love of “flash” cars as by practical considerations, have been holding up drivers across Sydney’s wealthy suburbs.

On Friday, a 43-year-old woman driving a 2004 Subaru in Burwood, in the inner-west, was chased by two men on a motorcycle, who smashed the vehicle’s windows to force her from the car.

Also published on news.com.au as Aussie crims pick up US trend.