[MRM]

I used to belong to the trade group that combats vehicle theft. I know a bit about the business. It's unlikely that the pair were car thieves.

Remember, your license plate is a public record. They don't need a GPS device to locate where it's registered. They don't need to take a picture to remember the plate number and they don't need to talk to you to scope out the car. If they did any of these things they weren't real pros, and anything less would not be up to stealing your car. But don't sweat it. Even real pros don't often steal cars from garages or other secure locations. Off the street with a tow truck, sure, but not so much out of a garage. To comfort you a little, statistics suggest that a late model Honda that can be turned into a street racer is a higher risk than your 930.

Handy practice pointer: Our vintage of 911 is pretty easy to steal because it can be driven by pounding a screwdriver into the ignition and force rotating the lock to start the car as though the screwdriver was the key.

Anyway, in the US a professional thief would replace the VINs or cover the existing VIN with a replica and retitle the car. Ideally they would use the VIN of a car that existed but was no longer on the road. Each manufacturer's VINs and the rivets that hold them are unique, so someone who knows what they're looking for can spot a forged VIN unless it is very well done. Even a fairly well done forgery will pass a casual inspection, but it's very hard to fool an experienced vehicle inspector who knows what to look for.

Internationally they just sell the car as-is because there isn't a central database of US VINs in other countries.