Daring German gangs board lorries as they travel Employing a stunt which could be drawn from an action film, police believe the gangs have used a number of cars to surround trucks on the motorway, driving in front to force the lorry to slow down while an accomplice boards the truck and forces open the back door. There have been over 50 such robberies in the past six months, with thieves taking electronic goods including laptops and mobile phones, worth more than 250,000 euros (£215,000), according to authorities in Dortmund. Henner Kruse, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office in Dortmund, said that lorry drivers initially suspected the break-ins had happened at rest-stops, but then it became clear that robberies were taking place even when the trucks drove non-stop to their destination. Mr Kruse said: "Drivers have discovered signs of the break-in when they stopped, such as cardboard boxes that have been ripped up, but there are no other traces. We have no DNA, no pictures and no witnesses. The thieves have targeted electronic goods, and in other cases where the lorries were filled with goods that didn't interest them, nothing has been taken, the spokesman said. Break-ins have been discovered as far afield as Augsburg, in Bavaria, and the western state of Hessen. Police believe the thieves may be employing the same modus operandi as another gang of motorway thieves who were arrested in Germany in 2008. That gang tailed lorries close enough for one of their members to jump on board and break into the truck's rear door. In that case, the thieves were caught after a tip-off led police to put a stretch of the motorway under surveillance.