The wheel begins to spin, the bottle crushes and a sharp noise comes from the car. It’s natural to stop, open the door and go to see what happened. And it is on those few seconds that the so-called bottle-in-the-wheel scam is based: creating a small alarm, credible enough to make the driver get out and leave the passenger compartment, bag and maybe even the keys unattended for a few moments.
The system requires very little. A plastic bottle is placed near a wheel of the parked car, often on the passenger side, where it is more difficult to notice when getting in. At the start the noise comes. The rest depends above all on one thing: what we do immediately afterwards.
How the bottle scam works
The goal of the bottle is to create a distraction. When the tire presses on the plastic, the noise may suggest something stuck in the wheel or a sudden problem. The driver stops, gets out and checks. If you leave the door open, a bag on the seat or the keys inside the car, an accomplice can take advantage of this to take what he finds in the passenger compartment. With the engine running and the keys inserted, the car also remains exposed.
The mechanism belongs to the broader family of thefts based on distraction: it is enough to convince the victim to look away for the time necessary to reach what he left in the car.
There are very concrete cases on this scheme. On 19 August 2026, for example, the Carabinieri reported four people after an attempted theft with skill in the car park of a supermarket in Castelleone, in the province of Cremona. According to the military’s reconstruction, a woman had been distracted on a pretext while one of the accomplices tried to take possession of the bag placed on the car seat. The bottle changes, the principle much less: to make us shift our attention from the machine for a few seconds.
Because car parks are the ideal place
Supermarkets, shopping centres, hospitals and large rest areas offer a lot of movement and just as many distractions. You load bags into the trunk, settle children, look for the trolley, check your phone. A bag left on the seat for “one second” can become very easy to reach.
In April 2026, the Carabinieri of Massa Lombarda reconstructed a theft that occurred in the parking lot of a supermarket with the so-called “coin technique”: by making a pensioner believe she had lost money on the ground, three people managed to distract her and steal her bag from the car seat.
The State Police also described a very similar attempt in Asti: a woman who was loading shopping into the trunk was approached by a man who pointed to some coins on the ground. She became suspicious and did not leave the car, causing the attempt to fail.
The bottle uses the same reflection, with a rather effective detail: this time it is the car that draws attention directly.
What to do if you hear a noise immediately after leaving
However, an abnormal noise coming from the wheel should be checked. Continuing to drive without knowing what is happening can be a bad idea if the cause is a real problem with the tire or car. However, you can avoid turning the check into a wedding invitation.
When conditions permit, it is better to slowly reach a safe, well-lit and frequented point. Once the car is parked, it is best to turn off the engine, take the keys and phone and close the doors before going to check the wheel.
The Carabinieri expressly advise not to keep your bag on the seat or in a visible and easily accessible point and invite you to be careful when someone persistently tries to distract you, for example by moving your gaze towards something or dropping objects.
If there are people around the car who raise suspicions, it is more prudent to stay in the passenger compartment with the doors closed and move away when possible. In case of danger you can call 112, the number also indicated in the force’s prevention sheets.
Before going up it only takes a few seconds
There’s no need to turn the supermarket car park into a pre-flight check. However, a glance at the wheels as you reach the car may reveal a bottle, a stuck object or simply a flat tire.
And when you need to load the shopping, put the trunk or check something outside the car, the rule remains very down to earth: you don’t leave your bag, phone and wallet on the seat with the car open. In July 2026, in the car park of a supermarket in Borgo Velino, the Carabinieri arrested three people after the theft of a wallet and a mobile phone left momentarily inside a woman’s car.
The bottle, after all, costs a few cents. The trick focuses on something much more precious: those seconds in which we stop looking at the car.
