Two Anhui Province farmers have been charged with stealing nine cars using a computer hacker program, Shanghai's Minhang District prosecutors said yesterday.

Prosecutors said this is the city's first case involving computers adopted to steal cars. So far no technological fix is available to prevent this kind theft, they said.

Lao Hu and Zhong Zhou, who received a junior middle school education, didn't invent the high-tech approach themselves.

Lao paid 40,000 yuan (US$4,938) for a set of special tools for high-grade car maintenance, including a computer, a special tool and a special key.

Because the computer program was designed especially for Honda cars, this brand became Lao's target, authorities said.

He went to the city early this year to work with Zhong to steal Hondas, after he used the equipment to steal a car in Guangzhou, prosecutors said.

Late-night hobby

Their "hobby" was to take a late-night stroll on the street with a large computer bag. When they found a target, Zhong was usually in charge of keeping watch while Lao opened the car door with the special tool and connected the computer loaded with the program for the car, prosecutors allege.

After the hacker program in the computer outsmarted the car's theftproof system, he started the car with the special key, and the whole process took only two minutes, prosecutors said.

The duo allegedly stole nine Honda cars in this way in the city from January to March and sold the cars for about 40,000 yuan each.

On March 4, the suspects drove a stolen car whose plate had been changed to Cixi of Zhejiang Province. They had planned to sell the car.

But that Honda aroused suspicion of the Zhejiang police. The police checked their certificates and found they weren't the car owner.