SHOCKING footage captured the moment thieves cloned a key and stole a Mercedes... inside 23 seconds.

Danny Talbot, 45, of Crays Hill, near Billericay, woke up to find his car had been stolen by two high-tech thieves who were swiftly able to enter his keyless entry car, remove the tracker and disable his alarms.

Speaking about the incident, Mr Talbot, said: “The funny thing was I walked the dog in the morning and didn’t even notice it had been stolen.

“I had a shower and walked outside thinking I had memory loss again, leaving the car down the pub, but then I realised I never went out last night.” Mr Talbot said that his friend had seen a group acting suspiciously in his road, which he asked not to be named for the safety of his neighbours, looking into letter boxes.

He said: “We think they were going around looking at where people are keeping their keys, and looking at the cars that keyless entry.”

CCTV footage of the incident shows the one man, wearing black hoods to cover their face, scanning a large square device around the front door of the property, while the other gets into the car and get ready for their escape.

Mr Talbot showed the brief clip online after he found the car had been taken.

He added that he now has no idea where the car could be after they were able to disable the tracker.

Mr Talbot said: “Whatever device they used de-activates the tracker.

“The device has shut down my Mercedes app tracker.

“It’s been deactivated and the car is still showing that it’s on my drive.

“It will have different number plates on it by now, my guess is.”

The car has been missing since Thursday morning, and there has been no indication it will be found soon.

Mr Talbot expressed his frustration at the theft, and the expense of replacing the car.

He said: “It is more about how expensive it will be to replace everything, not just the car. I have a lot of work stuff in there, which I could take out the boot every night but you just don’t normally.

“It could mean I’ll lose my excess, insurance is going be loads and then I won’t be able to replace it with a car as good as that.” The search is ongoing for the vehicle which was stolen from Mr Talbot’s drive.

Anyone with information call police on 101.