It’s kiss your wife hello and your car goodbye at Newark Airport these days.
A crew of brazen thieves are swiping luxury wheels outside the arrival and departure gates when the car owners leave their keys in the ignition while greeting or sending off loved ones.
There have been a dozen or so similar thefts over the past several weeks, and police are investigating if the gang is driving the stolen cars to the nearby Port Newark Container Terminal for shipment overseas.
The same bandits struck twice in one day earlier this month, sources said.
Zhilin Feng, 63, had just picked up his wife at Terminal C on Oct. 10 in their $60,000 2011 Range Rover when he was targeted.
The Harrison, NJ, resident had just loaded the trunk with his wife’s luggage and shut it when a man hopped into the car and sped away. The thief also made off with an iPad, iPhone and more than $3,000 worth of dresses and shoes, according to a police report.
Hours earlier, a man believed to be the same thief took off in a retired New York City cop’s SUV.
Michael Meagher, 56, pulled over his 2011 Mercedes-Benz G-550 right in front of the arrival area of Terminal B.
He hopped out to fetch a bottle of water from his trunk and left the engine of his $107,000 SUV running.
“While in the process of doing so, the suspect jumped into his vehicle and sped away,” the investigating officer wrote in his report.
The thief also got Meagher’s retired police officer’s ID, pricey phones and watches.