The story is true, until the part when the thief should drive away. Sure, you can hop in and start it but as soon as you start driving and the card is more than 5 meters away, the engine immediately stops. (and believe me this is true, because we happen to have such a car)
And on a side note: as the car detects that the card is either in front of the car or behind the car, it will also refuse to start.