This is nothing new, last decade and even into the 90's at the Northwest 200 motorcycle races in North Ireland where they allow free pit access the quegs were making off with high price racing wheels and other factory race parts, This years TT in the Isle of Man one top well known rider that got killed, his cell phone went missing out of the paddock with a plea on FaceBook/Twitter etc. to return it to his wife as it had his last living pictures on it.
Never heard if there was a positive outcome on that.
The racing here in the USA when the pit prices admission went sky high with the explanation that the insurance went sky high. Word on the street to me was people were stealing a lot out of the pits, engines, frames, wheels, etc. Last time I went to the Daytona 200 & vintage races they wanted 60 bucks over the GA of $25 to get into the infield for pit admission. I had just gotten a new digital camera and want to fill up my new 256mb card with pictures and I said to the old timer that I was with, "Watch, we'll just walk in like we own the place". He gave me this look an smirk as we strolled in right past the security guard as the guard was checking some punk with the bigazz pitpass on a lanyard around his neck on a pitbike going out , think the kid had a frame around his shoulder. LOL
A few years later I did the same thing for the 200. After the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 we found all sorts of chain link fences up dividing the VIP/Fanzone sections.
BS, come Team Challenge race I walked into the pits like I owned them, even got into the 'HotPits'!