I don't see how you can steal a star, what with the dual spring loading, off of the hood.. I took mine apart by accident and only upon attempted reassembly realized that there is really no way to rip it off of the hood/grill....it's a brilliant piece of engineering with built in theft protection. The only thing I can I see is that it's not built in idiot-owner proof who wants see how it works and then takes it apart and can't get back together again...I can't fault Mercedes for that....where I reside every third car is a MB and mine is the singular one without the star...but the grill is nice.... and they are only $35 anyway from the dealer....