You're making the mistake of assuming car thiefs are unintelligent or unorganized. Successful thefts that return a profit require a network of skilled people to pull off and talent can be found within that pool or recruited.

By saying a thief would have to understand how a computer exploit works, it's saying a thief needed the equivalence of an engineering degree to drive away with a car before computers entered the equation. Exploit discovery, maybe, but it doesn't take much to execute packaged tools you bought on the blackmarket.