A couple said they were forced to ‘steal back’ their own car after being told by police they did not know when they would be able to investigate the matter.
Mia Forbes Pirie, 48, and Mark Simpson, 62, took matters into their own hands after their Jaguar was stolen from near their home in Brook Green, west London.
The car contained an Apple airtag, which allowed the couple to track its location to just a few miles away in Chiswick.
They called 999 to report the theft, but the Metropolitan Police could not say when they would be able to investigate the matter, according to The Times.
Instead, the couple suggested they could find the vehicle themselves and were told to call 101 if they found it.
“I have to confess … it was kind of fun stealing back our own car,” Ms Forbes Pirie said in a LinkedIn post .
“But it does make me wonder whether we should have had to do that. And not whether it’s normal, but whether it’s right that the police seem to have no interest in investigating what is likely to have been a reasonably sophisticated operation involving a flat bed truck.
“If there are no consequences, what is the incentive for people not to do more of this?”
The couple said that they first noticed the car had gone missing on Tuesday last week, with the airtag last locating it to their road at around 3:20am.
It later pinged from Chiswick at 10:30am, where they later found the car with its interior and carpets ripped out as thieves tried to get to its wiring.
According to the paper, the police got in touch after they recovered the car but a forensics team has yet to assess the car.
Ms Forbes Pirie said: “Since we’ve found it lots of people have touched the car and the police say that they’re going to look underneath the carpets and at the fuse box to see if there are prints there. But it wouldn’t have cost very much for them to tell us not to touch anything. That’s the one criticism I have.
“The police are under-resourced and it’s a shame. But if there aren’t any consequences to people stealing cars or a lot of the other crimes where there aren’t any consequences, then I don’t really see what the deterrent is to stop people from doing it more.”
The Metropolitan Police said: “On Tuesday, 3 June at 10:06hrs, police were alerted to the theft of a vehicle on Sterndale Road, W14.
“Officers spoke to the victim, who shared his intention to recover the vehicle himself. An Apple Airtag was inside, allowing the victim to view its location and trace it.
“The victim was reminded by officers to contact police again as needed or if police assistance was necessary at the vehicle’s location.
“At 11:23hrs the victim confirmed with police that he had found the vehicle and that it was being recovered by a truck back to the victim’s home address.
“This investigation is ongoing and police are working with the victim. No arrests have been made at this stage.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 quoting CAD 2311/03JUN.
