A London couple were forced to “steal back” their own car after becoming frustrated with how long the police were taking to investigate.
Mia Forbes Pirie and Mark Simpson tracked down the vehicle using a AirTag after it was stolen on Wednesday morning.
The locater showed that the Jaguar E-Pace had been taken from their home in Brook Green, west London and taken to Chiswick.
When they realised the car had been taken, the couple called 999 to inform police about the theft.
However, officers told them they could not say when they would be available to investigate, The Times reported.
Forbes Pirie and Simpson decided to take matters into their own hands by tracking the car, worth about £46,000, across London.
Thanks to the tracker, the pair eventually found it on a quiet Chiswick street.
The Jaguar’s interior had been damaged and its carpet torn out by the theives.
Writing on LinkedIn, Ms Forbes Pirie said it was “kind of fun” to “steal back” their car.
However, she added: “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?”
Speaking to the Times, she said: “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.”
