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Jamie Oliver Is Celebrity Chef by Day, Tractor Thief Catcher by Night

Celebrity chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver makes mouth-watering steaks. He also makes for a very competent investigator, tracking down and recovering his stolen tractor before police even arrived to fill out the papers.
Thieves stole Jamie Oliver's tractor and a trailer, but he got them both back by himself, without help from the police 1 photo
Photo: Instagram / Jamie Oliver
Chalk this up to one of those “it happens to the best of us” stories. Celebrities are just as prone to becoming targets for car thieves as regular folks, if not actually more. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is one such example: his country estate was raided by thieves on April 29, and he suddenly found himself one new trailer and a tractor short.

The Sun reports that Oliver tracked down the thieves by himself, without help from the police. Once he located the stolen vehicles, he was also able to recover them without intervention because, he says, police weren’t “interested” in it. It seems like Oliver posted his story on social media as a kind of warning for fellow residents in the Essex village where he also has an estate, but the tabloid isn’t clear about that.

It also seems as if Oliver got to deal with a bunch of rather incompetent thieves.

Based on CCTV footage, the TV personality was able to make out their license plate, since whatever they used to obscure it fell off during the heist. The hit took place at night, with Oliver learning about it in the first hours of morning. He called the police and send over all pieces of evidence available, including a clear photo of the getaway vehicle with the license plate in full view, and images of the stolen trailer and tractor. He also gave them the location of the stolen goods, which he determined because both were tracked.

The reaction from the police was “unimpressive,” Oliver says. So, he got his “team” and went to a nearby empty lot where criminals are known to abandon hot vehicles. Both trailer and tractor were just as he’d left them, so he and his people drove them back home.

A spokesperson for the Essex police confirms for the police report, and notes that officers weren’t immediately available to respond to the crime. However, when they did arrive at the property by mid-morning, the stolen vehicles had already been recovered. An investigation is still underway to apprehend the thieves, so maybe they should just hire Jamie Oliver to get the job done.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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