Photo: leicestermercury.co.uk
One man’s pre-Christmas car trouble is proof that bad luck, much like lighting, can also strike twice. In his case, it can even happen in the same day, even with protection from the police.
Phil Chambers, a 30-year-old businessman from Bitteswell, Leicestershire, UK, tells Leicestershire Live that, in the days before Christmas, he and his fiancee Charlotte were woken up in the dead of night by a bunch of thugs who had broken into their home. They knew what they wanted and were in a hurry to get it: Chambers’ Audi RS3, which he had bought for £40,000.
“We were asleep – my fiancée and I – when they just kicked in the front door and came up the stairs shouting ‘Get the keys! Give us the keys! You know why we’re here’. It was like something out of a nightmare,” Chambers says for the publication.
The thieves threatened to beat him up and brandished weapons, so the man was in no position to try and talk sense into them. He handed them the keys and they ran to the garage, driving off with the Audi and the car they’d arrived in.
Chambers reported the theft immediately and was actually surprised to get a call back from the police in the early morning, informing him that the car had been found. Apparently, the thieves abandoned it when it ran out of gas and they made their escape on foot.
Because the investigation was still underway, Chambers wasn’t allowed to take his Audi home. Instead, it was taken to a police compound, from where he was told he could retrieve it sometime later.
That same day, he got another call from the police, this time to inform him that the same thieves broke into the compound and took his car. Again. He was torn between amusement and frustration, and he seems to have eventually chosen the former.
“[The chief inspector] was obviously embarrassed and very apologetic,” Chambers says of the second call. “I told him ‘This has turned into a bloody joke hasn’t it?’ The poor bloke didn’t know what to say.”
Police told him that the thieves still had the keys to the car, so they willingly left it there when it ran out of gas, knowing where it would be taken. They returned after dark, with a can of gas and a Nissan Micra. They filled the tank of the Audi and drove off in it, leaving the Micra behind.
West Midlands Police confirmed both thefts and are still looking for the Audi.
“We were asleep – my fiancée and I – when they just kicked in the front door and came up the stairs shouting ‘Get the keys! Give us the keys! You know why we’re here’. It was like something out of a nightmare,” Chambers says for the publication.
The thieves threatened to beat him up and brandished weapons, so the man was in no position to try and talk sense into them. He handed them the keys and they ran to the garage, driving off with the Audi and the car they’d arrived in.
Chambers reported the theft immediately and was actually surprised to get a call back from the police in the early morning, informing him that the car had been found. Apparently, the thieves abandoned it when it ran out of gas and they made their escape on foot.
Because the investigation was still underway, Chambers wasn’t allowed to take his Audi home. Instead, it was taken to a police compound, from where he was told he could retrieve it sometime later.
That same day, he got another call from the police, this time to inform him that the same thieves broke into the compound and took his car. Again. He was torn between amusement and frustration, and he seems to have eventually chosen the former.
“[The chief inspector] was obviously embarrassed and very apologetic,” Chambers says of the second call. “I told him ‘This has turned into a bloody joke hasn’t it?’ The poor bloke didn’t know what to say.”
Police told him that the thieves still had the keys to the car, so they willingly left it there when it ran out of gas, knowing where it would be taken. They returned after dark, with a can of gas and a Nissan Micra. They filled the tank of the Audi and drove off in it, leaving the Micra behind.
West Midlands Police confirmed both thefts and are still looking for the Audi.
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