Photo: SWNS / TheMirror.co.uk
That’s why we can’t have nice things: that’s the conclusion one man from Birmingham, England, arrived after thieves stole his brand new Audi SQ5 right from his driveway, the old-fashioned way.
When stealing cars is becoming more a matter of being tech-savvy, 3 thieves from Birmingham chose to do it the old-fashioned way, breaking down a door to steal the car keys and then leaving with the SUV. And they did it in 30 seconds, after making sure no one was at home.
Surveillance video of the incident has been published by The Mirror and is available at the bottom of the page. It shows 3 men with helmets arriving in front of the house: 2 are riding a motorcycle and the third is on a moped.
It takes them 3 kicks to the door to gain access inside, and they disappear from the frame. Seconds later, they return and one of them gets inside the car and drives off. The other 2 go in the opposite direction on the mopeds they came.
The owner of the car, Tim Ward, says he never imagined this could happen to him. Still, he put a tracking device on the SUV, just in case – and it was precisely this that helped the cops retrieve the car about 5 miles farther.
“We had that car for just 40 days, it's an SQ5 and it's £57,000 and not just a standard Q5,” Ward says. “I've got this myAudi app as well which then tracked it down to a little cul-de-sac. It tells you the location once it's parked up so I was on the phone to the police telling them where it was, directing them.”
Police arrived at the car before he did, so he had to open it for them on his phone. There was some damage to the interior, as the thieves tried to locate and rip off the tracker – to no avail. It also had some dents and scratches on the outside.
As for why the thieves abandoned the SUV so quickly, Ward says it’s all down to the tracker. “They would have waited to see if someone would have picked it up. Police told us they'd have come back to pick it up at some stage,” he explains.
Ward is now reconsidering taking back the car, since it seems to attract the kind of attention he doesn’t want. He believes the thieves would have broken into the house even if it hadn’t been empty, and he fears someone might have been hurt.
Surveillance video of the incident has been published by The Mirror and is available at the bottom of the page. It shows 3 men with helmets arriving in front of the house: 2 are riding a motorcycle and the third is on a moped.
It takes them 3 kicks to the door to gain access inside, and they disappear from the frame. Seconds later, they return and one of them gets inside the car and drives off. The other 2 go in the opposite direction on the mopeds they came.
The owner of the car, Tim Ward, says he never imagined this could happen to him. Still, he put a tracking device on the SUV, just in case – and it was precisely this that helped the cops retrieve the car about 5 miles farther.
“We had that car for just 40 days, it's an SQ5 and it's £57,000 and not just a standard Q5,” Ward says. “I've got this myAudi app as well which then tracked it down to a little cul-de-sac. It tells you the location once it's parked up so I was on the phone to the police telling them where it was, directing them.”
Police arrived at the car before he did, so he had to open it for them on his phone. There was some damage to the interior, as the thieves tried to locate and rip off the tracker – to no avail. It also had some dents and scratches on the outside.
As for why the thieves abandoned the SUV so quickly, Ward says it’s all down to the tracker. “They would have waited to see if someone would have picked it up. Police told us they'd have come back to pick it up at some stage,” he explains.
Ward is now reconsidering taking back the car, since it seems to attract the kind of attention he doesn’t want. He believes the thieves would have broken into the house even if it hadn’t been empty, and he fears someone might have been hurt.
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