Couple ‘steal back' their own Jaguar after police fail to help
A couple were forced to 'steal' back their own Jaguar after police told them they were too busy to help.
Mia Forbes Pirie and Mark Simpson managed to track the vehicle to an address just four miles from their home in Brook Green, West London, using an Apple Airtag.
However, the Metropolitan Police said it did not know when it would be able to investigate, despite being given the Jaguar E-Pace's exact location in Chiswick.
After telling the force they would retrieve it themselves, the pair were told to ring 101 if successful, according to The Times.
Ms Forbes Pirie, 48, and Mr Simpson, 62, first noticed the car – fitted with a ghost immobiliser and tracker – was missing on Wednesday morning.
An update from the Airtag at 10.30am showed it to be just a 10-minute drive away.
With no support coming from officers, the couple decided to investigate, before managing to retrieve the SUV themselves.
In a post on her LinkedIn, Ms Forbes Pirie, a former solicitor, admitted it had been 'kind of fun' to 'steal back' their car after what they believe was a 'sophisticated' theft operation which may have involved a flat-bed lorry.
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.
'If there are no consequences, what is the incentive for people not to do more of this?'
She said there was 'little incentive for thieves not to carry on doing what they are doing' without enforcement of the law.
'There are far worse things happening. And without better resourcing, we are all in a really difficult situation. And with this economy better resourcing isn't obvious,' she said.
Ms Forbes Pirie said she understood the force was overwhelmed, but criticised it for not telling them to keep the car untouched for a forensic examination.
'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,' she told the newspaper.
'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 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.'
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