A driver stole back her own Land Rover after outsmarting the thieves using a nifty GPS trick.
Jo Coombs was heartbroken after waking up to find the vehicle gone from outside her home in Battersea, London.
The car is always left in a private car park, protected by large black gates. But to her horror her Land Rover Discovery wasn't there - and she didn't wait for police to try and track it down.
She set about trying to get it back using her smartphone and her plan worked perfectly.
Jo remembered her insurance policy came with a GPS tracker, a tool that that calculates the miles you drive every month.
You can easily track all your drives - and that's just what she did.
She told The Sun : "I could see that my car was taken at 04:34, driven a mile away. Parked for 40 minutes. Driven again another mile. Parked.
"This continued a few times until eventually it was parked 1.9 miles from home. And it hadn’t moved since.
"I called the police again. They told me to get my keys and go and reclaim my car. I had thought they would go, but no apparently it was quicker if I did."
The thieves even changed her number plate - but she knew it was her car.
The woman says she learned a valuable lesson.
She drove straight to Halfords and bought a steering lock and now refuses to leave her car unprotected.
The number of vehicles stolen in the UK rose 3% in 2021, according to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency data.
Police reported 48,400 vehicles as being stolen – up from 46,800 in 2020.
Clive Wain, head of police liaison for Tracker, told the MailOnline: “Due to the pandemic, global demand for car parts created a boom in 'chop-shops' – buildings which house stolen vehicles for stripping down so their expensive parts can be sold on.
“In addition, the lack of parts for new car manufacturing resulted in a surge of sales in the second-hand car market, creating a lucrative business for car thieves to fill the shortage.
“Prestige models have always been the go-to for criminals who exploit the demand for these desirable cars in territories like Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“We are continuously intercepting shipping containers packed with stolen vehicles at ports around the country and 2021 was no different. However, due to the pandemic lower value cars have also seen an increase in theft rates.”
