A woman in Bournemouth was left so exasperated by a complete lack of police action after her dad’s car was stolen, she turned detective herself and found the car in just a few days.
We recently reported on how police inaction saw one motorist lose his vehicle twice to the same gang, and it isn’t a surprise to hear someone else had to take action to retrieve a stolen car.
Becky Harrington, from Bournemouth, got frustrated after police failed to make progress in finding the £12,000 Jaguar which was stolen in July before managing to find the car four miles away after using social media and scouring CCTV.
Ms Harrington, 32, said her father woke to find his car missing on Sunday 24 July and contacted the police. She told the BBC; “I just wasn't happy with how they dealt with it. I'm pretty savvy with social media so I put it in 45 odd groups and before I knew it was being shared all over the place, it just went everywhere.
"I thought nobody is gonna walk down the street and not know about this car. If we were still waiting for the police, my dad would have no car."
Ms Harrington eventually got her hands back on the 2020 Jaguar after going through CCTV from petrol stations and local shops – what we thought was bread and butter police work.
She went on to say; "Twenty-four hours after I'd told them it had been found I got a call from the police and the woman said it was still marked as stolen."
Dorset Police said: "Local officers made a number of attempts to visit the victim and consequently made contact with the victim's daughter, who then updated the police that the vehicle had been recovered.
"As part of the ongoing investigation, officers carried out house-to-house enquiries in the vicinity of where the vehicle was located and have successfully obtained significant evidence."