Backstreet dash recovers stolen Nobles
Lee Noble in cloak & dagger dash across Coventry
 Lee Noble with two of the three stolen cars |
A sequence of events that would have done a Hollywood thriller proud has lead to the recovery of two stolen Noble cars, worth over £100,000 (see original story, link below).
The cars were stolen last January in a raid on Noble’s Leicestershire factory. Despite plenty of coverage in the media –- including a feature on BBC’s CrimeWatch UK programme –- the location of the cars remained a mystery until Noble’s MD, Lee Noble, received a call from someone calling himself ‘Tim’.
'Tim' claimed to know the whereabouts of the stolen cars and demanded a large cash payout to reveal the information. But Noble was having none of it: “I sensed that the guy was desperate, having had no luck in selling the cars on in the last five months. But on the other hand, one of the cars contained some bespoke development parts which were of value to us. I offered him £3000 cash and he reluctantly accepted it.”
Noble was told to drive to a TGI Friday restaurant on the Coventry by-pass, no more than 12 miles from Noble’s factory. “I thought we were being met there,” said Noble, “but I received another call in which I was sent on a wild goose chase all around Coventry – these guys obviously wanted to know that the police weren’t in tow.”
Noble and colleague Colin Bayliss finally met two men on a bridge over the A45. “They were as suspicious of me as I was of them – they even checked that the child locks were off on my BMW before they got in the back and directed us towards a row of council lock-up garages a couple of miles away.
“The men got out of the car and opened one of the garage doors to reveal a silver Noble. But I had to know that both of them were there, so I locked myself (and the cash) in the car until they opened a second lock-up, revealing our blue press M400 – still showing its original number plates! I wound down my window, handed them the cash, and then watched them run off, scaling a ten-foot high wall as they did so; they didn’t even count the cash.”
Within an hour, both cars were back at the factory. Apart from a missing stereo, they were found to be untouched and only required their batteries charging and a thorough valet.
Summing up the futility of such a theft, Noble said, “Cars like these are too unusual to sell on once they’ve been stolen. The low-volume sports car market is such a tight-knit community that someone is bound to spot a vehicle of dubious provenance a mile off.”
Tripps said:
Glad to hear Lee and co have found these two, I was at the factory a few weeks after and it was obvious the staff were really gutted about it.
Lets just hope the other one turns up soon in a similarly good state.
I thought the other one was recovered from the ditch the scrotes put it in while driving away from the factory.
Anyway, glad Lee and party are ok. Sounds like these idiot thiefs didn't have a clue what they were doing.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but wasn't it possible to get the police involved in someway (perhaps you did but it wasn't mentioned in the write-up).
Could you have taken a plain clothed policeman with you, or send two instead of yourself and colleague (did the scrotes know what you looked like)?
Idiots like this deserve to be behind bars.
Graham
Why no police involvement?
Why not carry some sort of weapon?
Why not be tracked by the police?
There must have been someone inside TGI's who made the call.
On the face of this report(IMHO)These scumbags clearly aren't very well organised or intelligent and to accept £3k months after stealing them is desperate to say the least.
Glad to see Lee Noble got the cars back but,on the facts presented,i think he did the wrong thing
This can't be all that happened.
>> Edited by iansull on Wednesday 11th May 15:54
>> Edited by iansull on Wednesday 11th May 15:58
You must ask the question as to why the police wern't involved, were the cars insured and had the insurance company paid out after these cars had been 'missing' for so long, who owns/rents the garages, but surely the main point has been missed that these scrotes have just made £3,000 for doing absolutely nothing.
Yes they may have been involved in the theft, or they may have just found where they had been abandoned, either way that £3,000 for very little work. Who are the idoits? Noble for not having trackers etc, and for handing over £3,000 to a couple of louts, the police for not catching them originally, or the guys that have just run off with £3k?
The lock-up garages were owned by the council and not allocated.
People will pass judgement on the unconventional method used to recover our cars, but:
a/ it's no different to us offering a reward on CrimeWatch for information about the cars, and then having to pay out to someone who may or may not have been involved in the original theft;
b/ Noble is a tiny company, and the theft of over £100k's worth of cars (plus the damage to the stolen-recovered car) affected us badly, not forgetting the inconvenience of it all. NO progress had been made in finding the cars after five months, so you can be as principled as you like, but if an offer like this is offered to you, how can you honestly turn it down?
Simon Hucknall
Press Officer
Noble Automotive Ltd.
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