Monday 6th December 2004

Tracker works for stolen M3

Early morning car chase ends with crooks caught in Beds

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Paul Bateman, wife Katrina and 15 year old daughter, Kimberly slept soundly as three armed men broke into their Aylesbury home at around 4am recently. Taking the keys to the house, van and car, the men executed their well prepared plan and left as quietly as they had entered. The gang then turned their attention to the two-year-old BMW M3 parked in the drive.

The stolen car keys rendered both the alarm and immobiliser ineffective. The men then began to push the £28,000 car down the road. Their intention was to make it far enough out of earshot before starting the engine and completing the heist. They were unaware that hidden inside the vehicle was a Tracker unit.

A neighbour from across the street had been woken by her young daughter crying in the middle of the night. On the way to tend to her child, she witnessed the whole event. Very sensibly, she didn’t turn on any lights or alert the gang to her presence. She calmly phoned the police, outlined the events and waited.

When the coast was clear, she came across the road and woke the Batemans with the astonishing tale. Paul immediately phoned Tracker HQ. He said: "I spoke to the people at Tracker and quickly told them what had happened. They quoted me an incident number and calmly told me to try not to worry. Then I phoned the police. Before I’d finished the first sentence, the officer told me that the Tracker unit was already activated and that the police were hot on the trail of my car and the thieves."

Unbeknown to the shaken family, a helicopter had been deployed, roadblock set up and police sirens screamed at the still country air. Winding the 25 miles from Aylesbury to Luton took the expert driver of the stolen vehicle 18 minutes, averaging 83 mph. With the powerful car, capable of 150 mph, in the hands of a reckless crew, police wisely dismantled the roadblock and continued the pursuit.

The car thieves were finally run to ground on the Uplands estate in Luton Bedfordshire, just over the Bucks border. They abandoned the car and tried to make their escape on foot, but were captured shortly after.

The Tracker unit was activated at 4:11am; the car was in the hands of the police at 4:30am. Paul Bateman said: "I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Tracker to anyone. It’s not often that a product delivers so completely. Tracker did everything that i was promised it would."

More than 580,000 vehicles in the UK use Tracker technology. Police have recovered over 12,500 vehicles worth more than £242m since 1993 and made over 1,600 arrests.

For more information, go here: www.tracker.co.uk

[CJN]

I wonder how many cars with tracker have never been recovered.

Answers on a postcard

[Alex]

A great result! But surely pro-car thieves are aware of Tracker and the usual installation positions?

[dans_fx]

So you have the choice of a tracker or not. Your car gets nicked. Okay they could be pros, or they could be petty theives. What are your chances of ever seeing your vehicle again, with or without a tracker. My guess is you will never see it again without one.

[craigrevell]

Wonder if the CEO of Mercedes had one fitted to his Merc, that was stolen within 20mins of parking it.......

[pdV6]

Alex said:

A great result! But surely pro-car thieves are aware of Tracker and the usual installation positions?

The unit is tiny. Could go almost anywhere.
Not worth ripping the car apart to look for something that may or not be there; usual scheme is to leave the car somewhere quiet and unmolested for a day or two to see if it gets picked up. Which is nice.
Factor in the possibility of there being Monitor or Horizon installed and you may not have time to go looking for the unit(s) anyway...

[arcbeer]

Best thing about this story is not so much that you get the car back but that the thieving b@stards who stole it were arrested.

[thepeoplespal]

arcbeer said:

Best thing about this story is not so much that you get the car back but that the thieving b@stards who stole it were arrested.

Yep.. that 20 hours community service will really cramp their style.

[Adam B]

the happily ever after ending should have been:

"and the apprehended villains were duly lined up against a wall and shot"

not knocking Tracker but hope they paid PH something for this advert masquerading as news

>> Edited by Adam B on Monday 6th December 12:51

[Mr E]

thingy said:

Winding the 25 miles from Aylesbury to Luton took the expert driver of the stolen vehicle 18 minutes, averaging 83 mph. With the powerful car, capable of 150 mph, in the hands of a reckless crew, police wisely dismantled the roadblock and continued the pursuit.

Eh?

[macg]

Adam B said:

not knocking Tracker but hope they paid PH something for this advert masquerading as news >> Edited by Adam B on Monday 6th December 12:51

Couldn't agree more. It looked suspiciously like one of those "Advertisement Features" that appear in car magazines. I think Volkswagen are one of the current culprits.

Come on Ted... enough with the subliminal advertising!

[Badapple]

lets hope the tw@t insurers start to recognise them more then!
My last 2 cars have had them & no discount on policy

[docevi1]

would you even want your car back though?

[squirrelz]

Badapple said:

lets hope the tw@t insurers start to recognise them more then! My last 2 cars have had them & no discount on policy

Well it is a bit OTT on a Y reg escort

Only kidding

[humpbackmaniac]

Along the same lines, would you want the car back? Will the owner be compensated for the tyres wear and tear etc and the devaluation of now oning a stolen recovered vehicle?
i know if someone stole my bike I would not want to recieve the steaming mess back. Ok if its a mondeo but not a performance vehicle which these units are designed for.

[rich-uk]

'three armed men'

Unless they were walking around brandishing shotguns in full view of the neighbour, how did they know they were armed?

[pdV6]

rich-uk said:

'three armed men' Unless they were walking around brandishing shotguns in full view of the neighbour, how did they know they were armed?

Er, I guess any weapons were either seen by the witness (neighbour) or found by the police (they were caught).

[Scott W]

I wonder if Tracker would have actually realised the car had been stolen if it wasn't for the victim calling them?

Do not get me wrong, I have a Tracker on my car, but I have heard/read about a large number of cars being stolen from people's houses with the owners keys (i.e burgled whilst the owner sleeps) and Tracker never knowing about the car being stolen until the unit has been found in a hedge somewhere.

[pdV6]

Scott W said:

I wonder if Tracker would have actually realised the car had been stolen if it wasn't for the victim calling them?

Not quite sure what you're saying... Tracker can't magically know if a car is stolen or not if the thief has the keys, can they? Even without the keys and a Monitor installed, Tracker would still have to call the owner to confirm that it wasn't on the back of an AA van, for instance. In this case, the owner was lucky that the neighbour spotted the scroats in the act.

[jconsta6]

I had a tracker in my Esprit. Although I never needed to use it I was conforted twice by them ringing me up. The first time was when I left it at the garage for a service overnight. The garage locked the car up overnight and then set about working on it in the morning. When they moved the car vertically Tracer recognised this and they phoned me at work. It was nice to know the guys had started working on my car at 8:20 in the morning! I did phone to double check.

The other time I left the alarm off as it was being moved on a transporter - I knew it would be activated if it moved while the ignition was off so I deactivated the alarm - it still registerd.

So the point being if the scroats try and roll your car out of ear shot - it will be activated whether they have the keys/alarm or not.

The only thing that has already been mentioned is the stolen recovered bit. Is this FACT? it makes sense but seems to negate the whole point of getting your car back?

Can anyone clarify?

JC

[johnny senna]

jconsta6 said:

The only thing that has already been mentioned is the stolen recovered bit. Is this FACT? it makes sense but seems to negate the whole point of getting your car back? Can anyone clarify? JC

I agree. I wouldn't really want my car back if it was stolen because it knackers the value. But on the other hand, if Tracker returned the car to you, you wouldn't lose your no-claims bonus either and that is probably more important (for me anyway).