 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.”
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