Suffering at hands of car thieves
THE M.E.N’S NEAL KEELING ON HAVING TWO VEHICLES STOLEN
WE are now a two-stolen-cars family.
In March, my wife watched in disbelief as a thief sped away in her Volkswagen Polo from outside Broughton Baths in Salford.
The toerag – or an accomplice – had nicked her car keys from her coat pocket after sneaking into a changing cubicle at the pool while her back was turned.
As she was reporting the theft to reception staff, a figure jumped into her car and drove around her as she fled out to confront him.
The car was recovered after about two weeks in Cheetham Hill with a shredded front tyre and roughed up. It was written off by insurers.
In the boot were pillow cases - a telltale sign that it had been used as a runaround for a team of burglars.
Then, in the early hours of last Tuesday, it was my turn to become another GMP statistic.
In a highly professional job, a criminal snapped open the French windows of our rear living room at about 3.30am as we slept at our home in Whitefield.
He then, it would appear, knew exactly where to find the keys to my five-year-old Audi and drove it away without touching anything else in the house.
I have reported myself on the violent lengths car thieves will go to to get their hands on a car of a desirable marque.
Last month, police launched an attempted murder investigation after car thieves twice ran over a dad who tried to stop them stealing his partner, Collette Kunyo’s, Audi A6 S line from their home in Middleton.
Mark Aylmer, 44, suffered a collapsed lung, fractured skull, several bleeds on the brain, and broken bones.
My white Audi TFSI had 50,000 miles on the clock but was regularly serviced and would have done a job for me for another few years.
After spending a night with GMP’s Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit last year I can guess where it is - in a chop shop in an industrial unit in Greater Manchester, its parts stripped and shrinkwrapped ready to go to bent garages and eBay.
Or maybe it is parked in a shipping container en route to its new ‘owner’.
In October last year, I reported how a £50,000 Audi RS3 was found dismantled in a chop shop 40 minutes after being stolen in a violent carjacking in Oldham. By the time officers traced the vehicle to a building in Chadderton, it had been stripped ready for its parts to be sold on.
The anger that coursed through me lingers. Maybe a sniper’s nest set up in the bedroom is the answer. Or do I replace my little bit of luxury with the most boring, soulless, dull, dodgemsized motor on the market.
The officers who dealt with the theft of my car were refreshingly open. “It’s a plague in Greater Manchester”, said one describing car theft.
In 2014 there were 6,428 car thefts in Greater Manchester. By 2018 it had risen to 10,040.
The force has prioritised the fight against car theft as public alarm about the crime is reflected on community websites almost daily.
GMP is making a dent in car crime but to really dismantle it they need more resources. The Judicial System should also remember when sentencing the ripple affect that the actions of car thieves can have. Like the devastating injuries to Mark Aylmer.