A great spot by our officers helped reunite a man with his car after it was stolen when he became ill at the roadside.
The victim was driving through the Broxtowe area when he suddenly began to feel unwell, so decided to pull over.
He then rushed from the vehicle to be sick – leaving the car unattended in Denton Green with the engine still running.
The man then returned a few seconds later to find to his horror that his Volkswagen Golf was being driven away.
This happened around 7pm on 25 September, although as it turned out, it didn’t take too long for the owner to be reunited with his car.
That’s thanks to our City West officers spotting the vehicle as they waited to leave Broxtowe Police Station, around 1.35pm on 26 September.
Believing the car to be the one stolen the day before, neighbourhood officers started trailing it and witnessed it make off at speed.
The vehicle, which was later confirmed to be the stolen Golf, was found abandoned in nearby Halifax Court soon afterwards.
After conducting extensive local inquiries, the City West neighbourhood policing team managed to identify three teenage suspects.
Three 16-year-old boys were all subsequently arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle on Monday (6 October).
While detaining one of the boys – suspected to be the one driving the stolen car on 26 September – police also discovered large quantities of cannabis.
Based on this, the suspect was additionally arrested on suspicion of possessing with intent to supply Class B drugs, failing to stop, and other driving offences.
PC Jonny Morgan, of the City West neighbourhood policing team, said: “You can imagine how distressed the car owner was after this happened, so we were really pleased to be able to return his vehicle to him.
“That was possible thanks to the awareness showcased by our officers, who immediately spotted and recognised the car as it passed by just metres away from our station.
“After trailing the vehicle and finding it abandoned, our team conducted extensive inquiries in the days that followed that ultimately led to us making three arrests, which was a great result.
“While no vehicle owner should have to worry about being targeted by thieves, the sad reality is these incidents do happen, so we’d remind people to always secure their cars before leaving them unattended.”
