Three cars stolen during two burglaries were recovered in rapid time – thanks to quick-thinking Newark officers.
The response team managed to track the vehicles down in a matter of hours, despite having little to no leads available at the time.
Undeterred by this, officers responding to the break-ins used a range of policing tactics to zero in on the locations of the cars and return them to their owners.
The response team was initially called to Cotgrave following reports that intruders had broken into a house and stolen a set of car keys at around 5:20 am on 1 February.
These were then used to steal the vehicle parked outside in Meadow Crescent, with police notified just after 7:30 am that day when the burglary was discovered.
Despite limited lines of enquiry available, officers managed to track down the car and other stolen belongings within it in under an hour – discovering it in De Havilland Way, Newark.
While conducting house-to-house enquiries, officers were then informed by a resident on the street that their home had also just been broken into, with two vehicles taken from outside.
A window was reportedly smashed to gain entry to the De Havilland Way home sometime between 6 am and 6:15 am on 1 February.
Within the space of two hours, however, officers had traced both vehicles to separate locations across the county border in Long Bennington, Lincolnshire.
All the cars have since been returned to their rightful owners.
Police are still in the process of identifying who was responsible for the break-ins and are now appealing for anyone with information to share it with them.
PC Tom Mead said: “We were really pleased as a policing team to make these vehicle recoveries within a matter of hours of being told they’d been stolen.
“This was despite there being very few lines of enquiry available when we were first made aware of the burglaries, and two of the stolen cars actually being in a neighbouring county.
“While it represented a good result for all the officers involved, the real winners were the victims of these offences, who have thankfully now had their vehicles and property returned to them.
“This was an example of what a bit of good teamwork and proactive policing can achieve, and we hope it reassures the public how seriously we take reports of this nature and how committed our policing teams are to helping victims of crime.”
Detective Constable Liam O’Kane added: “We are still in the process of trying to establish who was responsible for these break-ins and car thefts, so we would ask anyone who has any information about who could be involved to share it with the police now.
“Likewise, we want to hear from anyone living in either area targeted who has any CCTV, dash-cam, doorbell, or other footage that could be relevant to the investigation.
“This can be reported to the police by calling 101, quoting either incident 145 or 160 of 1 February 2025. Crimestoppers can also be contacted anonymously with information on 0800 555 111.”
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