A LONDONER whose car was stolen was allegedly told by the Met Police to recover the vehicle himself as they didn’t have the manpower.
George Nicolas had his vehicle stolen from outside his home yesterday after the thieves removed his steering lock with an angle grinder.
Luckily George had installed a tracking device in the car and rang up the Met to inform them of the motor’s location.
However, George claims he was subsequently told that the force “didn’t have anyone available” and instead recommended that he recover the vehicle himself whilst he knew where it was.
Without any further options, George hopped in a taxi to the location in South London, coughing up £70 and having the taxi driver hang around just in case anything went wrong.
Thankfully, he managed to recover the vehicle without help from the Met and with minimal damage done to his motor.
George shared images of his damaged car to social media after venting at the lack of assistance the Met offered him.
The images show his steering lock bar cut clean in two and dumped in the back of the car along with several interior carpet panels being ripped up and scratches on the exterior.
After George safely brought the vehicle home yesterday he posted the images to social media with the caption: “In other news the car was stolen this morning early hours.
“Dirty thieving b******s used an angle grinder to release the steering lock and had a go at disabling the factory tracker, but they didn’t find my other lines of defence and I tracked it down to South London.”
George then later added further context: “Informed the Met Police where it was located and that it had been stolen.
“They said they didn’t have anyone available and that I should go and get it back while I still had a live location.
“£70 taxi later and thankfully very little damage done. The taxi driver waited just in case.”
The images and posts gathered 1,300 likes and over 170 comments from social media users outraged that he was forced to recover the vehicle on his own.
One user said: “So utterly shocking. But sadly, not surprising. The Met would have been right on it if you’d have put a St George’s flag in it or Israel flag. Glad you got it back.”
Another added: “Good job you had a tracker fitted…Otherwise your car would be on a cargo ship. Thieves normally dump the car to see if it’s got a tracking device fitted.”
A third wrote: “Jesus you could have got hurt doing that. I wonder what would have happened if you had injured somebody that tried to stop you taking it back.”
Another replied: “Done you a favour. If they’d picked it up, would charge you the cost and storage fee – more than your £70 taxi ride.”