Stolen Messerschmitt Recovered

This story just shows the power of a network of friends who are enthusiasts and dealers built up over the years I have had Microcars and Classic Cars in providing information leading to the return of my car and several arrests.

Recovered

ack in February I was told one of my sheds had been broken into and a rather oddly painted and equipped Messerschmitt taken. The intelligence gathered locally named a suspect, and the destination to which the car was sold too. This was reported to the police who seemed to suffer a great deal of inertia in doing anything about it — to the extent that I considered an "alternative" way of getting the rest of the information to recover the car as the thief was named, as was the general area in which the dealer who bought it resided. Rejecting that, I put out the info round the network of chums and clubs. Not all responded positively but soon more info flowed and a watch was placed on eBay since it was clear that unless I did the work to find the car for the police nothing was going to happen beyond their recommendation to claim on my non-existent insurance.

First up were some odd adverts based in Leicestershire but including sales from Brighton, Nottinghamshire and a scrap yard in Lancashire near the suspected destination of the stolen car. Quite what is going on here I do not know and the core business at least seems sound. I wonder if it is actually someone cloning auctions? Anyway, this was reported to the police to little initial interest.

Then some fellow put some even odder adverts for two ‘schmitts and a Bond Bug on eBay. These were clearly designed to be misleading and unhelpful. The pictures were from cars sold a year previously and in the Bug's case of two different cars. None were the cars advertised, as what few details were available did not match; no keys, papers, registration, no inspection possible and you buy it from a lay-by. The seller address was a university campus. This was reported to the police — now there was interest and a combined operation mounted from Cumbria. The guy turned out to be a car dealer and as such was arrested for deception as far as I can understand, though his story was it was an April Fools' joke.The guy turned out to be a car dealer and as such was arrested for deception as far as I can understand, though his story was it was an April Fools' joke. Meanwhile a search of properties was made and other factors considered, and the investigation is ongoing. With this notch on the nightstick an investigation is now ongoing on the previous case reported.

However, neither of these activities revealed my car. Then I had a call from a trader chum — my car was in a small dealer box ad in Classic Car Weekly. Onto Paula, the policewoman handling the case, and Cumbria swore out a warrant for the next day. The unfortunate seller had the car removed as stolen property and the car taken into ‘parc ferme'. He had paid a little over £1000 for it and had it sold to a guy in Essex for just under £4000. On the other hand, he bought it without keys or papers from a dodgy geezer, so you take your chancesOn the other hand, he bought it without keys or papers from a dodgy geezer, so you take your chances as many of us have I am sure. So he has lost his money.

It happened that I could collect the car on my Saturday trip up from Oxfordshire to start the build at the barn conversion in Cumbria. So I delayed till Monday to collect. On arrival it turned out I could not as the Lancashire police had failed to take fingerprints. So a wasted few days that could have been spent on the build. I then had to do the 140 mile round trip back to Carnforth to collect the now cleared car and then back to Aspatria on Thursday wasting another morning. Net cost was a few parts of the car gone missing and £150 to the contractors for removal of the car — good of them as they could have charged for a week's storage. Pays to be polite. Thursday afternoon Paula came out to the barn conversion in the middle of nowhere and we sat in a haystack to do my statement. It all dovetailed together rather well as the intelligence, local, national and collected during the seizure all pointed in the same direction with evidence to boot. It would seem she had done rather well out of the Bubble Detective Agency as I got the impression she might have been given the case as a dead end being a junior member of CID. In fact she looks like getting five nicks out of our efforts, which will upset the rest of the office who passed it up. We are due a meal out when I get back up there to find out what else happens.

So, out of all this what do we learn? First, crime has gone up in direct proportion to Gordon Bankrupt's failed social and financial experiment. Get those sheds and garages locked. With cameras so cheap it is worth fitting one that is timed to take stills or activate to movement in the store and just keep monitoring possibly via the net possibly. This technology has come in for industrial lets to spot tyre dumpers etc. with the agreement of tenants as it increases their security too. With pics the police are much more likely to act. Accept that a stolen car is low in their lexicon of tasks and you need to make the running as you are expected to claim on your insurance and go away. It is up to you to load the gun with evidence, pass it to them and then they attempt to fire it hopefully getting your property back with the first shot and then make a case with the remaining ammunition often added to once they are in pursuit.

Secondly make sure you hold an ironclad insurance policy. This can be a little bit more work than just taking an off the shelf policy as each of us have differing cars, parts and facilities. I failed to do this and I could have been out by some £5,000.

We should not underestimate the power of our group to find cars.We should not underestimate the power of our group to find cars. Indeed, with so many dodgy ads on eBay perhaps each marque car club should have a crime monitor watching for dodgy sales and report them to the police who have not the time to cover anything but the obvious on-line. As experts we can spot the lies and devious adverts. If it is generally known that nicking a microcar, or even any classic car, is a poor risk then people will not do it and we all gain not just security but cheaper insurance. Not sure how to take this forward across the classic car movement but perhaps the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs we belong to might be the way to generalise this suggestion as over two months we, as a group, have picked out some 10 dodgy adverts that are being investigated and already leading to some arrests. If nothing else it will sharpen up sales on eBay as there seems a great deal of lying or at least economy of truth with respect to cars put on offer.

My thanks to all who had input in getting my car back even if it was just looking and finding nothing.