Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (2025) Season 1 Episode 1- Episode 1

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Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (2025) Season 1 Episode 1- Episode 1  Please Follow Me! Thank's for watching...

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00:00car crime is at a record high across the UK there's a car stolen every four minutes

00:17leaving families feeling violated there's people in my house and more than likely they're not here

00:29for a good reason 50 seconds was enough time to reprogram that car so that they had control of

00:35it and we didn't but an army of investigators are fighting back the car is actually parked just

00:41there by fitting vehicles with high-tech trackers can't tell you what the devices look like or where

00:46we hide them so they can trace track it's a cat and mouse game now we just have to follow that

00:51signal and snatch them back from the crooks who took them there you go there we go got it before

00:55they're sold on or shipped overseas they're called organized crime groups for a reason

00:59they're organized they plan this stuff today when a stolen car linked to a string of robberies is

01:12live tracked somebody in this can you find the police it leads to a pursuit through South London

01:19and the hunt for a three-ton excavator stolen digger behind this fence winds up in an unexpected

01:31location I mean this is really rare to find one in the back of someone's garden like this

01:37some criminals steal vehicles to avoid detection as they carry out their illegal activities but some

01:49hire them they switch cars regularly making it harder for the police to trace crimes back to them

01:55Sierra echo 14 yeah today trackers Alan Mike and Neil are in convoy they're on the trail of a hire car

02:05linked to a series of offenses in Manchester we're 2.2 miles away yeah we're the same 2.2 like most

02:14hire cars the Land Rover is fitted with a GPS tracking device giving its precise location it's a Land Rover

02:21discovery it's on hire to a male it's been seen at one street robbery but it's been linked to a number

02:29of other offenses we don't know how many at the moment the hire car should have been returned but

02:35it's now 200 miles away in central London Neil and the team are planning to snatch it back what we're doing

02:43today is trying to track and locate the vehicle first of all and speak to the police to say right this

02:49is where the vehicle is we won't be following around all day it'll just be a case of trying

02:52to trying to physically locate it have eyes on it so we can speak to the police directly and guide them

02:58in they suspect the man driving the Land Rover is a known criminal we've been told that the guy's got

03:06a marker for possession of an offensive weapon and also a drugs marker which again suggests that he's been

03:14found in a position of some sort of drugs potentially he may be out at the moment committing robberies we

03:19don't know as they close in Mike's updating Greater Manchester Police we're tracking it we're a mile

03:27away from it at the moment so we're just making towards it now but as the vehicle is now on the

03:33patch of the Met Police they may also need a heads up on the situation if there's only one of them on

03:39board we'll probably wait for it to stop and then snatch it back I think if there's more than one

03:43one then we'll ask the Met to deploy and intercept it the GPS signal has come to a standstill this

03:51could be their opportunity is it still stationary Mike was he moved standby yeah it looks like it's

04:00stationary ignition still on we're two minutes away now I think we're a mile away from it at the moment so

04:05we're just making towards it now Neil's now within range he's looking for a grey Land Rover Discovery

04:13parked in car to place so we're just turning to car car to place is a dead end according to the

04:20tracker this is where the hire cars located yeah I think we've got the car yeah we're with the car now

04:30let me just see somebody in it can you find the police somebody in the passenger seat the driver's

04:38likely to come back at any moment so Neil's not taking any chances we'll wait for the place to come

04:45now and hopefully all right okay I'll talk to me yeah okay so it's just on your right now you see the

04:53person in the passenger seat the police are just minutes away it is a bit of a waiting game because

04:59obviously we don't know where the person's gone but he's left somebody in the car looking after the

05:04car which is what we thought but we've got two cars now looking at the vehicle so if it does move

05:11we'll be able to update the police there's someone approaching the vehicle I think he's I think he's back

05:19right he's on the move your male's just going to the car and we think they're with that Mercedes

05:27so the car's just driving off now so Mike at the moment is on the on the phone to the police keep

05:35greater Manchester later it looks like they've slipped through the net yeah he's going left three

05:41in front but not for long we're still eyes on it's about a hundred yards ahead of us GPS trackers

05:56make it easier to locate and recover a stolen car GPS is accurate to within three meters and can be

06:04used to track a vehicle in real time these trackers also record other data such as how the cars being

06:12driven and whether the ignition is on or off vehicle trackers often don't just rely on GPS they use radio

06:22frequency or RF tracking which unlike GPS continues to provide a signal if the vehicle is hidden from

06:29view in a lockup underground car park or shipping container RF signals are also extremely difficult

06:37for criminals to jam on the south coast Richard Taylor from theft recovery specialists Automatrix has

06:50received a call from a plant hire company saying one of their three-ton diggers has been stolen near

06:56Nottingham with the report they've identified that the machine has been off hired and gone to collect it but all

07:06they found was the security plates of the machine on the floor so there was no machine there so we've

07:11operated the M track and put it into alarm and that's reporting a sales site approximately 50 miles away near Coventry

07:19thieves are known to use a modem to pick up or sniff out a SIM card signal the track is sending signals

07:28all the time and it's trying to communicate all the time it can be a signal giveaway sort of scenario

07:33where if they're using some sort of sniffing device to sniff the SIM card they could pick up the signal so

07:40it's it's quite a good tactic to put a thing into a sleep cycle so it's silent radio silent while he's not

07:47receiving a GPS signal Richard switches to a radio frequency receiver to help him locate the excavator

07:53he stops at a supermarket just outside of Coventry to fit an antenna to the center of the roof hopefully

08:02we've got the RF signal when we get down the road great the antenna is connected to a receiver inside

08:08the car once he gets close enough he should be able to pick up an RF signal well now we've got the

08:15antenna on and we're listening now for the RF signal it could be that the GPS does come in and

08:21then the office will call me if that's the case but what we've got to go on at the moment it's the phone

08:26mask location we head towards the postcode of the phone mask location and then with the roof antenna on

08:33we'll we'll start cranking up with a larger gain on the adjuster and to see if we can pick up that RF signal

08:40once we pick up the RF signal it says it's game over really we're going to get to the asset no problem at all

08:46Richard is starting to pick up a strong signal close to a housing estate in Coventry

08:52yeah every time I try and find this RF stronger I'm losing it so we are up quite high here so there's a bit of work to do yet

09:04he transfers to a handheld receiver to get a more accurate signal and begin searching the estate

09:12we use the roof antenna to first pick up the signal bingo we've got the signal but then we've got it as

09:19loud as possible or if you or we're doing a visual as well and we can see well look it looks like it

09:23could be in there time to alight from the vehicle get handheld out and home in on it but could a three

09:31tonne digger really be hidden near these houses it's not really giving me a clear direction it could

09:37be a lot of bounce in this area I mean it is very residential so um it will bounce off walls and

09:43things like that okay so what I didn't do is go around the back of here Richard's had no luck so

09:51far so he explores some wasteland at the back of the estate it's definitely not in here is it

09:58later Richard suspects the thieves have dumped the tracker I would only expect to find the tracker

10:07not the machine in a residential area like this and police backup arrives

10:13it's estimated that over 300 cars are stolen every day with many shipped abroad or sold on to unscrupulous

10:25buyers the criminals are smuggling them out of the country at ports such as Felixstowe today in a

10:35bid to crack down on organized car crime there's a multi-agency operation led by Navsis the National

10:42Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service welcome everyone to Op Alliances I'm Sid I'm the Intel Manager at Navsis

10:51also from Navsis is Sharon Norton head of Navsis and Adam is here from Navsis I'm the Felixstowe officer

10:58so I cover this port and Harwich the other side so the intention is to open up a number of containers

11:04at UK ports obviously we're here at Felixstowe we'll be opening containers over the next couple of days

11:10Navsis is privately funded so we rely on the private sector to provide sponsorship and funding for all of

11:19the work that we do so what we're trying to do is work with UK policing partners and private sector

11:25partners to stem the tide of vehicles being stolen and then we move to ports for export overseas so

11:32this is the final destination for those vehicles to be stopped on UK soil with UK resources and it's not

11:40long before they make their first discovery a shipping container destined for Africa has two vehicles

11:47in it and the first task will be identifying them to confirm if they're stolen at the moment all I'm

11:55noting down is the registration and with the vehicle that's come out and then we're going to do some

11:59checks to find out the true identity of that vehicle Adam inspects the first car a Lexus NX 300 to help him

12:08ID the vehicle he looks for the VIN number which serves as the car's fingerprint most cars have

12:15various places where they have the vehicle bin so the vehicle identification number a 17 digit number

12:21and they have it in various places most people will know that they have something in the windscreen but

12:26they also have it stamped into the body of the vehicle and they're the things if somebody's trying

12:30to change the identity the car that's the things that they will look to change to try and make out

12:34that it's something different my job is to check if they're a factory finish or whether they're the

12:39work of somebody afterwards a VIN number stamped into the car's metalwork is hard for thieves to

12:45remove but it doesn't stop them from trying the people who've tried to make this a clone they've

12:51printed a sticker and stuck it over the top but they haven't even printed the sticker long enough to

12:56cover the original number so some of the digits are still showing also a lot of cars now we didn't go

13:01into the menus and you go into vehicle identification it will throw up the VIN as part of

13:06the vehicle ID some criminals have worked out where to change that so everything that the

13:14manufacturers come out with the criminals have to look for a workaround don't they and Adam reveals

13:20another sign that indicates the car's been stolen one of the telltale giveaways on this one that

13:25something's up is that steering lock still on the steering wheel makes you think okay something's not

13:30right here and it proves that you can still drive the car with the steering lock fitted they just

13:35cut through it with a battery grinder and it just cuts through it like butter by using his tricks of

13:41the trade Adam can confirm the Lexus NX 300 has been stolen and where it was taken from that one

13:49we've identified as a stolen vehicle stolen from West Midlands area on the 18th of July this year the

13:55West Midlands will be notified it's here we'll also speak to the insurance company because chances are it's

14:00already been paid out it doesn't belong to the victim anymore once the insurance company pay out

14:04it's their property they'll arrange for collection gets sold on put back to its original ID so all

14:10the stickers will have to be put back to to factory and that'll be back on the road after running some

14:15checks the second car is also confirmed as stolen it's been going well obviously we've done the one

14:22container now we've had two stolen vehicles from within it both stolen from West Midlands area it's

14:27been a busy morning at Felixstowe port and they've intercepted another container it's packed with

14:34white goods bicycles and two small cars but they're hiding something much more valuable we were aware

14:42that there's the two little cars at the front which are just there to disguise stuff basically same as

14:47the bush bikes in the fridges and we're now getting to the cars at the back and it looks like we had a

14:52win one of the cars is a Range Rover Velar worth around 80,000 pounds in the same container there's

15:00a white Lexus strapped to the roof they've obviously put the two vehicles that they want to hide at the

15:08back of the container and in front of that they put a lot of fridge freezers old washing machines in front

15:14of that they've put some other old cars in there that are not worth anything and then there was a

15:20load of bikes as well that are behind me and they'll get a lot of these fridges freezers and washing

15:25machines working again but it literally is as padding as much as anything else and packaging an identity

15:32check reveals that both cars have been taken from the London area it was stolen from the Met it was

15:41stolen on the 7th of August this year so it was eight days after the other vehicle that was in the

15:46container as well and they keep on coming another suspect shipment reveals two Toyota Hilux but these

15:57car smugglers didn't bother with packaging it's a trend we're seeing a lot of at the moment Toyota

16:03Hilux has got this one another one now coming out of the box these seem to be being stolen in big

16:10numbers at the moment mainly because the final destinations Africa and these are perfect for

16:16the roads in Africa so there's a big demand for cars that have got that off-road capability but

16:21also they they still come with it as you can see a level of luxury to them now well we do know that

16:28the offenders currently are targeting certain makes and models of vehicles we're not saying that these

16:34vehicles are any easier to steal than any other vehicle clearly the offenders have got a market in

16:41mind and probably buyers that are lined up to want particular vehicles for whatever reason here alone

16:50just as a rough estimate but that's the best part of 200,000 pounds worth of cars just here in this road

16:57six cars so I'm not bad daily office in one week as part of operation Alliance Adam and his colleagues

17:05retrieved 316 stolen cars with an estimated value of over four million pounds depriving them of their

17:15it all gotten games anything that we stopped getting to the end is still a win for us because

17:20it's one car they haven't got one car they haven't profit from if you accidentally buy a cloned car you're

17:31likely to lose your money so if you're shopping for a used car follow these simple steps to confirm

17:39it's genuine ask to see the v5c logbook and check the details match the motor check the vin the vehicle

17:50identification number in any locations where it can be found and look for any evidence of tampering

17:57including scratches or other damage check the mot history online and make sure it's up-to-date

18:05be wary of buying from online marketplaces and if you're using a private seller always ask to see

18:15the car at their home and check their address matches the one on the log book lastly pay for

18:24the vehicle with a credit card or bank card for extra buyer protection in central London Neil Thomas and

18:43his colleagues are tracking a Land Rover hire car which is linked to a number of street robberies in

18:48Manchester the target vehicle is being live tracked by Alan and Mike and Neil is getting regular location

18:56updates he's still in front of you I don't think he isn't he yeah let's see there's more than one

19:05suspect in the car so they'll need the police to intercept we're just waiting now for greater

19:13Manchester police to speak to the Met police just to say that the vehicle is on the move now they've

19:18confirmed that there's a an interest marker on the police national computer the plan is for the Met

19:25police then to hopefully speak to a starter cleaning to set the vehicle in the meantime we'll follow it

19:30around we can we can remotely track it as we've been doing and we're not gonna get too close I think

19:35he's turning left no no straight time they don't want to let the target out of sight but need to

19:44keep a distance we've got to make sure that we don't get detected so we can't get too close yeah we're

19:52still eyes on it's about a hundred yards ahead of us so the socket vehicles at the traffic lights

19:57with bad luck at the traffic lights the target vehicle disappears from both tracker teams line

20:08of sight taking left yeah yeah I'll go right gonna locate the vehicle again now with the technology

20:21just activating another covert tracker when the GPS signal stops Neil knows the vehicle has parked up

20:29he says so la la cafe la la hard stop on it I would say we don't go yeah yeah the tracking team swoop in

20:43it may not be safe to approach the suspects so Mike calls for backup I'm with the tracking company

20:53who owned the vehicle and we are directly behind it at the moment so ideally we need someone to come

20:58and intercept it no they're still stationary with at least two on board the police is coming to this

21:06location hopefully they can come here just before that the car moves off there we come get yourself ready

21:20this is just blocking the road for our vehicle we'll speech and I'll do that what they need to do

21:26Alan briefs the police on the situation we can't get a hold of the client however that we don't believe

21:35it's the client driving plus we know it's been used in crime because greater Manchester police rang us

21:41yesterday and said that it's been used in street robberies up there which we tracked it up there

21:47for and then it's come back down south today the driver has disappeared so the officers question the

21:54passenger Manchester police believe this has been used in crime up back up there so we're going to

22:03require you to give us your details we're very fluid at the moment so we're just waiting for the police

22:08to do their bits and then hopefully we can recover the vehicle the passenger has been asked to remove his

22:17things from the car I think the gentleman is just let's just say taking his time but the police then

22:27realise he's in possession of the car keys

22:29with the car keys recovered the police take the

22:59suspects details and let him go well we eventually get the clearance from the police we're going to

23:05take this back to a local depot where we'll research the vehicle and hopefully then after that we can go

23:11home looks like it's mission accomplished for the tracking team the police have released the

23:19vehicles to be recovered back to the transport our job is to get the cars back on behalf of the customer

23:29and that's what we've done so the car is safe the police will liaise with each other and you know

23:35hopefully they make some arrests but you know as far as we're concerned we've done our job and we've

23:39helped the police as well which is good and you know we've helped in our own little way the victims

23:44of these street robberies because you know we felt bringing hopefully the people to justice back in

23:57Coventry Richards on the hunt for a digger reported stolen by a plant hire company but he's concerned

24:04the thieves may have removed the tracker from the machinery and dumped it they can pull a tracker

24:10off without tripping the tamper mechanism and you know just stick it underneath another vehicle chuck

24:19it on the roof of the house or a garage throw it in a garden so you know even though we're looking for

24:24what is going to be the excavator we have to bear in mind hold on is it going to be the excavator or

24:30could it be the tracking device on the floor the police have been called as backup just in case

24:37that piece of turned up and we just checked by the cricket club nothing there

24:46the radio signals getting louder and Richard's colleague makes a discovery it's there next your

25:02next garden you can just see if you look between them two posts you can just see the ramp it's in

25:09the next one along yeah you see it Richard if you look at the fence post the red one on the grip but

25:16what you can see the arm some good news we've just had one of the engineers spot it across from not

25:24this garden but another one behind here so we're gonna shoot over there and have a look and that's a

25:29big relief because all these other places we've seen we're thinking thinking we're going to end

25:33up with a trapper on the floor but he spotted something so let's go and see what's going on

25:37only 10% of stolen plant machinery gets recovered so if this is the excavator that's a great result for

25:45Richard all right tarpauling over it can we keep this in your garden stolen digger behind this fence so

26:03officers are going to go around and arrest the well if I say arrest they're going to question them this is

26:10an excellent opportunity for the police I mean most of these recoveries when we go out and find these

26:15stolen diggers and dumpers and rollers they're they're in wasteland or they're in the woods or

26:20they're somewhere tucked away nobody they're not on private property I mean this is really rare to find

26:25one in the back of someone's garden like this the excavator is boxed in behind the garden fence so

26:32the question is how do they get it out the police went round the front and knocked up the owner of

26:38this house I mean I didn't even look like though that that back fence panel came open but it there

26:44was a mechanism to undo and it just looked like a normal static fence panel but it was actually like

26:48a secret door to stash stuff in but there's the story that's coming back is that the the owner of this

26:55house is is saying that he had nothing to do with the theft of this machine he's not involved anywhere

27:01along the line it's not very often you see that in someone's back garden yeah 722 8 on 8 that's all

27:13one number so it so it what the police were sort of relaying to me was that in their conversation with

27:19the owner of this property he had a document with him which identified that he had legitimately agreed

27:29to some sort of contract to to rent his garden for this for this excavator the machinery is removed

27:36from the garden once it's checked and given the all-clear it will be returned to the owner I couldn't

27:44see any damage it looked pretty pretty much like it could go straight back to work tomorrow it was

27:49good to come out and and and find that machine in in relatively a short period and the relief for

27:55me was that it wasn't a tracker on the floor it was the machine under the tarp it could have been

28:00a tracker on the floor and I wouldn't have been so happy

28:19for you

28:31yeah

28:34yeah

28:35yeah

28:36yeah

28:37yeah

28:38yeah

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