Trio of stolen cars recovered within hours of break-ins

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 were initially called to Cotgrave, following reports intruders had broken into a house and stolen a set of car keys, around 5.20am on 1 February.

These were then used to steal the vehicle parked outside in Meadow Crescent, with police notified just after 7.30am that day when the burglary was discovered.

Despite limited lines of inquiry 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 they were there conducting house-to-house inquiries, 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-based home, sometime between 6am and 6.15am on 1 February.

Within the space of two hours, however, police 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 any information to share it with them.

PC Tom Mead, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“We were really pleased as a policing team to make these vehicle recoveries, within a matter of hours of us being told they’d been stolen.

“This was despite there being very few lines of inquiry 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, while 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 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 type of footage that could be relevant to the investigation.

“This can be reported to the police by calling 101, quoting either incidents 145 or 160 of 1 February 2025, while Crimestoppers can also be contacted anonymously with information on 0800 555 111.”