Thieves have stolen a Suzuki Jeep from Wanstead by simply towing it away. Police admit the style of theft is unusual but are nevertheless warning residents to take note of the registration number of vehicles which are being towed, especially at night.
The incident took place in the Wanstead ward earlier this month.
Generally Wanstead and Snaresbrook wards are ranked average for thefts of motor vehicles, and as the diagrams from the Met’s Crime Maps site below indicate, the trend of the past three years is of falling incidents.
| CAR CRIME | WANSTEAD ward | SNARESBROOK ward | REDBRIDGE whole |
| NOV 2015 | 6 | 2 | 78 |
| DEC 2015 | 4 | 1 | 51 |
My car was stolen at the bottom of Nightingale Road during December, thieves jumped fences, smashed a door through, stole the keys, i’ve since had an alarm and CCTV installed as well as a tracker to my new car, I now never leave my car keys at home when I am out. It was scary and very annoying, the car was never seen again, The Police closed the case in 24 hrs.
Wouldn’t it be potentially more useful to also take the reg numbers of the vehicles spotted doing the towing, rather than the towed, in the event of a theft?