Thieves who made off with nine Audi TT’s from an Audi dealership were foiled by a security system fitted to some of the cars.

Six of the vehicles, with a combined retail value of £240,000, were fitted with Tracker systems and were recovered within 24 hours.

In the early hours of the morning, the gang popped the sills of a window in the Audi showroom without triggering the alarm. One of them crawled across the floor, dodging the infra-red security beams, and took around 60 sets of keys from the storage cabinet.

As the drivers headed off, they realised that the cars’ petrol tanks were almost empty. The convoy pulled into a garage to fill up. The unusual sight was enough to alert the garage operator who made sure the incident was caught on CCTV.

Audi employees arriving for work at around 9am the same day immediately contacted Tracker.

The police found the six cars fitted with Tracker in Rainham, Essex that afternoon and subsequently made six arrests. Two out of the three vehicles not fitted with Tracker were found later on, the last one is still missing.

(Source: The Sunday Times)