The owner of a BMW car who had his luxury convertible stolen in a brazen ‘frosting’ incident says he hasn’t slept since the theft of his “pride and joy”.
Police are probing the theft of the black BMW 4 series from a driveway in Glen Farg, East Kilbride at around 1.20pm on Friday, January 3 while the owner was defrosting the high performance car.
The 66-year-old, who does not wish to be named, had left the car engine running while leaving it to thaw as temperatures dropped last week when an opportunist thief jumped inside the vehicle and made off.
The owner bravely attempted to stop the perpetrator by grabbing the side of the bonnet, slamming his hand on the windscreen and running after his precious £15,000 motor which had a private registration plate and a distinctive chrome finish.
Speaking to Lanarkshire Live, he said: “I’d been defrosting the car. I can’t remember whether I locked it or not – I would normally lock it – and went back inside the house.
“My wife was in the kitchen watching the car as well and just as I reached the hallway she said ‘there’s someone opening your car door’.
“I yanked the door open and ran up the path. The car was facing the house so they had to reverse onto the road.
“By the time they’ve done that I’ve actually caught up with the car and got my hand under the bonnet. I gripped the edge and slapped my hand on the windscreen and shouted ‘get out! Get out!’
“But they just carried on with their manoeuvre and turned the car down the hill and sped off. I ended up running alongside the car as it sped past me and, at that point, I noticed there was a car immediately parked behind and it sped off up the road as well.
“It was a black Audi estate so they obviously had an accomplice that had dropped them off.”
Amid the recent cold snap, Lanarkshire cops are warning car owners to stay vigilant and not to leave their cars at risk of opportunistic thieves while defrosting them.
These thefts, called ‘frostings’, are happening within seconds of people leaving their cars unattended and officers are urging residents to keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles but more importantly, to remain inside your vehicle when it defrosting or switched on.
The owner added: “I don’t know whether they’d been watching it before, but a couple of the neighbours said they’d seen the black Audi turn into the street and before that go into the next street very fast, reverse back onto Calderglen Road and come back into our street.
“So I don’t know whether they had gone past the end of our street, noticed the exhaust and come to check it out. They seemed to be cruising the area anyway.
“My wife saw the figure coming between her car and mine and we were actually expecting an Amazon delivery so she didn’t think anything of it at first. She thinks it was a male but couldn’t give a better description than that.
“My face was right up at the windscreen but all I could see was a black hoody. It’s fortunate that I wasn’t injured because I had my hand on the bonnet and could have thrown myself onto it like you see in the movies but it didn’t look like they were going to stop.
“I haven’t slept well since, my wife has also had a disturbed sleep the past few nights.
“It’s been frustrating as well because there’s so many things that just had to be different. What really frustrates me is that I had the keys on me and I know that if the key’s not in the vehicle you can’t move it.
“BMW stopped making that model with a hard top so it was my pride and joy. I loved using it in the summer, any sunny day I had the roof down. I’m frustrated and just keep going over and over it in my head thinking what I could have done differently.
“Why did I even bother going out when the weather didn’t even warrant it. It wasn’t really necessary to defrost it because I wasn’t actually going out. I just wanted the car defrosted because it hadn’t been used since January 31st and there was a couple of day’s frost on it.”
On cold and frosty mornings, it might be tempting to leave your vehicle engine running and unattended while the windows defrost but many insurers will not pay claims if a vehicle is stolen in this way, even if it is in a driveway.
“I’m still waiting to hear whether the insurance will pay out as the engine was running”, said the owner. “I was only 15 feet away from the vehicle.
“The police were surprised at the time of day it happened as this type of crime generally happens early in the morning.
“They went round the area looking for doorbell footage so if anyone has any doorbell or dashcam footage from where they fled up Calderglen Road or out onto High Common Road please get in touch with the police.”
Police say enquiries are ongoing.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 1.20pm on Friday, January 3 we received a report of the theft of a vehicle from Glen Farg in East Kilbride. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”
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