Officers find stolen van within 25 minutes of being stolen

Officers from the dedicated vehicle theft team recovered a stolen van 24 minutes after it was stolen in South Staffordshire yesterday (Thursday 15 December).

The Vauxhall Vivaro van was stolen whist the owner left it to defrost in Codsall and called us at 8.30am. The van contained all of his work tools.

We later traced it and found that it had been abandoned in Church Crescent, Essington, at 8.54am and recovered for forensic examination.

Anyone with any information or CCTV footage of the area at the time is asked to get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, or by calling 101, quoting incident 108 of 15 December.

If you’d like to report anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Detective Inspector Pete Cooke, of CID, said: “Don’t make it easy for opportunist thieves - they don’t even have to go to the trouble of breaking into your vehicle if you have left it running for them.

Your insurance company may not pay out if your vehicle is stolen in this way.

“If you need to defrost your vehicle, ensure you stay with it and don't leave it unattended with the keys inside.”

To read more on our work in tackling vehicle crime across Staffordshire, visit: New dedicated team appointed to tackle vehicle crime | Staffordshire Police

For important crime prevention information on how you can best protect your vehicles from thieves, visit: Preventing car and vehicle theft | Crime Prevention | Staffordshire Police