How does one catch a thief? Just Google them.
A UK man redefined “search engine” when he used Google Earth to track down and recover his sports cars after they were pilfered from his driveway.
“I wouldn’t have got the Seat [the brand of vehicle] back if I hadn’t taken matters into my own hands,” Jayy Robinson, 23, told SWNS while describing his tech-tacular vehicular recovery.
The engineer recalled how he woke up for work at 6 a.m. Friday and went downstairs to discover that both his $28,000 Seat sports vehicle and his $19,000 Volkswagen Golf were missing from his home in Birmingham, England.
“I was devastated,” recalled the Brit, who presumed he’d never see his beloved cars again.
However, as luck would have it, a hawk-eyed friend named Jamie Pollin, 22, had spotted an ad for the stolen Seat in a Snapchat video, which included a blurred-out picture of his ride.
4 Google street view of the location where Jayy Robinson’s stolen Seat was found. Jayy Robinson / SWNS
That’s when the amateur sleuths decided to confront the thieves to try and retrieve the luxury whip.
Pollin reportedly began Snapchatting the pilferer, who demanded around $2,500 for the vehicle and attempted to gain their trust by being “friendly to them.”
Then, like an NSA surveillance team, the duo conducted a reverse image search on the building the car was parked next to.
Fortunately, it was located in West Bromwich, just six miles away from Robinson’s house in Birmingham.
The social media Sherlocks were able to pinpoint its location by spotting the name of the housing estate on the garbage bin, after which they used Google Earth to triangulate the precise street where the car was parked.
4 Robinson’s stolen Seat was pictured at the time of its discovery after being stolen Jayy Robinson / SWNS
With a solid lead in hand, the pair alerted the police and recovered the Seat, which they found “parked up with no one around.”
“I didn’t know what to say when I saw it, I was amazed, I tried my keys and the car unlocked straight away so I knew it was mine,” exclaimed Robinson, who was amazed that the thieves were stupid enough to leave “the car in the same spot.”
4 Robinson was amazed the thieves had left the car in the same spot even after knowing he was onto them. Jayy Robinson / SWNS
Robinson claimed that the West Midlands police weren’t as helpful as he would’ve hoped.
“I called them on Sunday and they said it [the car] was still pending allocation,” lamented the Brit, who thought the case would’ve never been solved sans their freelance social media sting operation.
However, the West Midlands police have since claimed that they “responded quickly” and “recovered the car for forensic examination.”
“It will be returned to him as soon as the examination has been completed,” claimed the authorities.
4 Robinson’s friend Jamie Pollin used a reverse image search to discover where the car had been taken. Jayy Robinson / SWNS
They added that they are conducting door-to-door inquiries and reviewing CCTV footage along the streets where the car was stolen in an effort to track down the culprits.
As of yet, Robinson’s Volkswagen Golf has yet to be located.
I used Google Earth to track down the thieves who stole my cars
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