A woman tracked her stolen £30k car using an app but claims police told her to pick it up – and officers would “meet her there”.
Alexandra Vlad woke on the morning of February 6 to find her Lexus UX gone from her drive in Newham, East London.
She immediately checked a tracking app on her phone and discovered the last location in Hackney – around six miles away.
So Alexandra, 32, called the police and gave them all the information – but alleges she was then told to go there to get the car.
She says the whole ordeal made her feel “unsafe”.
Alexandra, who works in corporate finance, said: “I was more shaken by the experience of dealing with the police than the car being stolen itself. I told them what happened, and that I could see the last location of the engine. They told me they wouldn’t be there for at least an hour. It was a dodgy part of Hackney. I felt unsafe.”
Alexandra says the police advised her to go and see if her car was parked but told her not to approach if someone was in it, and to call them when she was there.
She believes they put her in a dangerous position, and says they showed little regard for her safety.
When she arrived at the scene, her car was parked up.
She said: “I called them and told them it was there – they said that’s great! Is it running?”
Alexandra, who is originally from Romania, decided to take matters into her own hands and approached the car.
She found it totally empty – with no petrol left and lights on the dashboard flashing.
She said: “I had no idea what I’d find inside. Drugs? A dead body? The police just told me to go to a garage. It was really unhelpful – it made me more anxious.”
Alexandra is speaking out as she is unhappy with her treatment by a public body.
She said: “I was baffled. You pay taxes to pay for police – just to leave it to us to sort out. What are we even paying for?”
The Metropolitan Police said: “On Tuesday, 6 February we received a report that a car had been stolen from outside a house in E13. The owner later contacted us to say she had traced the car and collected it. Enquiries continue.”
