‘I used Google Earth to track down my car stolen by car key burglars at my home in Birmingham’

A proud car owner was left devastated when he awoke to discover car key burglars had broken in and stolen his sporty £23,000 Seat and Volkswagen Golf from his home in Birmingham.

But tech Jayy Robinson, a 23 year-old engineer from Great Barr, and his tech savvy pal Jamie Pollin used the internet to track down the two cars. Jayy had posted details of the brazen theft on social media after being left "unimpressed" with the actions of police. Jayy said: "I was due to go to work at 6am, went downstairs and both cars were gone, I was devastated".

However an eagle-eyed friend called Jamie Pollin, 22, spotted someone trying to sell Jayy’s Seat on a Snapchat story which included a blurry video of the car parked up. Jamie began messaging the thief on Snapchat who was demanding £2,000 to return the vehicle and "gained their trust by being friendly to them."

Meanwhile, tech savvy Jamie helped Jayy do a reverse image search of the building the car was parked next to and managed to triangulate the location after spotting the name of a housing estate on a wheelie bin. The pair then used Google Earth to identify the exact street where the vehicle was parked before calling police.

After notifying police, Jayy was then able to recover the Seat which was found "parked up with no one around" in West Bromwich, just six miles away from his home in Birmingham.

Jay said: “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. I didn’t think they would be that stupid to leave the car in the same spot. I at least thought it would be in a different place.”

But Jay was less than impressed with West Midlands Police. He said: "I called them on Saturday afternoon for an update but they told me it hadn’t even been allocated yet. I then called them on Sunday and they said it was still pending allocation, I wouldn’t have got the Seat back if I hadn’t taken matters into my own hands."

Jayy’s Volkswagen Golf, worth £16,000, has still yet to be found. West Midlands Police said: "We received a call just after 6.30am on Friday (October 27) that two vehicles had been stolen overnight from Poole House Road, Great Barr. One of the vehicles has been recovered. Anyone with any information is asked to contact us via LiveChat on our website or call 101 quoting 20/936025/23."