By Brendan Rees
The owners of a $100,000 luxury sports car were left gutted after their pride and joy was pinched from Cranbourne West on Thursday, 31 March.
Keith Sloan was devastated to find his home broken into at about 2pm.
He said intruders had ransacked his home where they made off with jewellery and his Holden HSV GTS that was parked in the driveway.
Minutes later, his wife Nicola posted a post on Facebook’s Casey Crime Page about the burglary and the stolen car.
“Within five minutes a lady sent a message saying that she was pretty confident the car was in her street, parked in the driveway,” Mr Sloan said.
He said he called police before jumping in a spare car and racing towards Taplan Crescent in Cranbourne West.
“I was pulling into the street and saw the car sitting in the driveway with a bloke with his head under the bonnet,” he said.
“Within 30 seconds the police were behind us. As soon as the bloke saw the cops and us turn up, he bolted.”
Mr Sloan said the man jumped over a nearby fence. “We’re driving around the streets to see if we could locate him.”
At this stage, he said the air wing and dog squad where also on scene, searching for the man.
“It was funny how they caught him in the end,” he said. “They roughly knew where he was from the air wing but they couldn’t quite locate him.”
“He turned up to the house where he was which wasn’t his place to use his friend’s mum’s phone. So when he’s run off he still had her phone in his pocket.”
“So the police have asked this lady ‘What’s your phone number?’ and rung him back, pretending to be the friend to try and save him going ‘Where are ya? Where are ya?’.”
He said the man yelled out to a passer-by asking which street they were in thinking his friend would come pick him up.
After the man told police on the phone that he was in Calais Circuit in Cranbourne West, “Four divvy vans have then gone and got him,” Mr Sloan said.
A 20-year-old Pakenham man was arrested at the scene.
The man has been charged with theft of motor vehicle and burglary and remanded to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 8 June.
Mr Sloan was grateful for the quick response by Narre Warren police.
“The cops were amazing. Senior Constable Pope and Acting Sergeant Buxton – their response was absolutely phenomenal.”
He added if it wasn’t for the Casey Crime Page, “There’s no way we wouldn’t been able to find it (car).”
