The Land Rover Defender enters the top 10 list of most-stolen vehicles in the U.K. for the first time after a 57% increase in thefts since production stopped in January 2016.
Police in Essex recently assisted vehicle-monitoring company Tracker in the recovery of a stolen Defender just four hours after it was taken from the owner’s driveway.
It was fitted with stolen-vehicle-recovery technology and once this was activated, Essex Police and Port of Tilbury Police tracked the silent signal to a garden 25 miles (40 km) away in Grays, where they made an arrest.
Tracker Head of Police Liaison Andy Barrs says the end of production of the popular SUV has made it a major target for organized car thieves.
“Additionally, Land Rover Defenders are popular second cars, meaning they are often parked on driveways or stored in garages most of the time, making them sitting targets for thieves,” Barrs says in a statement.
He says the Essex theft demonstrated the efficiency of the thieves who had the vehicle for just four hours.
“The Defender had already been fitted with new wheels, so was probably about to be cloned under a new identity and sold on to an unsuspecting buyer or shipped overseas,” Barrs says.
The Defender entered the list at No.9. Audi dropped out for the first time since 2011.
Tracker says the high-end, all-wheel-drive BMW X5 reclaimed its place as the most-stolen and -recovered vehicle in 2016 as the company recorded a 10% increase in the number of recovered cars worth a combined £11.5 million ($14.4 million).
The X5 was the second-most stolen vehicle in 2015 after the Range Rover Sport, which ranked No.2 last year.
Barrs says the latest figures reveal a shift in the most desirable makes and models that thieves are stealing, but AWD models remain the most popular type.
The most expensive stolen car recovered by Tracker last year was a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG worth £120,000 ($150,255), followed by a Range Rover Autobiography and a Porsche 993, both worth £100,000 ($125,200) .
Tracker has more than 1 million vehicles fitted with tracking systems. Police have used the system to recover on average £1 million ($1.25 million) worth of stolen vehicles each month.
