The Nigerian saying, ‘Every day is for the thief, but one day is for the owner’, perfectly describes the events that took place over the weekend. After almost a decade, 30 luxury vehicles that were stolen between 2016 and 2017 have been recovered and are being returned to their respective owners in the UK. I guess we can say that the day for the owner(s) has finally arrived.
According to BBC, the perpetrators would acquire the stolen vehicles via hire-purchase agreements, air freight them to Singapore with false papers and then ship them to Thailand. The total cost of the heist is believed to have a value of almost 8 million USD, approximately 13 billion naira. The ‘day for the owner’ was brought about by an investigation dubbed ‘Op Titanium’ by the UK’s National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS). NaVCIS spent the last seven years tracking down the cars with the help of Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI).
In all honesty, this whole plot seems like something straight out of the Fast and Furious franchise. Vin Diesel going rogue and The Rock being the NaVCIS that busts his operation. I must say, kudos to those who orchestrated the heist, because the cars involved are really nice sports cars. Nonetheless, we do not condone car theft at 234Drive. All but 5 of the 35 vehicles that were stolen have been recovered, according to Road & Track. Among the cars stolen were a handful of BMW M4s, a Lamborghini Huracán Spyder, a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 and three pieces of one of my dream cars, the R-35 Nissan GT-R.
The story of these 30 missing cars is something of a unicorn, because more often than not, when high-end vehicles like these are stolen, they are chopped up for parts or shipped overseas. In such situations, these cars are lost to the wind with no hope of recovery. However, the perpetrators of this crime probably thought they were in the clear and decided to reveal the cars as they were before getting caught.
Not too long ago, Olamide of 234Drive covered another vehicle theft story. In this story, a Rolce Royce Cullinan and Mercedes Maybach GLS were reportedly stolen. With so much automobile theft going on lately, I asked myself a pertinent question. With the influx of ‘tokunbo’ cars in Nigeria, how sure are we that we are not driving stolen vehicles?. So, as I conclude this article, I ask you my dear reader, are you driving a stolen car?
