EXCLUSIVE: Full story of how a determined ex-MoD mechanic got one over car theft gang ... Audi R8 worth £65,000 stolen from Stirling ... but after scouring Edinburgh in 'needle in haystack' search he FINDS his beloved car

A DETERMINED driver whose uninsured £65,000 Audi was stolen from his garage was astonished when he tracked it down 40 miles away.

The sporty R8 was swiped from the Stirling home of Ronnie Hutton at 4.30am on Thursday, November 23.

Police told him the car had been seen driving into Edinburgh so he and a friend embarked on a ‘needle in a haystack’ mission to find it.

At 3pm that afternoon, Ronnie discovered it stashed on a street in Colinton.

The retired Ministry of Defence mechanic, who served in Afghanistan and spent nine years saving up for the Audi, said: “I knew it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack but it’s my pride and joy and I had to do something.

“I’m a very happy man. People are asking me for this week’s lottery numbers.

“My friend runs a vehicle recovery business so he knows the most common areas where stolen cars are hidden.

“We had a list of around 15 postcodes and I started at one side of the city and he went to the other.

“We began around noon and after a few hours I was beginning to give up hope.

“I phoned my friend to say we should just knock it on the head but he encouraged me to try on last postcode, which was EH13.

“We figured the thieves would leave it somewhere affluent where it would not look out of place.”

Ronnie, in his everyday Nissan Micra, drove into Scald Law Drive in an upmarket new estate that is not yet on online maps.

He said: “It was around 3pm and as I turned into the street I caught glimpse of a red car roof and new that it was my Audi. I was so excited.

“It was parked neatly next to an expensive block of flats. The police told me that if I found it, I shouldn’t touch or move it, so that it could be fingerprinted.”

Ronnie, 60, had been alerted to the theft by a neighbour who saw four men arrive in another car before taking off in convoy.

He said: “In the half hour it took for the police to arrive, I was getting increasingly concerned because these guys could be watching from the flats or appear at any moment.

“I decided to just move it down onto the main road. I’m absolutely delighted and relived.

“I believe it would have been stolen to order and had I not found it, it would have been in a container and over the sea.

“I worked hard to pay for it and I wasn’t going to lose it to a bunch of scumbag criminals, especially as it was not insured while it was off the road for winter.

"I only drive it in summer and then only insure for 1,000 miles each year."

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Police in Forth Valley are investigating following the theft of a vehicle from Stirling.

“The incident was reported around 4.35am on Thursday 23 November.

“The vehicle was recovered later that day in the Edinburgh area and inquiries into the circumstances are ongoing."

A version of this story was first published in the Daily Mail and Herald newspapers on November 25, 2017:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15683552.Mechanic_tracks_down_his_stolen___65_000_car/

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