A woman has revealed how brazen thieves sneaked into her house to steal the keys to her luxury car while she was in bed.
The silver Mercedes ML320 was stolen from Aberdeen’s west end between 1am and 4am yesterday.
The thieves appear to have sneaked into the house in Annfield Terrace and grabbed the car keys before making off with the motor.
Police launched a hunt for the car, which was spotted in Kincorth and Portlethen before being recovered abandoned in Stonehaven last night.
The car owner, who does not want to be named, also put an appeal out on social media and last night thanked both the police and public for their efforts in finding her 4×4.
The mother-of-two said she normally locked her front door, but had left it open for her daughter who was out without her keys.
She said: “At about 2am I thought I heard her being dropped off, but she sent me a text saying she was staying over at a friend’s house so I worked out what had happened.
“They must have come in, grabbed the keys from behind the door, and worked out which car was mine.
“They did not come into the house very far otherwise I would have heard.
“I always lock my door. Someone else on this street has had people break into his house on two occasions, so they must either try my door lots or got very lucky this one time.”
The car was found abandoned in Stonehaven at about 7pm last night. A police spokesman said last night nobody had been charged in connection with the incident.
The woman – who was hopeful yesterday afternoon that the thieves had just taken her car for a joyride, and that she would get it back – said: “I feel so relieved, hopefully they haven’t left it in too bad a condition.
“I haven’t got the car back just yet because the police have to check it over.”