Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Man chased down car thieves in pyjamas as gang stole £50,000 of vehicles

Post Thumbnail

An Aberdeenshire father-of-two dressed only in his pyjamas chased down a gang of thieves as they made off with two of his motorcycles and a quad bike in a stolen car.

Police investigators yesterday said they believed “organised groups of youths” from Aberdeen could be behind the theft of £50,000 worth of vehicles from properties in Newmachar, Kintore and Oldmeldrum in the past week.

Among the vehicles stolen were Wayne and Michelle Yule’s red Honda quad bike, Kawasaki CX-125 and a children’s DR 50cc.

They were taken from Newmachar yesterday morning – with the brazen thieves using an orange BMW X1 stolen from Kintore on Wednesday.

The BMW belonged to Mike and Linda Clark, and had been specially adapted for her Parkinson’s disease. Thieves also made off with Mr Clark’s “pride and joy” Lexus RX300.

Mr Clark, 57, said he and his wife – who have just moved to Kintore from Lossiemouth to be closer to their family – “didn’t hear a thing” as the thieves took their cars.

He added: “My wife’s car is a disability car. It was pretty naff of them to do that.

“The Lexus is my pride and joy really. They are just scumbags these people, I am just really annoyed.

“We didn’t hear a thing, we went to our bed at about 11.45pm and the car was still there. We got up to take the dog for a walk about 8.45am.

“I noticed my car was gone, I thought somebody was playing a prank actually. I thought maybe I have parked the car around the corner and forgot about it.

“I had two boxes in the back of the car, the boxes had a few personal papers. They were dumped at the end of the road and a man, I don’t know his name, picked them up and took them to the police. That was good of him to do that.

“The mystery I am dying to know is how on earth they had got into the Lexus. It is very difficult to get into a Lexus, extremely difficult.”

 

Mike-Clark-2

Both vehicles were recovered in the Cairncry area of Aberdeen yesterday – after the BMW had been used for the Newmachar theft.

Mrs Yule, 31, described how she and her husband had been woken up at about 5.45am yesterday after hearing the roar of the quad bike’s engine in their back garden. She alerted her husband, who sprang into action.

Another of the stolen bikes
Another of the stolen bikes
The red Honda quad bike which was stolen
The red Honda quad bike which was stolen
The Yule family on their beloved bikes
The Yule family on their beloved bikes

The thieves threw the bikes into the back seat of an orange BMW whilst another made off in the quad bike.

Father-of-two Mr Yule chased them as far as Dyce before losing them in the rush-hour traffic.

Mrs Yule said: “We were all asleep, we actually heard the quad bike getting started and I just jumped out of bed. I could see our gate was open at the back. I woke Wayne and said someone is in the shed.

“My knuckles were bruised from knocking the windows so hard. Wayne actually chased after them.

“He followed them into Aberdeen but lost them at Dyce, they were in the opposite sides of the road, running red lights, he couldn’t follow them.

“We knew we had to do something now before police got here, then it could be too late. They just flew through Aberdeen.”

Offshore worker Mr Yule, 33, added: “I lost them in Dyce. Our bikes were hanging out the back of the car. I wasn’t speeding, I kept them in my view. The quad bike is not all that fast.

“I am angry. We all used the bikes, that is the most gutting thing of all. We are not selfish, if they have asked for a shot I’d have given them a shot.”

Another motorcycle was taken from Burnwood Drive, Newmachar, yesterday morning.

A white Audi A6 was also stolen from Green Way, in Oldmeldrum, on Tuesday at 3.30am.

Last night Inspector Jamie Harrison said the thefts were being treated as linked and that officers were working hard to “prevent any more crime from happening”.

Detectives and the Aberdeen police division are conducting a joint investigation into the incidents – which Insp Harrison said “bears all the hallmarks of Operation Ruby activity”.

Jamie-Harrison

He said: “For a while it has been very, very quiet on the Operation Ruby front. I think maybe some of the people have been locked up. There hasn’t been a lot of Ruby activity for a while, this has been an unfortunate spate of it.

“When these crimes come in what we do is we undertake a coordinated search for where these cars may be. We have got some positive lines of inquiry.

“We have got too many of these cars being stolen. Some advice we are trying to hammer home are about vehicle security and home security.

“We could be looking at organised groups of youngsters from Aberdeen. This goes to show people are organised and looking for specialist types of vehicles.”

Last night politicians called for the police to “ramp up” Operation Ruby again to ensure the culprits are brought to justice.

Aberdeen Central MSP Kevin Stewart said: “They need to accelerate Operation Ruby once again. I think the police have to stamp down really hard to bring Ruby back. We have got to show folk if they are going to take part in this type of crime, there is going to be fairly hefty punishment if they do so.”