Public help police thwart thieves' boat disguise

The narrowboat was painted white to avoid detection, police said

Despite thieves repainting a narrowboat and taking it dozens of miles away from where it was stolen, police said the power of Facebook helped them track it down.

The 40ft (12m) boat was taken at some point between 8 and 13 November in the Wilmcote area, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire Police said.

They quickly realised that, even with the low speed of narrowboats, they were faced with a huge potential search area.

But an appeal on Facebook led to hundreds of tip-offs within 24 hours and the boat was tracked across the country until it was found in Gloucester on Thursday.

During its journey, the boat was repainted white from its original red and black colours "in an attempt to disguise her", officers said.

The boat, which was stolen in Wilmcote, was originally painted black and red

Sightings of the stolen craft came in from Stratford, Bidford-on-Avon and Tewkesbury as the boat crossed counties.

The final tip-off said it had travelled through a lock into the Gloucester Dock area at midday on Thursday.

At that point, staff from the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester - who had heard about the theft and the latest sighting - took to towpaths in the area and found it.

No-one was discovered in the boat but detectives said they were confident "it won’t be long before we’re having a chat with them face to face".

The hundreds of thousands of people who saw the original post on Facebook were praised by the force for their help.

"The short of it is, we could not have found the boat without the incredible response from the people that live and work on or near the waterways, as well as the many other agencies that we are fortunate enough to work with", a spokesperson added.