Bournemouth daughter turns detective to find dad's stolen car

Amateur detective Becky Harrington says she wants to study criminology and law after the experience

A woman who turned detective to find her father's stolen car said she has been inundated with requests to find other missing vehicles.

Becky Harrington, from Bournemouth, got frustrated after police failed to make progress finding the £12,000 Jaguar which was stolen in July.

She managed to find the car four miles away after using social media and scouring CCTV.

Dorset Police said inquiries to identify the offenders were continuing.

The Jaguar XF was stolen from the Bournemouth home of Ms Harrington's father

Ms Harrington, 32, said her father woke to find his car missing on Sunday 24 July and contacted police.

"But I just wasn't happy with how they dealt with it. I'm pretty savvy with social media so I put it in 45 odd groups and before I knew it was being shared all over the place, it just went everywhere," she said.

"I thought nobody is gonna walk down the street and not know about this car. If we were still waiting for the police, my dad would have no car."

Ms Harrington eventually found the abandoned 2020 Jaguar after going through CCTV from petrol stations and local shops.

The car was found with rubbish in the footwell behind a block of flats about four miles from where it was stolen

The experience has inspired the mother-of-two to study criminology and law at Open University.

"I've been approached by somebody asking me to help find their son's stolen BMW and other people have contacted me asking for help," she added.

But she said she was "less than impressed" about how the police had dealt with the investigation and was convinced a gang was responsible for the theft.

"Twenty-four hours after I'd told them it had been found I got a call from the police and the woman said it was still marked as stolen," she said.

Dorset Police said: "Local officers made a number of attempts to visit the victim and consequently made contact with the victim's daughter, who then updated the police that the vehicle had been recovered.

"As part of the ongoing investigation, officers carried out house-to-house enquiries in the vicinity of where the vehicle was located and have successfully obtained significant evidence."