'How an app helped me retrieve my stolen £40k car'

A woman who traced and retrieved her stolen £40,000 car has said she fears reprisals from the thief but is glad she did it.

Mother-of-four Jacinta Batalha, 35, from Little Hulton, Salford, was awoken at 03:00 BST on 10 August by her son's shouts and was horrified to see someone stealing her car.

Sceptical when the police told her they were looking for the vehicle, she was inspired to search for it herself when a friend asked if the Audi had a tracker.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has been contacted for a comment.

Batalha said: "I worked hard to pay this for this car, so I was upset when I just saw a stranger take it."

She was alerted to the manufacturer's app by a friend who worked for Audi, and was amazed five days after the theft when it informed her the car was low on petrol.

She and her family then drove to an address 30 miles away in Blackburn, where the app said the car was.

At first she drew a blank, but after asking round in the neighbourhood one person sent her a video of her car with new number plates fitted.

"I was so shocked," Batalha said, adding a DVLA check revealed the plates were for a Volkswagen.

Later that day, the app revealed another location 20 minutes away in Colne, where she saw the car and recognised her belongings inside.

She got inside and decided to drive off in case the thief returned to it.

She said she then called the police, who said she should have contacted them first to prevent the contamination of fingerprint evidence.

Batalha alleged there was little follow-up from GMP.

When asked of the repercussions of being her own detective, she said: "To be honest, I'm not scared of these guys.

"I don't know if they're going to come, if they're going to try to recover the car again, because they still have the key.

"I sleep one hour a day because I always watch my camera to see if they can come again."

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