AN OUTRAGED woman whose car was stolen got a ticking off from police after she blasted the thieves on Facebook.
Lesley Ross ended up on the wrong side of the law after police said her furious comments about the thieves on the site were “offensive”.
Officers took screengrabs of posts on the site while the car was still being driven at high speed through Aberdeen by the thieves.
To add insult to injury, she later learned via Facebook – not the police – that the top-of-the-range car had been burned out.
Like many victims of crime, Lesley reacted angrily to the theft.
She blasted the thieves with a string of expletives and added: “Hope they wrap the car round a lamppost and maim themselves.”
And while she admits the wording may have been have strong she is astonished police gave her a lecture as the thieves were driving around in her car.
Lesley, 27, was visited by two officers late on Monday night while her partner Ricky Strachan was out searching for the missing £25,000 Audi RS4.
The couple’s car was stolen on Monday morning while Lesley was at work and Ricky had gone to a garage to with another one of his cars.
Lesley said: “I got a text message from him saying he was pretty sure he’d seen his Audi getting thrashed past the garage.
“He said he was off home to check and 20 minutes later he phoned to say the Audi was gone.
“They had broken into the house in broad daylight to get the key.
“We have dog flap, just an over-sized catflap, for the dog.
“They had kicked it in and crawled through to unlock the back door.
“Ricky and I were both carrying keys for the Audi but they stole the plastic dummy key.
“They are usually stashed away in the glove-box of the new Audis but we had it removed and stashed in the house in the cutlery drawer.
“Ricky phoned the police. They logged the call and said they’d let their control room know.
“They came out and dusted for fingerprints and took a statement from Ricky and off they went.
“I then turned to Facebook to appeal for help in tracing the car.
“I can’t believe the power of Facebook, it was amazing.
“I put a photo of the car up telling people to phone the police if they spotted it.
“Within 20 minutes it was all over Facebook. Every 15 minutes I was getting a call telling me of a new sighting.
“A mate even phoned me to ask if I was getting chased by the police.
“The Audi had been seen with a police car behind it in the Bucksburn area of the city.”
Furious Lesley told FB friends: “Just seen on Queens Road by a friend so the little ***** are still in Aberdeen with it.”
She also posted: “It’s been seen with 2 guys in it on Queens Road, Northfield, Bridge of Don and St Machar!
“Why can’t cops catch them? They have stolen my Range Rover spare key too. Are they planning on coming back?”
She added: “I wasn’t at home. Ricky and dogs were out too.
“They must have been keeping an eye on my house – can’t believe they broke in.
“Feel sick thinking about it. Hope they wrap the car round a lamppost and maim themselves.”
She also posted: “They also took the spare key for our Range Rover which I’ve now had to lock it away in case they come back for it.”
But Lesley’s Facebook fury earned her a ticking off from cops when they visited her to update her on the investigation.
She said: “There must be hundreds of posts all over Facebook regarding my stolen car, which is great.
“About 10.30pm two police officers appeared while Ricky was out looking for the car. They said they were here to give me some advice about the way I was ‘handling things on Facebook’.
“I said ‘You’re here giving me into trouble about what I’ve been writing on b****y Facebook?’ I was so angry. They kept saying they just had to advise me and they were all over my laptop taking screengrabs.
“The female officer wrote something in her notebook and made me sign it.
“I asked them to clarify that I was still the victim here and not the criminal. And she said ‘We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got everything covered’.”
But, shortly after the police left her home, Lesley and Ricky looked on Facebook to see their car had been dumped in the city’s Cove area and set alight.
Last night, Lesley, a logistics co-ordinator with an oil firm, said: “The cops came back to the door after 1am this morning to tell me what happened. To add insult to injury we were told we had get the car collected ourselves.”
Lesley said that a gang of neds have their own “AberdeenBoyz Stig Ftp” site which is dedicated to car crime.
She fumed: “These neds are all over Facebook bragging about what they’re doing.
“They are all commenting on the photos. I can’t believe it’s being allowed to happen.
“I’m out at a dealer about to spend a small fortune on new key to protect my Range Rover from this scum.
“And I get the police coming round telling me to pipe down on Facebook basically while my car was being set on fire.”
Grampian Police confirmed they had received a report of an Audi RS4 being stolen from an address in Newmachar, Aberdeenshire.
A spokesman said: “An investigation into the theft is under way and inquiries are currently ongoing.”
He added: “During the course of the investigation, suitable advice and guidance was offered by officers to one of the owners of the vehicle about the content of some social media posts they had made following the incident.”
