All seven cars stolen in a raid on an Aberdeen dealership have been recovered, police revealed last night.
Thieves returned to the Arnold Clark Ford garage in Lang Stracht several times to take the cars, worth more than £120,000.
Last night, police confirmed all the vehicles had been found within miles of the dealership.
CCTV footage revealed how the gang of three, who were all wearing balaclavas, made several attempts to wrench open the locked gate to the yard at around 11.30pm on Wednesday.
Manager Gary Copland said once into the yard they forced open a fire exit to get into the building.
The trio then managed to open a locked key cupboard in the workshop, identified which cars belonged to which keys and laid the keys on top of the cars before forcing a lock on a roller door and driving off with two vehicles – a new white Ford Focus and a used grey Vauxhall Astra.
They also stole a silver BMW X5 from a lane outside the workshop. They returned 15 minutes later in the Astra they had just stolen and drove off with two more cars, repeating the process again until they had seven.
They made a third and final trip and were caught on CCTV walking through the showroom and rummaging through tills before turning their attention to more cars.
Images showed the men opening car doors and switching on lights. One tried to prise open the showroom’s roller door before a passing police car frightened the group, who dropped to the floor to avoid being seen.
After trying to start the showroom cars again the trio fled to the workshop, where they slid under the roller door and drove off in the Astra.
Police have since found the cars, all of which were undamaged. Four of the cars: a grey Ford Focus, which belongs to a customer, a white Ford Focus, a white Ford Focus Zetec S and a silver BMW X5 were found in the Woodburn and Woodend areas of Aberdeen. The grey Astra was found in Castleton Way, Aberdeen, yesterday afternoon. The blue Ford Kuga and a white Ford Focus were found respectively in Bethlin Mews and Wellside End, both in Kingswells, in the evening. Police would not say if keys were found with the cars.
Detective Inspector Matt Mackay said: “We're delighted we've been able to trace these cars so quickly.” Anyone with information can call police on 0845 600 5700.