Three men have been charged after a £4,000 quad bike was stolen from an Aberdeenshire home yesterday.
Terry Field, of Newmachar, woke up to the sound of his dogs barking and yelping in the middle of the night, but dismissed it as the animals being alerted by a neighbour’s car.
But when the 69-year-old got up, he discovered the green Yamaha Kodiak he and his wife Eileen use as a quad to tend their eight acres of land and four horses had gone.
Mr Field described the raid – which took place at about 3am in the morning – as “audacious”.
However thanks to swift police work, the quad bike was traced just a few miles away in the Longhills area of Newmachar.
It is believed the culprits broke into a shed near the stables on Mr Field’s land, and removed the equipment attached to the bike before making off with it.
Freelance information management consultant Mr Field said: “I am most concerned about how they knew about the quads and where they were.
“The irony is I have been trying to start mine for two weeks and the thieves have driven it off.
“I only spotted it after I’d been working down the stables area. It wasn’t until I got past the last stable that I noticed ‘there is nothing in there’.
“The annoying thing was the dogs were barking like hell in the night and I was telling them to shut up.
“It has got to have taken them 15-20 minutes to do what they did. Then they had to push the quad past the stables.
Last night police said three men – two aged 24 and another aged 18 – were in custody and had been charged with the theft of a quad bike in the Newmachar area.
They were also charged with stealing hundreds of pounds worth of power tools and of breaking into a shed.
They are expected to appear in Aberdeen Sheriff Court today.
