EXCLUSIVE Father whose £13,000 Range Rover was stolen from Essex finds it 5,000 miles away in Tanzania

A father-of-three whose Range Rover was stolen from his driveway was 'gob-smacked' to see a tracker on the car two months later placing it 5,000 miles away in Tanzania.
James Munday, 44, said he had expected never to see the £13,000 2014 Range Rover Vogue again after thieves used an electronic 'key' to open it outside his house in South Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, Essex last November.
'I'd been working on my boat late at night', said James, who operates boats in the River Crouch near his home.
'I parked up as I always do and went to bed. When I got up, the car wasn't there, but we could see really grainy images of the lights flashing on our CCTV camera.
'I had bought a few Apple Air Tags and put them in some of the family cars and pieces of luggage and when I looked at the tag for that car, it was disabled just at the time of the theft, around 6am.
'I later found out that was a security feature of the tag after women were having them placed in their bags at nightclubs, allowing someone to follow them home. Now you get a message on your phone telling you there's a tag in the near vicinity and you can disable it remotely.
I reported it to the police but there wasn't much they could do, so I filed an insurance claim and eventually got the money. '
It wasn't until two months later in February that James idly checked the tag on his computer and to his astonishment, saw that it had somehow reactivated.
'I was absolutely gob-smacked, just staring at the screen in disbelief,' he told MailOnline in an exclusive interview.
'I could see that in the intervening couple of months, the car had gone through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea and into the Indian Ocean, crossing the Equator and ending up at the docks in [Tanzanian capital] Dar-Es-Salam.
'I called my wife Claire and said 'you remember when you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro? Well, my car's pretty much ended up there!'
Ever since February, James has kept a close eye on the car, and remarkably, the AirTag is still working.
'It's moved a bit, but I think it's now somewhere near a car dealership. As I've been paid by the insurers, it's not really my car any more anyway, but I'm still amazed that anyone went to all that trouble for a car that wasn't worth that much in the first place.'
A tracker on the car two months later placing it 5,000 miles away in Tanzania
After a few months, James posted a screenshot of his car's journey on a Facebook group called the Dull Men's Club – and was inundated with replies and interest.
'There were all kinds of people commenting and a few approaches from the media,' he said.
'I'd been a member for a few years, but had never posted on there before. Usually it's people trying to outdo themselves with the dullness of their posts, but I thought they would be interested in mine.
'Then after a few hours, the post disappeared, so maybe it wasn't dull enough for the club!'
One aspect of the theft which does still rankle with him though, is a hat he left on the back seat, which has sentimental value.
'I bought it as part of a matching pair with my dad,' he said. 'It was a 1922 Bailey flat cap, and I'd like to be reunited with it, and I can't imagine anyone wearing one in Tanzania, so I'd like that back if possible!'

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