Do police ever find a stolen car

My uncle's stolen car was found undamaged, but that was a long time ago

Nowadays, I wouldn't very optimistic. Best not give your friend false hopes

Police found our stollen car within hours. Unfortunately it was found burnt out in local woodland though

The police have got better things to do like
handing out speeding tickets,
fining people for littering
escorting bailiffs when they evict people
that sort of thing.
hope you never get burgled you will never see one.

Had one motorbike found about 20 years after it was stolen when in was found in a junk yard in a sorry stare. Also had one returned after 3 years when some poor bloke had bought it without the documents then tried to tax it and it flagged up as being stolen. The police even suggested that I should let the new owner keep the bike as he had hade some work done on it.

so they do find them sometimes but more luck than judgement.

My mum's car was found after being stolen, about 20 years ago now. It had been used in a break in to a garden centre of all places and then dumped. The boot was full of things like Buddha statues and bird baths!

You can’t insure range rovers now as so many nicked and engines shipped out

No, police are useless.
I've been the victim of a car jacking where the car was never found, despite being seen on cameras.
And the victim of a motorbike theft. The bike was seen several times and reported to police. As the numberplate had been removed the response was...how do you know its your bike!
The worst part was the photo on social media of the bike next to a police car at traffic lights, with 'catch me' covering the reg plate. It was later used in a drive by shooting.
I later found out the police had recorded my husbands bike as the stolen one, it was left in the lockup.
Totally useless, incompetent police force here.

Generally they have cloned plates on them within seconds.
I know 4 people who have had cars stolen

1. very expensive car - no trace of. Assume stolen to order
2. cheap runaround, turned up the next day stinking of weed but fine
3. another cheap runaround, turned up a week later on cloned plates… was involved in a police chase and was crashed. The driver was convicted. (Though I think for drug offences rather than theft of the car)
4. a van, turned up 2 days later burnt out in a field

They found mine when it was stolen.

Well, to be more accurate, the fire brigade found it because the fuckers that stole it set fire to it.

They found ours, it was completely undamaged and we got it back from the impound lot a few days later. In our case it was a car stealing gang who pinch them then park them up for a few days to wait out any tracking devices - we got lucky that some police on the beat happened to spot it and the reg flagged up as stolen.

Expensive cars are stolen to order and are in a container and out of the country to places like Pakistan, parts of Africa etc within days. Others are stolen for parts.

Older cars are probably sold for cash with cloned plates and some are just stolen for joy riding and often then set on fire. I used to work with agents paid to try to recover them

They dont even look.

a relative if mine tracked and found his own.

My mums car was stolen a few years ago, the thieves broke in to get the keys.
Police weren’t really interested, the car was found 6 months later in a random street in London but the insurance paid out way before that.

Mine was found after about a month as it had been reported as abandoned by someone. But by that time I had bought another car.

My friends was, it was involved in a police chase though so there must have been more to it.
She was gutted she got it back, she hated the car after it happened (the thieves broke into her house for the keys) and couldn't wait to get rid.

I've got a great story. A friend of mine had his car stolen. Reported this immediately to the police. Nothing. No news or anything until months later when the police turned up his house. For what? For non payment of fines accrued after the car had been stolen.
Obviously, he soon put them right on that one but was flabbergasted they hadn't picked up on the fact that the car was registered with them as stolen.

They didn’t look for mine, but I happened to track it down about 12 weeks later as I received two fines for the same carpark, I went over and they had been parking there while at work. My insurance had already paid out, so I stole it back and then it took about four months to sort the insurance as they wouldn’t just let me send the money back, and in the mean time they wouldn’t let me drive my car, or insure another car with them, so I had to take out a new policy elsewhere.

If it’s an older car rather than something flashy that has been stolen to be sold, it has likely been dumped somewhere. Has your friend tried using social media, e.g. local Facebook groups, to ask whether anyone has seen it?

Yes but only because of the tracker and we got it back within the hour. They still managed to miss the thieves though!

Even if they do find it does she really want it back. I honestly wouldn't after someone else drove it, you don't know what they did in it.

Police don’t actively go looking - there isn’t the time / resources.

A marker is added to it on the database when stolen and the control room get a notification if / when that vehicle passes through an ANPR camera. If Police get one of these notifications and there is a police crew free to search the immediate area then it is sometimes located that way.

Otherwise it usually turns up after being involved in an incident / found abandoned.

it's either
stolen to order - you will never see it again
stolento order for parts - you will never see it again
stolen for joyride - you might be notified when the car is found crashed and burnt out

The police found my husband's car which had been stolen. It was wrecked and things stolen from it but he claimed on insurance and got a new car. Couldn't replace the stolen stuff.

Just to add, the police don't go out looking for stolen cars but they are very often used just to get from A-B and then abandoned; when found, the owner is traced through the number plate.

My dads stolen (very nice) motorbike was found and quickly returned (slightly damaged). That was 10ish years ago though.

Yes. When they are burnt out and on the side of the road. It’s even quicker if it has been crashed into something that people will report.