I kind of have a Cossie theft story. Had a 400bhp RWD Saff a few years ago, parked on my driveway in East London. Two other mates had RWD Saffs and we all lived within a couple of miles of each other. Never got any trouble and didn't think twice about leaving it on my drive, (naively) didn't think Cossies got nicked anymore and it had an alarm and Tracker.
Anyway, out a couple of nights before and driving it hard like usual the diff broke (planet gears that time, went through 4 diffs in 4 months in that car) so parked it up on the driveway as usual. Came out the next morning at 8am and bugger me if but it was gone! Couldn't believe it!
So rang the Tracker company, and then rang a couple of mates who know some more 'questionable characters' shall we say. We soon got an anonymous call back saying the car was in a lock up near to my house!
Still didn't hold much hope at this point but went round with a few mates looking in local lock up sites. About to leave the third one we tried and lo and behold, my mate notices a garage that's had the locks broken off. Genuinely couldn't believe it when he lifted the door and my Cossie was behind it! Pushed it out with smiles on our faces...just as the Police turned up - the Tracker had just found it.
At this point I was pushing a stolen car out of a garage, so rightly so the Police told me to freeze. I explained I was the owner and it was my car. But did I have my wallet on me to prove that? Would you believe, no!
Luckily, being as the car was literally 1/4 mile from my house my dad popped round with the wallet and all was OK!
Best bit is that looking at the car, they had started it (and when you see how they steal a Cosworth it's scary, no wonder so many went missing. Literally, ANYONE could do it within 2 minutes with nothing but a screwdriver, a hammer and a piece of wire) but obviously tried to drive it off before realising the diff was fucked and it didn't drive!
Although clearly the car was stored in a lock up to see if it had a Tracker, but at least they didn't ever drive it
Pics when I found it:
EDIT: Might had that to Pistonheads actually as reading back I suppose it is quite relevant.