Two Pendle men arrested after tracker leads police to BMW stolen from Clitheroe

At 6-15am this morning, a Clitheroe resident called the police to say that his BMW M3 had been stolen overnight from the driveway of his home.

"It is understood that the offenders removed a van parked in front of the car by smashing its window with a stone before moving it out of the path of the BMW," explained a police spokesman.

The offenders subsequently stole the BMW despite the fact that the owner was believed to have had both sets of keys at the time.

An hour and a half later, the BMW's owner contacted the police once again to say that he had received information via the car's tracker.

"This led to information being passed from Lancashire to Northamptonshire Police," the police spokesman added.

"The result of this led to two local men from the Pendle area being arrested at services off the M1."

A subsequent tweet from Northants Police shows the moment the BMW car was found: "This car was stolen from Lancashire in the early hours. It tried fuelling up in Northants and was met head on by an Armed Response Vehicle.

"Two arrested and a key cloning kit recovered."