You know what’s worse than having your car stolen from right outside your house? Finding out somebody else is enjoying themselves in it after the fact. For one British man, that’s exactly what happened when his stolen SUV showed up months later, halfway around the world.
That unlucky man was one James Munday of Essex in the UK. As covered by the Daily Mail, he woke last November to find out his 2014 Range Rover Vogue was no longer parked outside his home. “I parked up as I always do and went to bed,” he told the British outlet. “When I got up, the car wasn’t there, but we could see really grainy images of the lights flashing on our CCTV camera.”
Munday had placed an Apple AirTag on the vehicle, and hoped it could be tracked. Sadly, the tag was apparently deactivated in short order, and Munday’s enquiries with the British authorities got him nowhere. And yet, some months later, he noticed something rather curious. His Range Rover’s AirTag was suddenly back online… and a long way from home, at that.
A Series Of Unusual Events
Last year, Munday was down on his luck. Despite fitting the Apple AirTag to his car, it didn’t prove particularly useful in tracking the vehicle or the thieves themselves. This was largely due to anti-stalking features that Apple implements in its AirTag technology. “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,” Munday told the Daily Mail. “Now you get a message on your phone telling you there’s a tag in the near vicinity and you can disable it remotely.”
With no other trackers fitted, and no leads, Munday was told there was little the police could do to help. He accepted that the car was gone, and he moved on with his life.
Fast forward to February, and everything changed. Casually checking his AirTags online, Munday noticed something wild. His Range Rover’s tag had reactivated itself. “I was absolutely gob-smacked, just staring at the screen in disbelief,” he told the Daily Mail. It was now reporting its location, however, it wasn’t in Britain anymore. It wasn’t even on dry land.
In the intervening months, Munday followed his car’s journey as it was apparently shipped thousands of miles from home. He watched it pass through the Suez Canal on its way to wind up at a port in Dar Es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. “I called my wife Claire and said, ‘You remember when you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro? Well, my car’s pretty much ended up there!” Munday told the Daily Mail.Â
After the car’s journey to the commercial hub of East Africa, Munday kept an eye on the car primarily for his own amusement. It was only last week that he chose to share his story on Facebook in the Dull Men’s Club group. “It’s now in its new home and comes back to this current location daily,” he posted, sharing screenshots of the car’s travels in Tanzania. “I often wonder who’s driving it and if they are also wearing my favourite hat I left in the back seat.” The hat in question? A Bailey 1922 flat cap. “My dad bought it for me,” said Munday of the cherished item.
The plight of Munday’s Range Rover was an instant hit, with commenters amazed that the car had been tracked down over 5,000 miles away. Sleuths in the group rushed to investigate, determining that the vehicle was most likely parked at a Tanzanian car dealer called Cashmoneycars [Ed Note: We don’t know for sure that Cashmoneycars knows anything about this vehicle’s status as a stolen car. I’ve called the shop to learn more but wasn’t able to reach anyone. -DT]. Merrymaking pranksters rushed to the dealer’s Google Maps page to leave reviews accusing the lot of hosting the stolen vehicle. Notably, the Google business listing states that the dealer handles “Car sales, importation of all cars from Japan, UK, and all over the world.”
Offers poured in from those living in Tanzania to head down and help find the Range Rover. Soon enough, a video was posted by a man named Johnny. Shot from a moving vehicle, the video panned across the front of Cashmoneycars, showing a black Land Rover that looked suspiciously close to Munday’s car. Could it be the one?
A British man had his Range Rover stolen from his driveway last November.
The vehicle was recently tracked via AirTag, having allegedly turned up at a Tanzanian car dealership.
This video appears to show a car matching the description of the vehicle.
— Lewin S. Day (@rainbowdefault.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Munday himself believes so. He returned to Dull Men’s Club on Sunday, posting an update after his original post gained tens of thousands of likes and coverage across the British media. “YES! The car in the video is the stolen car,” he posted. “I’ve posted some pictures of the badge on the front which was changed to a British Flag from the normal Land Rover badge, which is the same as the Cashmoneycars one so I’m 99% sure it’s that one!”
The badge in question is a small oval that lives on the front grille. They typically read “RANGE ROVER” or “LAND ROVER,” but Munday’s vehicle featured a different badge depicting a Union Jack motif in silver and black. Johnny’s video appears to show just such a badge on the car, which, combined with the AirTag data, means Munday believes this is his former Range Rover.
Flow of Imports
Given his success in tracking down the vehicle, I spoke to Johnny for his take on the matter. As a local to the area, he didn’t have much trouble tracking down the Range Rover. “It was very easy to find, I just went to the location where the post said it was,” he explained. He noted that a lot of cars come into Tanzania from the UK, China, and Japan. “Thousands of cars are imported here every week,” he says. “I think that the guy selling it probably bought it online and didn’t know it was stolen.”
Having visited the ports himself, Johnny has observed the import auto trade in Tanzania. “It is illegal to make videos in the port, so I am not allowed to send pictures of the UK number plates,” he says, noting many cars come in with their original license plates still installed. He believes some forgery may be involved on the part of the thieves. “It’s difficult to transfer to Tanzanian plates without UK export documents,” he says. “They must be supplying false documents [as] the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) is very strict.”
Video provided to me of the port, where it’s believed the vehicle may have entered the country.
— Lewin S. Day (@rainbowdefault.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Next Steps
Munday has expressed at least casual interest in mounting a recovery effort. However, despite the theft, he notes that the car doesn’t really belong to him. “As I’ve been paid by the insurers, it’s not really my car anymore anyway,” he told the Daily Mail. On his update post on Facebook, though, he contemplated the idea of heading to Tanzania to see what could be done. “I’m game to do something but would like to raise some money somehow to buy the car and then perhaps give the car to a local charity or children’s hospital over there for them to auction it off,” he posted. “I’ll keep my hat though if it’s still in there!”
To that end, he notes the tracker is still active. “The car has been moved just round the corner [from the dealer] but they haven’t worked out how to either disable it or find it yet,” Munday notes.
As to why the Air Tag was no help in tracking the vehicle in the UK, he believes the original thieves were savvy as to how to switch the tags off or otherwise defeat them. “The people who stole the car disabled the tracker at the point it left my driveway… it was only weeks later that it popped up on my “Find My” app again.” he noted on Facebook. “The people who stole it obviously know about this but the people in its current location don’t.”
So far, Munday has gotten both an insurance check and a great tale out of his stolen Range Rover. Heading to Tanzania to recover the vehicle might make it all the better—the kind of story you take to the pub for decades to come. At the same time, entering a foreign country to try and recover stolen goods comes with risks, even if you’re just doing it for the laughs. For every commenter urging Munday to follow the trail, there’s another advising to leave well enough alone.
For Munday himself, in the eyes of the law, he’s been made whole by the insurance company, and the matter is dealt with. Still, knowing the vehicle is out there leads to tantalizing thoughts of adventure that are difficult to ignore. Meanwhile, if you happen to be in Tanzania, and spot a suspicious black Range Rover with a British flag badge… you might just be looking at the very car everybody is talking about right now.
Image credits: Johnny (supplied), Suez Canal image (public domain), Topshot – Jiji used car site, Google Maps
I think Murray has the right idea. It was fun to track it down, but the insurance company has already made him whole, so it’s not his car anymore. Indeed (if the UK works like the US), he relinquished his rights to it when he got the payout. So the insurance company would get the benefit of any recovery, not that they’d bother.
Thus, driving up everyone’s insurance rates. I’ve got an Airtag buried somewhere (undisclosed) in my car. It’s mildly annoying when I get a notification that it’s been left behind somewhere when I leave home. But it’s good to know that its battery hasn’t died yet. And hopefully never, it may be of use.
All of this points out that we are on the verge of a complete breakdown of society. People whose lives are filled with futility don’t care about others, as no one seems to care about them. My neighborhood is full of security cameras and people post pictures of them in the FB group and it accomplishes nothing.
As Bob Dylan once said, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”
Cars have been stolen since they were invented. Before that it was horses. Looking at the data US auto theft rates are half what they were in the early 90’s – even after the recent small bump. Hardly the end of society.
I am a bit surprised by how successful companies have been on selling fear and the need for useless security cameras though. Crime is down yet fear of crime is way up.
Of course maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I recently spent a couple days with my in-laws and they spend almost the entire day watching “true crime” shows on cable TV.
EDIT: Sites like Nextdoor and Facebook only feed into that drama with people posting every little thing that happens where in the past the nervous Nellies only knew what happened outside their own window.
That they would steal a 11 year old range Rover is kind of strange.
It’s probably very easy to clone to keys. The Canadian cars stolen seem to be new some even claiming they target temp tags. Hopefully china begins dumping cheap cars in Africa and it stops demand for older stolen stuff.
‘Tis often best to let sleeping dogs lie. I understand the compulsion but not worth it.
He should send the information to his insurance company, if he hasn’t already. They are the ones out $$$, and they may have the resources to make some effort at recovery. At the least, it would be nice to send someone to ask CashMoneyCars who they’re purchasing from in the UK…
I don’t think the insurance company is going to bother on an 11 year old Range Rover
Exactly. The cost of recovery and return shipping is absolutely not worth it. He got paid out, and moved on. Fun story though!
Did I accidentally run across a Thursday Next short story on the Autopian? 😉
When I saw Cash Money, I was halfway hoping this involved Juvenile and Lil Wayne in some way.
Wow, what a story!
I feel like most American Rangie owners would stand in their driveway, muttering “oh, no, whatever shall I do? Someone is stealing my Range Rover. I can’t believe they would put me on such a path to financial freedom and mental stability. I guess I should call the police. After breakfast.”
This was way more interesting than I thought it would be! While I’d love to see the guy go try and find it down there, he’s been made whole and there is some inherent danger to going to a foreign country and trying to convince someone they’ve broken the law. Ultimately, this is a story much more about how common auto theft is and how, despite revenue and standards divisions around the world try and make people honest (if only to get their share), if a car is stolen and removed from the country it is likely gone forever unless it’s a vehicle worth finding.
Right? I’m not going to Africa to retrieve a car that’s probably been through some stuff. Maybe the insurance company didn’t make him totally whole, but I wouldn’t go there to track it down. But I’m old and I’m too old for that kind of thing.
Maybe it was turned on because the dealer added their own. Then saw the setting that it was traveling with them, and just assumed it was theirs LOL
That’s not that unusual, but still a good story.
Where there is demand, they will find a supply.
For example, in Paraguay, it was really easy to legalize a car that was stolen abroad (mainly Brazil and Argentina, and not sure if it is still that easy). So, once they decided that was enough, and decide to go after this kind of vehicle, just to realize the car the president was using to be driven around was a BMW stolen in Brazil a few months before.