Lock it or lose it

The house lights and TV were still on in 53-year-old Mrs Latter's home in North Lane, but this didn't deter car thieves, who sneaked through the unlocked back door and helped themselves to her car keys while she and her husband Richard were upstairs.

"I want to warn other people '“ for goodness' sake keep your doors locked at all times. The whole incident happened in the space of five minutes and these people knew exactly what they were doing," she said.

Richard Latter, who works as a sales rep, put the couple's pet tortoise into the shed for the night at about 10.30pm. He had come back into the house when Rosemary, who was using the computer, called him upstairs to read an e-mail.

While he was there, thieves had negotiated the six foot fence, which completely surrounds their back garden, gone into the kitchen to take the keys and had then taken the car.

Mr Latter, 56, returned downstairs and noticed the outside security light was on. When he looked outside, he saw his wife's Toyota Celica being reversed out of the driveway with the headlights switched off.

He checked to see if their 25-year-old son Matthew had taken the car, but he was in bed. Mr Latter then got into his own car and gave chase, but the car thieves were too fast.

"My car has an immobiliser, which means they wouldn't have been able to hotwire it. They needed the keys. They took the shed keys as well but dropped them in a neighbour's garden," added Mrs Latter.

She found out later that thieves had also burgled a neighbour's house and taken a set of keys.

The car was spotted the next morning in East Preston by Mrs Latter's friend. She followed the car to Angmering School, but was unable to track the car any further.

The police were called, and they dispatched their helicopter to search from Littlehampton to Bognor. The car was found at lunchtime in a field at Bersted.

"My car was all scratched," said Mrs Latter. "The front and back had been hit and it was covered in mud and grass. The insurers have decided it is a write-off.

"Now I keep all the doors and windows locked at all times in the house. I also keep the keys locked away in a secret safe place now when I'm not using them. You shouldn't have to do this, but you just can't risk it."