Thieves Rob Millions in Jaguar Land Rover Engines Twice in a Night

It wasn’t exactly the Great Train Robbery, but it was daring and ballsy nonetheless. And quite expensive for the victim — in this case, British automaker Jaguar Land Rover.

The company has egg on its face and no shortage of missing engines after thieves made off with a parked trailer full of high-end motors from the Solihull, U.K., assembly plant last Tuesday night. Two hours later, they returned for more.

According to the Birmingham Mail, the thieves entered the plant’s grounds in a stolen truck, obtained proper paperwork, and hooked up to the parked trailer. Six minutes later, under full view of security cameras, the rig drove out of the security-manned gate and into the night.

SEE ALSO: Jaguar Land Rover to Start Using BMW V8 Engines

Of course, one tractor trailer full of Jaguar Land Rover engines only gets you so far in this world, so the thieves made a return pass. Two hours after the initial robbery, the process was repeated again. A second trailer full of engines vanished the same way as the first, bringing the dollar value of the heist to 3-million pounds ($3.75-million).

“They just hooked up the trailers,” a source told the Mail. “They were in and out in just six minutes with the first theft. The whole place is in uproar about it.”

The trailers have since been recovered, sans engines.

JLR, not surprisingly, wants the engines back and is willing to sweeten the pot for any Good Samaritan who comes forward with information.

“A reward is on offer to anyone who has information which leads to the successful recovery of these engines,” stated the automaker.

A version of this story originally appeared on The Truth About Cars

Discuss this story on our Jaguar Forum