Social media posts and ads have helped a young Emirati retrieve his Dh2 million supercar after it was stolen on its way from France to England.
Abdullah Alfahim, a Dubai-based social media influencer, relied on a car shipping company to move his Lamborghini Aventador, which he owns for about a year, from Cannes to London. He later discovered that the car shipping company was a fraud.
A man, who had created a fake Instagram account, approached the 30-year-old Emirati to help ship the supercar, after the influencer posted a picture showing that he's taking the vehicle with him from Dubai to Europe.
"The so-called company picked up my car from Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes where I was staying. A day before I flew to London, the man called me and said the Lamborghini will be at the hotel in London in one hour. He blocked my number after that and I never heard from him again," Alfahim, who has the habit of taking his supercar with him on holidays to Europe, told Khaleej Times over the phone from London.
After several attempts to contact the company with no luck, Alfahim became aware that his supercar was stolen. He notified the Interpol, the European Police Office and the UAE embassy in London who started a rigorous search for the car.
Thanks to a number of social media posts that went viral, the police was able to locate the car in Poland. The man who committed the theft - a Polish national, was also arrested.
"He had apparently shipped the supercar from France to Italy to Poland. He was planning to continue the journey to Russia and Ukraine, but thanks to the Interpol, Polish police and embassy, he was stopped," said Alfahim.
Luckily, the suspect had forgotten to cover the car which is already hard to miss, he added.
The supercar is currently with the UAE embassy to Poland, with whom Alfahim is arranging talks regarding whether the car will be shipped to London. "I might have to go and get it," he said.
When his supercar went missing, Alfahim's close friends, who are also social media influencers, uploaded pictures of his supercar on Instagram and Snapchat to help him find it.
The posts went viral and Alfahim, who has over 70,000 Instagram followers, was approached by people from Europe, Egypt, Morocco and the GCC. It was also circulated among European supercar bloggers and photographers and some foreign newspapers.
"The outreach on social media was overwhelming, and thankfully it helped the police find it," he said.
Alfahim is no stranger to supercars. His previous Lamborghini Aventador was named one of the fastest 10 cars in the world. "The posts on social media made it easier for the police to find my car, and I cannot be more thankful to people who helped spread the word," he said. "I would also like to extend my thanks to the Interpol and the Polish police force for their hard work and extensive search."
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