Why thieves are after your number plates

My day had started as it always does, with a near 40-mile round trip to school, then an hour’s walk in the pretty country park close to our home near Nottingham. As usual, I parked in the small car park and exchanged ‘good mornings’ and ‘beautiful weather, isn’t it?’ with the familiar faces I see most days – dog walkers, joggers and mums herding their kids to the village school. There was nothing out of the ordinary about my walk, which covers an undulating route on a track alongside the canal, through a small wood and past fields of sheep. Until I returned to my car, that is. 

Straight away I realised something was different, but it took a few seconds to register what it was. The front number plate was missing. Perhaps it had blown off on the school run? Then I discovered that the rear plate had gone too. Clearly, this was no coincidence or the work of a freakishly powerful gust of wind on the A46.