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The rapid rise in value of our air-cooled VWs over the last few years is proving both good and bad news for owners.

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Good in that, well, it justifies the increasingly high piles of cash we’re throwing at restorations allowing us to do them properly the second, third or fourth time round.

The bad thing, apart from the fact it’s pricing newcomers out of the marketplace, is that our cars are appearing on the radar of scumbag thieves who now recognise they can make a pretty penny out of pinching them.

Which leads me to the sorry tale of 47-year-old Toby Ling from Basildon and the theft of his ‘58 ex-Swiss Army radio Bus which he’d restored himself from the ground up. Said Toby: “I’d always wanted a Split Bus, but being self-employed I needed something reliable for work – and then life, family and houses got in the way.”

We’ve all been there, right? But then, 19 years ago, he managed to buy a dilapidated Bus and spent the next eight years bringing it back to top-notch condition. So, having got married in the meantime, and gaining two more boys in the process (he already had a son of his own) he’d not only realised his dream but had the perfect vehicle for family holidays.