The Gazeta Shqiptare newspaper says that private recovery was more effective than official results. They quoted the case of a Mercedes stolen at gunpoint this month from a parking lot in Tirana. The owner of the parking lot called friends around the country and they began tracking the stolen vehicle. Three cars saw the vehicle and a group of people set up a private roadblock. When the thieves came upon it, they stopped the car and ran.

This all happened before the car's owner even knew it had been stolen.

The newspaper quoted statistics from local law enforcement saying that cars are being stolen at a rate of 15 a week in Tirana alone.