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Man Buys Back His Stolen Civic Type-r Without Realizing It Was His Own
- A man in the U.K. reports that thieves stole his Honda Civic Type-R earlier this year.
- Three weeks later, he unknowingly bought it back, not realizing it was his own car.
- Insurance and authorities are now working to determine how to handle the situation.
Sometimes life throws you a curveball so absurd, you start wondering if you’re the unwitting star of some hidden camera show. That’s exactly what happened to Ewan Valentine, who woke up one morning to find his beloved car mysteriously gone from the driveway.
Absolutely gutted, he turned to Instagram on February 18 to vent. “Some absolute rats out there,” he wrote. His “beloved” was (and is) a 2016 Honda Civic Type-R, a car he had bought about three years ago. And then, in a twist worthy of its own crime podcast, he ended up buying it again just a few weeks ago. Yes, he bought his own stolen car.
Initially, Valentine did all the things one might do in this situation. He contacted the authorities, he went searching for signs of the car online. He even posted a plea to the community for help. “STOLEN Type-R, stolen from Solihull/Olton area at 3:05am, they pulled up in what looks like a Cupra Leon. Please share and let me know if you see it around. Thanks and much love,” he said.
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Sadly, none of that worked, so he made the reluctant choice to move on. In his search for a new car, he just so happened to find a Honda Civic Type-R that seemed to fit him perfectly. It was the same year, the same color, and even had the same type of exhaust he’d installed on his own car. This couldn’t be his car, though. Important details were different.
The mileage was off, the plates were different, and the VIN didn’t match either. What’s more, his research into the VIN of this car came back clean. Thinking he’d just found his old car’s doppelganger, he went ahead with the purchase and spent some £20,000 (about $27,000 at current exchange rates_ on it. Once it was back in his possession, some things started to poke at his brain.
He noticed things in the car that felt all too familiar. A single tent pole, some Mars bar candy wrappers, a wheel lock key in a Tesco bag… this led him to check the integrated navigation in the car for previous addresses entered into it. Sure enough, his address, his parents’ address, and others he knew well popped up. This was his car.
At this point, he needed additional confirmation and to have another chat with the police. He had a local Honda dealer confirm that the VIN listed in the ECU was his original VIN. The thieves cloned the car to another one somewhere else, and did a convincing job of it, Valentine says.
According to Road&Track, police have paused the case and haven’t made any arrests. The insurance company is also debating how to handle the situation. Sure, this is an odd situation to be in, but Valentine seems chuffed to have his beloved back.
