- The perfect replacement for his stolen car turned out to be his stolen car.
If you find a deal that seems too good to be true, it probably is. In nine cases out of ten, there will be something fishy about the thing you’re buying.
Take, for instance, this British fella who accidentally bought back his own stolen car.
Ewan Valentine was heartbroken when somebody swiped his beloved Honda Civic Type R. As insurance claims and police investigations started taking their time, he had no choice but to buy a replacement vehicle.
As a delightful surprise, he found another Type R online. It looked just like the one he’d lost, and it wasn’t too expensive, so it was perfect.
Valentine paid more than $25,000 for the car and started driving home. That’s when he realized the car didn’t just look like his Type R — it also handled like it.
Not only that, it had a bunch of trash in it that Valentine remembered leaving in his car. He had unwittingly handed out a bunch of cash to buy back his own pilfered vehicle.
As a silver lining, at least he got his car back. Additionally, the trail from the purchase might lead the cops to the car thieves.
A Precious Mid-Life Crisis
Meet Ewan Valentine, a 36-year-old software engineer from Solihull in central England. He loves his black 2016 Honda Civic Type R.
Sure, it might not be the swankiest or most powerful vehicle out there. But it can go from zero to 60 in six seconds and blaze along at 168 miles per hour.
Most importantly, however, it’s his car.
“It was a bit of a midlife crisis car, and you don’t get many of those,” he told Birmingham Live.
Imagine, then, his shock last February, when his beloved ride disappeared. His girlfriend had woken up early in the morning to drive Valentine’s car to work — but it was nowhere to be found.
“Slightly dazed, I looked out of the window and sure enough, the car was gone,” said Valentine.
Of course, he immediately reported the theft to the police and filed an insurance claim. However, the wheels of bureaucracy weren’t turning as quickly as Valentine hoped.
“A few weeks passed, and I was dealing with the police and the insurance company, but not much was happening,” he recalled.
Yet, he needed a set of wheels, so he reluctantly started looking into buying a new car.
The Perfect Replacement
Although he was in the market for another vehicle, Valentine wanted to keep it as similar as possible. During his search, one particular car stood out.
“The one that caught my eye was identical, color, make, model, even down to the custom exhaust system,” Valentine said.
He couldn’t believe his luck. This car was a perfect replacement — exactly like his old one.
Valentine got in touch with the seller and went down to check the car out. He took a quick look and decided this was it.
“I think my judgment was a little clouded by how desperate I was to replace my car, so I didn’t do the most thorough check,” he admitted in hindsight.
So, he paid $26,800 for the car and drove off.
Weirdly Familiar
As Valentine was on his way home, things started seeming a bit off. The car handled exactly as his old one had — and that’s not all.
In the trunk, he found a tent peg from his tent. In the central columns were wrappers from things he’d eaten, and the car still smelled like beer from a bottle that broke on a trip home from a year ago.
“I suddenly had the idea of checking the satnav history. Sure enough, there was my address, my parents’ address, my partner’s address, and places we’d visited the previous couple of years,” said Valentine.
He’d bought his own stolen vehicle.
To confirm things, Valentine called the cops to check the Honda’s vehicle identification number (VIN). That didn’t match, but Valentine realized the thieves had tampered with the car.
“For example, a chrome embossed VIN was missing from the engine bay. The VIN on the door frame was a sticker, where you could previously see something was bolted. The engine serial number had been painted over,” he listed.
The criminals had even tried to override the VIN stored on the car’s computer system. With the help of professional mechanics, however, the cops extracted the original VIN, proving this was Valentine’s Honda.
Now, the Honda is with the insurance company, which is attempting to bring the car back to its original condition. If they can’t do that, Valentine said they’ll pay him for the value of the car.
We’re sure he’d rather get his wheels back, though.