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After having his Honda Civic stolen, a man finds the car again weeks later — but as the buyer. The discovery came after noticing personal items and digital traces in the vehicle.
The british Ewan Valentine went through an unbelievable situation. After having his Honda Civic stolen, he ended up, without knowing it, buying the same vehicle weeks later.
The case attracted attention due to the level of coincidence and the way in which he discovered the truth.
The theft and the search for a new car
Ewan, 36, told Yahoo News UK who was devastated when his nine-year-old Honda Civic Type R went missing.
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His girlfriend had gone out to take him to work and noticed that the car was no longer where it had been parked.
The police were notified, as was the insurance company, but the processes took a long time. Impatient, Ewan began looking for a similar car.
During his search, he found a model almost identical to his old Honda, even with the custom exhaust.
The plates were different, but everything else looked the same. Without imagining that it could be his own car that had been stolen, he went to a garage to check it out.
"It seemed perfect“, he said. Driven by attachment and haste, Ewan admitted that he did not do a thorough check before closing the business.
The clues that led to the discovery
After purchasing the vehicle, too many coincidences began to appear. In the trunk, Ewan found items he immediately recognized: a tent canopy and Christmas trees that had been in the stolen car.
He also saw familiar packaging and smelled beer. The odor had been there since the day he had accidentally dropped a bottle inside the car.
Suspicious, Ewan decided to check the GPS history. The confirmation was immediate.
All the family addresses were there: his, his parents' and his partner's. The places visited in the last two years were also included in the record.
Another important detail was the cell phone connection. When he turned on the car, Ewan's phone automatically connected to the system, without needing to be paired again. At that moment, he was sure: he was driving the same car that had been stolen.
Honda Civic changes and police response
When Ewan went to the police with the evidence, he discovered that the thieves had made modifications to the car to hide its identity.
O chassis number of the vehicle did not match the original. The embossed plate on the door jamb had been replaced by a sticker. The engine number was also scraped off and painted over.
The police were able to access the vehicle's system with a laptop. With this, they identified the chassis number original, which was still recorded internally in the electronic control unit.
According to Ewan, the criminals tried to alter the chassis number, but they were unable to completely eliminate the traces.
The workshop was also deceived
According to the investigation, there is no evidence that the workshop that sold the car to Ewan knew of the vehicle's illegal origin.
Police believe the sellers were also deceived by the thieves. They allegedly bought the car without knowing it was stolen.
Ewan, even though he was shocked by the situation, managed to find his car and is now following the investigation.
