Skyline thief busted by internet forum members

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-- Skyline thief busted by internet forum members

Posted by leph555 on Mar-31-2008 13:06:

Skyline thief busted by internet forum members

quote:
Due to the Canadian 15 year or older vehicle exemption rule it is not all too surprising to find a slightly modified R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R on a dealer's lot. Such was the situation at Heritage Auto Sales in Calgary, Alberta. The dealership had a charcoal grey 1991 GT-R with a Greddy single turbo kit, Zeal coilovers and Panasport wheels on display for interested buyers. The car attracted one apparently serious customer who returned on multiple occasions looking for an opportunity to take a test drive. It must have been a good day, as the salesman was a trusting fellow and allowed the shopper a brief solo spin around the block. Perhaps the salesman felt a bit of remorse for the guy, as he was missing two fingers he claimed were lost in a recent accident involving his old GT-R. However, it wasn't long before the situation turned sour. The 10 minute journey wound up being a straight-up vehicle theft, leading to a police report and a simple posting on an internet forum. Follow the jump to learn what ensued.

Normally, one would think all is lost; the car must have been stripped apart and hidden behind closed doors within minutes. Fortunately, this thief wasn't so clever. Possibly forgetting that he was in possession of an atypical vehicle sporting dealer plates, or that he had flaunted a characteristic injury during the commission of his crime, the thief continued to cruise the streets of Calgary. It didn't take more than a few hours after the start of the internet thread for a reader to spot the hot property at a local mall. The perpetrator was even captured on camera. Needless to say, his photo was quickly posted for all to see, and several members recognized the thief in all his three-fingered glory. They responded by forking over his Facebook page, full name, address and workplace information. He was promptly nicknamed "The Claw" and became the subject of many online Photoshop mockeries.

The saga eventually reached its conclusion when readers visited the thief's home, boxed in the stolen GT-R and video taped the police hauling "The Claw" off to jail. Naturally, the web-savvy bunch had the video up on YouTube in no time. Catch it below, and thanks to all who sent tips!

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/30/...-forum-members/

Original Forum Post
http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread....t=&pagenumber=1

The Powar of da INtarwebs!

Posted by Floorfiller on Mar-31-2008 13:15:

LOL at the claw

Posted by leph555 on Mar-31-2008 13:19:

they also have some awesome chops in the thread and some youtube vids

Posted by nefardec on Mar-31-2008 15:10:

i mean, this guy is an idiot obviously

but it's kind of scary to think how difficult it is to get away with anything these days

Posted by Jeremy H on Mar-31-2008 15:19:

quote:
Originally posted by nefardec
but it's kind of scary to think how difficult it is to get away with anything these days

See it as a challenge instead

Awesome thread btw

Posted by david.michael on Mar-31-2008 15:30:

Lots of good read in the original thread.

Also, the car's up on eBay. Good place to see the "boxed in" and recovery pics since a lot of the imageshack'ed ones are "bandwidth exceeded".

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...em=330224323793

Posted by gehzumteufel on Mar-31-2008 18:41:

haha i saw this on autoblog too. nice to see someone else follows it! love that site.

Posted by getfoul on Mar-31-2008 18:44:

I was wondering when this would get posted up here. I've been following this since <5 pages and it just kept getting better and better.