Tesla Model 3 thief left licence in Mix presenter Annabelle Brett’s allegedly stolen car
A bumbling alleged thief was caught by Aussie police after one item left behind inside the vehicle led authorities straight to him.
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A Canberra radio presenter has taken down an aspiring Tesla thief after they forgot one of the carmaker’s main draws – and then left personal effects behind in the abandoned car.
Mix 106.3 Drive show presenter Annabelle Brett received a number of alarming notifications from the Tesla app on her phone at around 6.20am on Thursday morning.
While she was getting ready to start her day, the app was informing her that her Tesla was going for a drive.
“I got a ping on my phone that my car alarm was going off,” she told the Hit network’s Hughesy and Ed.
The company has a semi-autonomous driving function but Ms Brett’s Model 3 wasn’t driving itself.
It had been allegedly stolen from the car park of Ms Brett’s apartment building.
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After the alarm notification, Ms Brett dispatched a friend to check, who arrived in the car park to find her car gone.
The thieves apparently knew a little bit about what they were doing, removing linked iPhones from the car in an effort to prevent them being tracked, but they were unable to take away the primary iPhone belonging to Ms Brett.
She and her friend then began tracking the car while calling police.
“We could see that it was driving out of the garage … we did not think it through probably very well, we decided to get in the car and chase them.”
Ms Brett also decided to have a little fun with the alleged thieves, placing a speed limit on the car, rolling down the windows and honking the horn using the app on her phone.
Around two blocks from her home, they found the alleged thief in a public park getting into another car and leaving her Tesla behind.
“I started filming as I approached the scene where they’d pulled over and police were on the way. They left my car and started driving off and flipped me the bird,’ Ms Brett told the Daily Mail.
Ms Brett said she later found a driver’s licence belonging to the alleged thief inside the vehicle, which led police right to them.
She also had plenty of additional footage to provide police, captured by her Tesla’s Sentry Mode that monitors and films around the car.
So far one person has been charged with joint commission minor theft, joint commission take motor vehicle without consent, fail to appear after bail undertaking, and first instance warrant.
Originally published as Tesla Model 3 thief left licence in Mix presenter Annabelle Brett’s allegedly stolen car