SAN DIEGO -- A local man can thank Craigslist and a dimwitted criminal for recovering his car mere hours after it was stolen.
Daniel Beachnau told 10News his car was stolen Tuesday morning from an undisclosed location. He filed a police report and a few hours later, while perusing Craigslist, Beachnau stumbled onto a listing for his very car. The listing claimed the vehicle was missing its title and had a broken ignition, which may have been caused by the car being hot-wired.
Beachnau called the seller and set up a meeting in the parking lot of the Sports Authority store in Mission Valley.
At the meeting, when the suspect realized what was happening, he ran away but left the car behind.
“We were kind of working with the police department at the time,” Beachnau said. “So definitely use the police department because you don't want to confront someone and find out they got a gun or something like that.”
At that point the owner called police, who responded but were unable to locate the suspect.
