A woman in Missouri spent two days tracking down the woman who stole her car, waiting for the perfect moment to steal it back before livestreaming the entire thing on Facebook.
Danielle Reno filmed the moment she took her car back in a dramatic end to her 48-hour investigation, saying she was ‘shaking’ and her ‘heart was racing’ the entire time.
She hunted down the thief based on purchases from her debit card, as well as GPS from her mobile phone – both of which were inside her Toyota 4Runner when it was stolen from a petrol station last Tuesday night (July 9).
According to her Facebook post, Danielle immediately filed a police report after realising her vehicle had been stolen. Rather than wait for police to track the thief down though, she decided to do a bit of ‘stalking’ of her own.
After realising her phone had been turned off upon reaching another store, Danielle visited the store and watched the CCTV footage in order to look for her car and its thief. However, she wasn’t able to record the footage.
Not giving up though, Danielle continued to track the thief’s purchases on her debit card, visiting each store in turn until one owner allowed her to take a video of the surveillance footage.
You can watch the moment she steals her car back below:
Upon discovering the woman who stole her car was heading to Applebee’s (because a store attendant had overheard her conversation with another woman), Danielle rallied her troops and spread out in a couple of different restaurants in the area.
It was as she was about to eat her food that three people walked through the door – one of whom Danielle recognised from the surveillance footage. So what did she do? She picked up her spare key, went outside, and found her car before driving off in it and filming the entire dramatic thing.
Her friend stayed at Applebee’s to keep an eye on the group, before following them and informing the police of their movements. Police officers from Clay County Deputies then swooped in, arresting the thief immediately – something which Danielle was also able to film.
Before turning off her camera, Danielle filmed the ‘gross’ state her car was left in, pointing out the bottles of booze, the ‘drug paraphernalia,’ and other items littering the vehicle.
In fact, she said it was in such a terrible state she could no longer use the car, without giving it a thorough clean first.
Moral of the story here, folks? Well, apart from not to steal someone’s car in the first place, that is? Do not, under any circumstances, p*ss off Danielle Reno. You’ve been warned.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).