MINI thief held at gunpoint as car recovered

We've a nice story for you today after a MINI owner was reunited with his stolen car after the thief was held at gunpoint. 

Craig Wilcox, of Missouri USA, had his specialist Autocross MINI stolen on June 17 and immediately put out a shoutout to the MINI community to get it found. As with many stolen cars it is rare that they are recovered but that was not the case this time.

The next day a 'shirtless and shoeless man' walked into a local tuning garage Modified by KC attempting to sell the MINI's seats for $500. 

The garage owner Ryan Charlton recognised the car from the Facebook appeal and almost turned the thief away as the business doesn't buy second-hand parts, but something didn't add up, so he kept the man talking.
 

“He didn’t fit the build for a Mini owner,” he told Fox 4 news.

“I noticed the car was a lowered car with wheels on it,” Charlton told KHSB (Channel 41).

“I walked out there and said, ‘Hey maybe I am interested in those seats,'” Charlton told KHSB. “So I got him back inside, enticing him with cash. When I got him in, that’s when I locked the door behind me and said, ‘Hey I’m going to grab the phone real quick.'”

“He was a little nervous and freaked out by that. I said ‘chill out, I’m closing down for the day. I’m going to go up and get your money. Plus I need to get the business phone in case anybody calls,’” he told Fox 4.

Charlton then tried to buy some more time telling the thief that he needed his keys, which were upstairs in the office - the shirtless, shoeless driver followed him up the stairs.

“That’s when I got the weapon, clipped it on my leg, then just opened the door and he was standing right there,” Charlton told KHSB. “[I] said, ‘All right. I know where the car is. I know where it came, from just sit and relax.'”

Charlton told Fox 4 that the driver offered to hand over the keys and car if Charlton would let him go but Charlton didn’t negotiate. “It was kind of like that Pulp Fiction moment. We are going to be little Fonzies here. Be cool, drink your soda, smoke as much cigarettes as you want. We are going to relax until they get here,” he said.

See the news story

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