Missouri Woman Stalks Car Thief for 48 Hours Before Stealing Back Her Toyota 4Runner
Tracking activity on her own stolen phone and credit cards, Danielle Reno was reunited with her car at a local Applebee’s.
If your car ever gets stolen, the most prudent thing to do is to call the police, let them do their jobs, and hope your insurance policy covers rentals. One Missouri woman, however, threw caution to the wind when her SUV was swiped and she spent a full two days tracking down the thieves herself, eventually "stealing" her own car back.
According to KSLA News and documented on her own Facebook page, Danielle Reno's gray 2011 Toyota 4Runner was stolen last Tuesday night from a Kansas City gas station by a "thick, late 30s-40-year-old busty woman."
"I got out of the car for two seconds and grabbed my daughter, turned around, and my car was gone," said Reno. "'Did I park somewhere else? No. I know I parked here.' And then I'm like, 'Somebody stole my car.' It was all downhill from there."
Reno filed a police report but then decided to launch an investigation of her own. Because the thieves took the 4Runner while her phone, credit, and debit cards were still inside, Reno was able to track the vehicle's whereabouts through GPS and purchase records.
Reno documented the whole saga in decent detail on Facebook and it's definitely worth a read. The Missouri woman apparently watched the thieves use her cards at a Taco Bell, Walmart.com, and a couple of gas stations. After several interactions involving gas station attendants and surveillance footage, Reno and her sister tracked the suspects to an Applebee's in Gladstone where, lo and behold, three "trashy" people she recognized from surveillance footage pulled up in her gray Toyota.
Spare key in hand, Reno "stole" her 4Runner back while her sister continued to tail the thieves and contacted police.
"We stalked this lady, literally, for 48 hours. She had no idea what we were doing," the amateur detective said. She also says her SUV was trashed so badly she now refuses to drive it.
As for the thieves, they were arrested by Clay County Sheriff's Office deputies. Unsurprisingly, police aren't recommending other theft victims follow in Reno's footsteps.
