Canadian couple tracks stolen car with AirTag and confronts driver (VIDEO)
A Vancouver couple’s search for their stolen vehicle led to some wild twists and turns over the long weekend, including a confrontation with a driver they believe to be the thief on a downtown street.
Becca Hislop tells Daily Hive she tracked her car using an AirTag stashed under the driver’s seat, and the chase led her to Kelowna — only to discover the thief had dumped the AirTag in an Evo carshare vehicle somewhere along the way.
“Your heart goes into your stomach. Your car, or your property, feels like an extension of you. It really felt violating and scary,” she said. “I didn’t agree to share my car with a stranger.”
Hislop’s 2013 white Hyundai Accent was taken on Sunday around 2 pm from Quebec Street and Terminal Avenue — near Science World. Her partner, Dylan, had just picked it up from a mechanic’s and stopped to feed their friend’s cat on the way home.
When he came back outside, the car was gone from the 15-minute spot.
Hislop called a towing company to confirm it wasn’t impounded, and Dylan hopped in an Evo, picked her up, and the two began to follow the AirTag.
They caught up with it along Burrard Street near St. Paul’s Hospital. Cars were gridlocked because of the Pride Parade, and Dylan ran to find their car in the traffic jam.
He saw a man driving it with the windows down and told him to give the car back. The man apparently said he’d pull over. But instead, he rolled up the windows and drove away. Hislop’s partner caught the last part of the interaction on video.
Looking back, Hislop thinks confronting the thief may have been “foolish,” but everything moved so quickly in the heated moment. The couple called 911 and were told to flag down an officer patrolling the streets during Pride.
Once they connected with an officer, Hislop said she was impressed with the resources put into the chase. The AirTag stopped moving for several hours in North Vancouver, and officers were sent there to check the parkades nearby — but to no avail.
“I’m worried that a crime is going to be committed with my car; it’s going to be totalled, or wrecked, or set on fire, like God knows,” Hislop said.
Later that night, the AirTag moved to Richmond and then toward Burnaby, and officers searched residences near Boundary Road and did traffic stops.
“I didn’t know how serious of a deal a stolen car would be, but there were a lot of people working to find this car,” Hislop said.
The next morning, Hislop saw the AirTag was on the move again — this time in Abbotsford. The couple’s two friends, Nick and Amy, came over with their own vehicle to follow the GPS signal themselves.
Becca Hislop’s friends Nick and Amy helped her track the AirTag. (Submitted)
“We saw that it stopped at a McDonald’s; we went to the same McDonald’s. We saw it went to a gas station; we went to that gas station,” she said. “We’re updating the police as we go; they’re getting security footage from these places.”
They followed the AirTag all the way to West Kelowna, where it stopped at a winery. Hislop made her AirTag ring, and they heard it coming from inside an Evo.
The AirTag led them to a winery in West Kelowna (Submitted)
They waited in the parking lot for the driver to return — and it was a group of three young women who’d rented it for a BC Day road trip.
“We made really good friends. I don’t think they’re involved. I get them to unlock the Evo, and I retrieve my AirTag, and I ask them where they picked the Evo up and when.”
Hislop notified police that the AirTag was dumped in an Evo, and police told her they’d ask the car share company to divulge its records of who unlocked the vehicle in the last 24 hours to potentially find a suspect. But Hislop said the officer warned her Evo often isn’t cooperative.
Daily Hive asked Evo whether it’s handed over the list of names, but the carshare service declined to comment.
Becca Hislop says this man was driving her stolen car. (Submitted)
Hislop is sharing her story in the hopes someone can identify the man driving her car. She was floored at how smart the thief was to put the AirTag in a rental car to send them on a wild goose chase.
“It’s really amazing what these professionals can do in a short period of time without drawing attention to themselves,” Hislop said.
Car recovered in Downtown Eastside
On Tuesday at 4 am, Hislop got some good news — police had recovered her car. They found it in the 300 block of East Hastings Street with the fuse panel removed.
Const. Tania Vistintin with the Vancouver Police Department confirmed the force is investigating the case but said no suspects have been identified yet.
Hislop is thrilled to get her vehicle back and just has to wait for ICBC to finish their investigation before she can retrieve it.
Looking back, she’d put two tracking devices in it — just in case a thief spots the first one and ditches it. She also keeps her car very clean but said that was a detriment when looking for it. If the thief swapped the plates, there wouldn’t be any easy way to identify them.
“And if, foolishly like my boyfriend, you run up to the suspect, bring something with you and break a window. Put a dent in the car. Because it will be a lot harder for them to drive around without being recognized,” she said.
The ordeal was incredibly stressful for Hislop, but she said it’s made her realize the genuine friendships she’s made — from friends who staked out the North Vancouver parkade with her to those who drove all the way to Kelowna and back to track down her car.
“What I’ve learned over the past 72 hours is I’m so blessed to have friends like that.”
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