B.C. car thief’s mistake — stealing a trackable Tesla

Police make arrest after owner’s smartphone traced car’s movements

A Vancouver car thief chose the worst possible target — a trackable Tesla — in what appears to be one of the first cases of that make reported stolen in Canada.

Katya Pinkowski and a friend left a concert last Thursday night and headed to an underground parking lot to hop into Pinkowski’s beloved dark blue Tesla Model S 85D.

The car had disappeared, however, and a towing company told Pinkowski it hadn’t picked up any Teslas that night, she said.

Her next call, to her husband Cary, quickly turned up the location of the high-tech electric vehicle: According to the Tesla Model S app on her husband’s smartphone, it was cruising through suburban Richmond, B.C., at 70 km/h, presumably with a thief behind the wheel.

“I could watch him go in and out all the streets in Richmond,” Cary Pinkowski said.

The thief, it turns out, had gained access to the car using an extra electronic key fob the couple had bought earlier in the week and mistakenly left inside the vehicle.

As he approached the futuristic car and touched its self-presenting door handles, it must have beckoned him inside, Katya Pinkowski said.

“The car opens and is going, ‘Come on, sit down, let’s have a ride,’ ” she said with a chuckle. “He couldn’t say no.”

But the Pinkowskis were able to pit tech against tech, and as the thief swerved into courtyards and busted U-turns, the Pinkowskis relayed the car’s location to a 911 operator who then worked with Richmond RCMP to form a plan.

“It was so much fun, actually,” Cary Pinkowski said. “I could tell the 911 operator was excited … they’d never had this before, where they could actually track the car.”

The Pinkowskis debated contacting Tesla to kill the motors remotely, or using the app to operate its sunroof and horn, but felt the situation was better left in the Mounties’ hands.

Indeed, the joyride soon came to an end as Richmond RCMP caught up with the thief.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dennis Hwang said: “What was unique in this incident was the ability for the Tesla owner to provide the E-Comm police dispatcher with accurate real-time tracking data.”

Howard Geddes Skelding, 24, has been charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000.

The Pinkowskis ended up retrieving the Tesla around 1 a.m. Friday.

Aside from a few scuffed rims and traces of the thief’s abandoned dinner, it was in top shape.

“It’s a huge testimonial for Tesla,” Cary Pinkowski said of the car’s swift return. “I think it’s the way of the future, that within five years all cars will be tracked, so the days of stealing cars are going to come to an end.”