By Steven Symes 
A man in Jamaica was shocked to learn a used car he was looking at was stolen, and it was all thanks to Bluetooth. This is one of the weirdest cases of coincidence we’ve seen in some time, even though it wasn’t entirely coincidence, plus it comes with a happy ending.
Repo men steal a vehicle that’s paid off entirely.
According to The Gleaner, a 35-year-old man in St. Andrew had his 2016 Toyota Aqua Hybrid (called the Prius c in this market) stolen overnight in August 2024. Even though he had video footage of the theft taking place and the two men who did it, handing that over to police, the car was never recovered.
Combing used vehicle listings, the victim found an Aqua Hybrid for sale and suspected it might be his. Apparently, he had made some repairs to the bumper and one of the seats had some distinct markings he recognized in the online pictures.
However, it wasn’t until he met with the seller and turned on the car, his phone automatically connecting to the radio via Bluetooth, that he knew for sure it was his.
Police showed up at the scene and determined the Toyota had been “rebirthed” or VIN-swapped to hid the fact it was stolen. In other words, the thieves swapped the VIN tags with some from a car that had been crashed and totaled.
The man got his beloved car back and the seller was arrested. We love happy endings like this.
Even though this case is out of Jamaica, this sort of thing happens in North America and unfortunately everywhere else in the world all the time. This is why when shopping for a used car you must be careful.
And we should mention you don’t need to watch out for just private parties. People have purchased stolen rides from dealerships. Sometimes dealers get duped by VIN swaps and other tricks. We recommend running the VIN through the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s database, something you can do for free, before moving forward on a purchase.
Image via Triston Cradic/Facebook Marketplace