Drunk Auckland car thief returns vehicle and leaves behind gifts and a handwritten note apologising for his actions

A stolen car has been returned along with a typo-filled, handwritten note for its owner from the thief who sincerely apologised for their actions. 

Varun Chada, from Auckland in New Zealand, reported his car missing last week after he had ducked into the eatery he manages for five minutes to grab supplies. 

After returning back outside Mr Chada found that somebody had stolen his vehicle so he took to Facebook to ask the community for help in finding the recognisable dual-cab ute. 

Four days later he found his ute exactly where he had left it after the thief decided to return it with a quarter tank less petrol, no number plates, and a note explaining what happened. 

Unfortunately for the thief, police have confirmed that the hunt for whoever took it is still on. 

A typo-filled apology note was left inside the car which explained that the thief was simply quite drunk and needed a lift home when they stole the vehicle 

Mr Chada, who runs Kati Street eatery, said that the scrawled letter was left in the car along with his keys after the thief had a change of heart.

‘Hey man braught your truck back sorry mate was drunk and needed a ride home,’ the note read. 

‘Left your keys locked in trunk [and] here a lil something for your baby.

‘Thak you and sori.’

Mr Chada was shocked when he looked inside to find a pile of toys in the back seat and no damage to the vehicle.

Initially he thought he had ‘gone mad’ when the ute vanished out of thin air but security footage from a neighbouring shop caught the culprit red-handed. 

The dodgy figure hopped in and drove off with ease thanks to Mr Chada accidentally leaving the keys in the ignition for the five minutes he was gone. 

‘I’m not condoning what they did is fine, but I mean, they gave it back and they said sorry so, I don’t know, I’m just stoked to get it back, put it that way,’ he told the New Zealand Herald.

Officers confirmed that they would continue their search for the perpetrator using CCTV footage of the theft and forensic testing of the vehicle. 

Mr Chada thought he had ‘gone mad’ when his ute disappeared into thin air, but CCTV from a neighbouring store caught the thief red-handed

Mr Chada had originally left the keys in the ignition for five minutes while he popped inside his eatery which gave the thief the perfect opportunity to casually drive away in it

Mr Chada thanked the positive community response for drawing a guilty conscience out of the thief which led to his car being returned. 

Customers of the eatery and other locals rapidly shared his post online which is understood to have eventually reached the thief. 

‘Everyone kept an eye out and, yeah, it’s been like the topic for the whole week, lots of the customers shared it when it went missing as well and [had] been keeping an eye out for it,’ he said. 

‘So I think that social media definitely helped me get it back.’