Luck of the Irish bad news for car thief

Statistics student Dougal Greer is working out the odds of his stolen vehicle stopping at lights near him. Picture / Dean Purcell

Of all the streets in Auckland, the car thief chose the one that Dougal Greer was crossing.

It might have been fate, or just pure luck that placed the thief on Waterloo Quadrant at 8.05am yesterday, just as the 29-year-old university student and his friend Richard Walton were crossing the road.

"That looks quite familiar, that car," noted Mr Greer as the Ford Telstar was driven towards them.

"It drove past and there was a bit of mud on the side, like there was on mine, and I said 'Even that [mud] looks a bit familiar'."

Then the men noticed the registration number and realised it was indeed Mr Greer's car, which he had parked in Parnell about a kilometre away.

"I kicked off my flip-flops and went sprinting up the road. I was lucky the car had stopped by some incredibly long red traffic lights - they just wouldn't turn green.

"I don't think the guy saw me coming. I grabbed open the [passenger] door and there was this stoned-looking, unkempt fellow sitting in the car. He had this joint beside the hand brake." Mr Greer said he jumped in the passenger seat and yelled at the thief to get out.

"Suddenly the penny must have dropped and his face dropped and he must have thought, 'Oh God, it's his car', and he sort of fell out the driver's door."

The man ran off and Mr Greer said he regretted not giving chase and making a citizen's arrest.

"There is nothing I hate more in the world than car thieves."

Last night he was marvelling at the coincidence that led to him recovering his stolen car. "Of all the roads and of all the times of day he could have driven along the road, he just happened to do it then."

Mr Greer, originally from Dublin, may have also saved several other car thefts with the discovery, in the ignition, of a set of keys "that I imagine would let you into just about every car in Auckland".

He said he would hand them over to police.

Last night the two friends, who are post-graduate statistics students, were trying to calculate the odds of such an event - probably less chance than winning Lotto.