Talkback callers track man's stolen $300k car

Photo / Supplied

A frantic search in Auckland for a stolen $300,000 Aston Martin played out live on air yesterday after its panicked owner called a radio station and asked for help.

The car was stolen from Auckland developer Mark Hackshaw, who had stopped at a luxury-car yard in Newmarket to say hello to a friend, but left the keys in the ignition.

"I'm humiliated, I'm embarrassed, I'm frustrated, I'm relieved, I'm angry and I'm upset," Mr Hackshaw told the Herald.

"I feel humiliated because I left the keys in the ignition. I feel humiliated because the car wasn't insured."

Mr Hackshaw said he had been stopped at Coutts' yard for five minutes just after 2pm when someone ran up to him, yelling: "Where's your car? Where's your f****** car gone?"

"I walked outside and sure enough, no car ... It just completely slipped my mind to take the keys out.

"And I feel humiliated because everyone I called to say the car had been stolen yelled at me about the miniature schnauzer being in the car. They didn't give a s*** about the $300,000 car, they were just worried about the $2000 miniature schnauzer."

Not long after it was stolen, a woman rang Mr Hackshaw to say she had found his dog, Otto, in Herne Bay. She had got his phone number off the collar.

"She said, 'Have you lost a dog?' and I said, 'Damn right I've lost a dog, but I've also lost a car. There doesn't happen to be a grey Aston Martin there, too, by any chance?' ... Then she mentioned something about RadioLive and I suddenly thought, 'We need to get this on the radio in case people have seen it'."

Mr Hackshaw has a mate working at Newstalk ZB, so he called on-air talkback host Danny Watson and asked him to urge his listeners to call if they saw his three-month-old, gun-metal grey Aston Martin V8 Vantage with the licence plate 0007.

He promised anyone with information a $10,000 reward.

"Within minutes, people had called in and said they'd seen it screaming down the Northwestern [Motorway]. Someone else said they'd seen it on Remuera Rd. Then someone said they'd seen it in Herne Bay."

Police used the Eagle helicopter to join the search, and the car was tracked to the Unicorn Motel in Ponsonby about 5pm.

"Another guy called Mark, who lives opposite the motel, called in and said he could see it sitting in the carpark," Mr Hackshaw said.

"I'll definitely pay up the reward, because if it wasn't for him, I might not have my car back."

In the Aston Martin was Mr Hackshaw's diary, laptop, house keys, keys to other cars and about $500 cash.

Everything was returned except the cash.

"If I'd had a Subaru Legacy, I'd never have seen it again."

A man has been arrested over the theft and will appear in the Auckland District Court today.