Man who accidentally bought his own stolen car shared how much he paid to get it back

Getting your car nicked is one of the biggest headaches you can experience, and very rarely does the victim find their stolen vehicle.

Or, even more bizarrely, buy it back.

But that's exactly what Ewan Valentine went through in what might be one of the craziest stories of the year.

The Brit took to Instagram to explain what had happened to followers, simply providing the headline: "I accidentally bought my own stolen car back..."

He explained that it was down to the tee, with the same colour, year, and custom exhaust system.

However, as expected, the plates, VIN numbers and mileage were all different, despite being registered with the DVLA.

Speaking to LADbible, the Honda Civic Type R owner opened up on his crazy experience, revealing how much he paid for the car both times and if he found out who the thieves were.

It all began on an evening a few months ago.

Ewan owns a doorbell camera, and although it notified him of its low battery, he decided that one more night wouldn't hurt, leaving it until the next day to deal with.

The next morning, he'd been woken up by his partner telling him that his car had been stolen, forcing Ewan to call the police and his insurance provider.

Within a few weeks, he made the decision to get his 'midlife crisis car' back, and found one that was the same colour and model, appearing eerily similar to his old car.

He put the payment down though, comparing the price to the first purchase: "It was about the same. Both were about £22,000, which was weird, because the mileage was way lower on this one.

"It did enter my head when I was going down there. I was like, 'it's exact same car,' you know? 'Could this be?'"

Pointing out that the mileage was actually about 50,000 miles less than when he last saw his car, Ewan thought it was different as he 'assumed that you couldn't tamper with that anymore'.

He later noticed a tent peg and some Christmas tree pines in the boot, which he remembered was in his old car, before finding wrappers in the central column that were also his, and even found that the navigation history featured places he had been in the past few years.

"My hands were shaking at this point," he admitted. "I was thinking, like, I'm gonna have to pull over. This is crazy."

Ewan hadn't even picked up on the fact that his phone automatically connected via Bluetooth.

Scratches and marks on the car became noticeable, and he also noticed that one of his VIN numbers was missing.

With the help of a police officer, who was also in shock, they went to the Honda garage and got same-day service.

Ewan admitted: "I forgot that the original key had, like a physical key inside of it, so the one of the Honda technicians just took the key off me, took the key out, and just immediately unlocked.

"It was like, yeah, it's yours."

He added: "It was surreal, because me, a police officer, and three Honda technicians were just looking at the car, shaking our heads in silence for a few minutes. Because, obviously, none of them had ever seen this happen before."

While his doorbell camera died, his neighbour's footage showed the thieves getting in and out in less than a couple of minutes, which Ewan believes is down to the car's keyless feature.

He highlighted that while his car was nicked, the garage he bought the car from was 'reputable', and believes they had no knowledge of the Honda being clones.

"The police and the Honda garage both said that this is one of the best clones they've ever seen, which made me feel a little bit better," he pointed out.

Ewan added that he has 'no reason to, kind of, suspect anything with them' as the car was the cheapest one on offer.

In terms of insurance though, he explained: "Legally, I'm probably, in a pretty strong position, because you have to legally own something to be able to sell it, which technically they didn't.

"They haven't paid out, but they will have to make it road legal again and decide whether it's worth the work or if they'd rather give me the money, but I suspect I will get it back."

At the end of his Instagram post, Ewan signed off: "Only f***ing me."