--- title: This Accidental Car Thief Is Very, Very Sorry for the Mix-Up description: A Portland Subaru owner thought her car had been stolen—until it was returned the next day, along with an explanatory note and some cash. canonical: https://time.com/4550025/car-thief-sorry-note/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-28T20:58:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:10.203Z og:title: This Accidental Car Thief Left a 'So Sorry' Note for the Mix-Up og:description: The thief made it up by returning the car, along with a note and some cash. og:url: https://time.com/4550025/car-thief-sorry-note/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Accidental Car Thief Left a 'So Sorry' Note for the Mix-Up twitter:description: The thief made it up by returning the car, along with a note and some cash. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Accidental Car Thief Leaves 'So So Sorry' Note for the Mix-Up > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 28, 2016 8:58 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 28, 2016 8:58 PM UTC Earlier this week, [a Portland woman](http://time.com/4137203/portland-hipster-santa-man-bun/?iid=sr-link3) believed herself to be the victim of a typical car theft. Surveillance video showed a woman walking up to Hatzi’s parked red Subaru in her driveway, getting in, waiting for a few minutes, and driving off. But it turned out that the whole theft was really just a mix-up. Within 24 hours, police discovered Erin Hatzi’s car dropped off just a block from where it had gone missing. Inside the car, the driver had left a note and $30 in cash (gas money.) As the note, which Hatzi posted to Facebook, explained, a _different_ red Subaru owner had initially sent a friend the previous night to pick up the car, also parked nearby. The friend mistook Hatzi’s vehicle for the other person’s—and, as older Subaru keys can sometimes be interchangeable, was able to drive off. In a coincidence of timing, the police happened to be driving by just when the driver was dropping off the car. Running the license plates and realizing it had been reported stolen, they detained the driver, who apologized “profusely” for the mix-up; apparently the other car had been parked a mere ten yards away, [Hatzi told _People_](http://people.com/crime/portland-womans-accidentally-stolen-car-returned-apology/). Everyone’s story has checked out, and the case is now closed. “It’s insane,” Hatzi [told local news station KGW](http://www.kgw.com/news/local/portland-womans-stolen-car-returned-with-note-gas-money-and-a-crazy-story/342692897). “It’s like a bad sitcom…nobody would ever buy the story because it’s stupid and it makes no sense. But it happened.” So all’s well that end’s well for red Subaru owners in Portland this week. Moral of this story: not all car keys are unique. 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