Mate Rimac Chased His Own Stolen Chiron Into Austria

The man who runs Bugatti left the keys in his Bugatti. For years, it never mattered. Last Wednesday, October 28, it did.

Mate Rimac is the 38-year-old CEO of Bugatti Rimac. His personal Chiron was parked outside on his company's campus near Zagreb, Croatia, keys inside, the way he always leaves them. He says the campus has no fence. Colleagues move his cars around all day, so he doesn't always know where the Chiron is. That afternoon, a man walked onto the grounds, looked around, got in, and drove off. Rimac later posted the security footage. It shows a guy finishing a cigarette, easing up to a blue Chiron, and climbing in once nobody's looking.

Nobody even knew it was a theft at first. Then someone reported a stranger behind the wheel. Rimac's people called the police and pulled up the car's telemetry, which streams its location, speed, and fuel level. The Chiron was headed for Slovenia with about an hour's head start. So Rimac got in his Porsche 911 and went after it.

The car crossed Slovenia and entered Austria at the Spielfeld border crossing. Rimac says the driver stopped for fuel, put in about half a tank, and left without paying. Rimac's team kept feeding the location into a group chat with police, and one of the officers was in it. Shortly after 7 p.m., Austrian motorway police found the Chiron at a gas station on the A9 near Seiersberg-Pirka, just south of Graz. They arrested the driver on the spot. He's a 36-year-old Croatian man. His name hasn't been released.

At the station, Rimac got to meet him. The man said he'd come to the campus looking for a job, saw the Chiron with the key inside, and decided to drive it to Germany. Rimac told the story on Instagram the next day with a laugh: "like it was my fault." Styrian police say the man gave a full confession. On the Graz prosecutor's order, he was reported for prosecution but not held in custody. Rimac said he wouldn't press charges, but because of what the car is worth, the man is still expected to be prosecuted. "Just the fact that he stole a Bugatti and especially this one told me that this guy has problems," Rimac said.

Austrian police value the car at about €3 million. AFP puts the Chiron's base price at €2.4 million, about $2.7 million. Which version of the Chiron it is, its spec, and its mileage haven't been disclosed. Bugatti built 500 Chirons in total. The car came back with some damage, and AFP reports it will be repaired. Police have already handed it back to him.

"I got it back obviously," he said, standing in front of it. Then came the part he wants everyone to hear. "I'm so proud of Croatia being so safe that I'm very relaxed, meaning I always leave my keys inside my cars, including Chiron and Nevera. I do that for years and nothing ever happened of course until something did happen now, so I will not do that anymore and don't try your luck."

The car could tell him where it was, how fast it was going, and how much gas was left. The one thing it couldn't do was take the keys out of itself.