Buying a brand-new Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 is no small feat. With a starting price of around $62,500, this GLE certainly isn’t cheap. However, one owner in Atlanta, unfortunately, had their SUV stolen shortly after taking delivery. According to DJ Hurst via the VinWiki YouTube channel, the SUV was found by accident not long after it was stolen.

How did the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 get stolen?

This Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 story begins as a couple was having dinner one night in Atlanta. This was when car thieves raided the box that holds car keys at the valet parking station. After trying several keys in the parking lot, the thieves eventually got away with the large Mercedes-Benz SUV. According to VinWiki, the couple then contacted DJ Hurst, the man who sold them the SUV in the first place. This is because DJ is reportedly knowledgeable of the local car scene.

What makes this story interesting is that the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 was a brand-new vehicle. As a result, there weren’t many on the road at the time, says VinWiki. On top of that, this particular SUV had a rare brown interior that buyers seldom chose. As a result, this SUV would be fairly easy to spot in the wild. After several weeks of looking, the trail went cold, and all of the parties involved began to move on from the ordeal.

It turned up at a local parking lot

As luck would have it, DJ went to visit a friend at an apartment complex in Atlanta one day. As DJ drove in, he told VinWiki that he spotted a Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 in the parking lot and thought nothing of it. Despite this, DJ says that a voice in his head told him to go back and check this SUV out. To his surprise, this particular SUV was optioned with the rare brown-leather interior.

DJ then quickly got on the phone with the original owner of the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 to collect some details. As DJ read off the license plate, the owner quickly confirmed that it was indeed the stolen SUV. To be certain, DJ took a peek at the VIN to see if it was a match. As you’d expect, this was, without a doubt, the stolen Mercedes.

From there, the police quickly arrived and recovered the vehicle. Strangely enough, DJ’s friend reportedly told him that the SUV had been parked in that same spot for several days. Unfortunately, this is where the trail goes cold in terms of the thieves in question.

Why couldn’t Mercedes-Benz track the SUV?

One of the first things DJ attempted to do when he heard the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 had been stolen was to contact the dealership. This is because, in some cases, these SUVs have a built-in tracking device that can be used to quickly recover them if stolen. Unfortunately, the thieves had ripped into the SUV and taken the tracking device out. What this tells us that the people who committed the crime were quite knowledgeable.

While we will never know, the running theory is that the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 would’ve been taken apart and sold in pieces. Another potential outcome is that it was shipped overseas to sell. Thankfully, by pure accident, this expensive SUV was successfully returned to its rightful owner.