When One Man’s Skyline GT-R Was Stolen, Colorado Stepped Up

Finding out your car has been stolen is a heart-wrenching moment for any car enthusiast. It happens all too often, and many cars are never the same after, if they’re even recovered at all. But sometimes, ever so rarely, fate shines a light, and reunites an owner with their pride and joy.

Tommy Bristol knows this story better than most. He’s a true gearhead, which is how he ended up importing a 1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R, back in 2018. He got himself a beautiful clean example of the Japan’s twin-turbo hero car, took great care of it, and even gave it a custom plate—”NOTLOUD.”

All was well, until his car was targeted by a dedicated thief. It was gone in a flash, but it was the power of the Colorado car community that helped bring it back.

Tommy took to the radio this past weekend to tell his story. Chatting with host Matthew West on Automotive ADHD, he explains the wild rollercoaster of events that saw his car disappear in the dead of night.

“It was stolen at like, three in the morning,” says Tommy. Despite keeping his car in an underground car park with a locked door and cameras, that wasn’t enough to keep it safe from the targeted smash-and-grab operation. “My neighbors came to me around four, and said, ‘Hey Tommy, we heard this huge crash,'” he explains. “‘A man drove another car through the garage door… [and] smashed the garage door off the building completely just to steal your car, and it’s gone.'”

The thief had literally used another stolen car as a battering ram to enter the underground lot. “Somehow, through scouting or otherwise, he knew there was a Skyline in that garage, and he wanted it so bad that he would literally dump another car and commit all this drama to it,” he muses. Speaking to KKTV 11, he noted the security footage made it obvious this was a specific hit. “From the security camera, he walked directly towards my car with his tools in hand.”

In the immediate wake of the theft, Tommy was “devastated and heartbroken”, in his own words. “When the sun started coming up, a friend of mine said ‘Hey, you need to post this… there are Colorado car groups on Facebook, you need to at least let people know,'” he says. “I said no, I don’t really use Facebook, I don’t really want to.” Despite his reluctance, Tommy’s persistent friend stepped up and offered to post on his behalf. “She posted for me on the Colorado Cars and Coffee [group] and a couple others, and that started to get attention,” he says. “Almost immediately people were posting pictures of my car!”

Reports began pouring in as people spotted the car around the city. “They had seen a skyline driving south on I25, they pulled out their phones to take a picture of the Skyline,” Tommy explained. “Then they maybe got home or got to work and saw the post on the Facebook group and said ‘Hey, I just saw that car and I took pictures.'”

He already had an army of car spotters hunting for his car, but he was distraught, all the same. “It feels like quite a violation, actually,” he said of the theft. “The whole time it was gone, I was having all of these thoughts and fears of what could be happening to my car.”

Thankfully, the power of social media paid off quickly. “Early on, people were just taking pictures of a Skyline they thought was cool, and then they realized it had been stolen,” he explains. “Later on we had people actively searching the city, driving around looking for the car. ” This netted enough information for Tommy to get a rough idea of where to find it, with reports narrowing down a few common areas. “I didn’t feel like the police were able to take action the way I wanted, so I drove down to [Colorado Springs] myself,” Tommy explains. “I live in Denver, I said I don’t care, I’m gonna go drive down there, I’m gonna go to these four places that it’s been reported multiple times.”

Amazingly, his strategy quickly bore fruit. “At one point, I even saw my own car driving north on Powers Boulevard,” he says, with a hint of the initial rush in his voice. “I was like, there’s no way I just saw my car!”

Try as he might though, it wasn’t an instant Hollywood ending. “I see the car, and I want nothing more than to jump the curb and go immediately speed after it and run every red light and slice through traffic,” he says. “But I’m in a Lexus GX470, I could maybe jump the curb but I’m not slicing through traffic very much and he already had a head start.” As much as he hoped to catch the car, it wasn’t to be. “Almost as quick as I saw him, I lost him… it was devastating, ” he recalls. “It was almost more difficult than if I never saw it at all, he was right there at my fingertips and then he got away.”

All was not lost, however, with providence smiling upon him a short while later.. “That night, at 11:30, I got a call from the El Paso County sheriff that they found the car in the Black Forest area and it’s being recovered,” he says. Tommy credits the community with helping save his car. “I’m convinced that the groups and all of the attention online word got to him eventually…” he says. “He started to see that there were photos of him driving my car, every few minutes, his location was being tracked.”

The car was literally found abandoned on the roadside by police. “He got sick of it or got afraid and he decided to drive out of the city a little bit, drop the car off, and leave it,” Tommy muses. “That’s my theory, because otherwise.., he didn’t strip the car, he didn’t wreck the car, he joyrided around a bit in it and then left it on the side of the road.”

The story made local media, too. 

“It’s actually something I never expected to happen… and something that almost didn’t happen,” Tommy says. For now, his car is safe, but he’s yet to be reunited with his Nissan. “Right now it’s being held for evidence at an evidence lot, I need to wait for them to call me and let me know when they get you know, fingerprints and things like that out of the car,” he explains. “I’m hoping I can drive it out of there, if not I’ll have it towed.”

Ultimately, despite not being a big Facebook user himself, Tommy has a lot of gratitude for those who helped out. “I just want to say thank you to everybody online that commented on the post and gave some information and helped out,” he says. “My car was stolen and they recovered it 44 hours later… I’m nothing but grateful.”

While the story has a relatively happy ending, sadly this sort of thing isn’t unusual in Tommy’s area. As covered by Newsweek, crime data says Colorado is the national leader in car thefts, with 51.43 vehicles stolen per 100,000 citizens. It holds the unenviable top position ahead of New Mexico and Washington in second and third respectively. Meanwhile, Maine is apparently the safest state to park your car, with just 5.58 vehicles stolen per 100,000 citizens.

Many of us dread ever losing our prized vehicles, and are duly careful in turn. And yet, even when taking real precautions, you can still be caught out by a thief dedicated enough to ram their way into your building. Heck, even Nissan Australia saw their cherished example stolen out of their own secure lockup. When you’ve got a desirable car, it can be a target.

Despite this, stories like Tommy’s remind us how beautiful the car community can be. When the chips are down, it’s nice to know that there are other enthusiasts out there that have our back and are willing to help us bring our car home.

Image credits: via Facebook screenshot, Automotive ADHD via YouTube screenshot, KKTV 11 News | Southern Colorado via YouTube screenshot