Bugatti Boss Chased His Stolen Chiron In A Porsche 911

Leaving your car unlocked with the keys inside is always a terrible idea. Doing it with a seven-figure hypercar is an even bigger gamble. Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac, learned that lesson the hard way after someone stole his Chiron from a company building in Croatia.

Apparently, Rimac had developed a habit of leaving the keys inside his cars, even when those cars were worth several million euros. He probably figured nobody would be foolish enough to steal something so expensive. Unfortunately, someone eventually called his bluff.

According to Rimac, an employee spotted the Chiron speeding away from the building and quickly alerted colleagues. A group chat was set up to establish whether anyone had authorized the car's departure. It didn't take long to realize this wasn't an employee taking the hypercar for an unscheduled drive.

The Bugatti CEO Took Matters Into His Own Hands

Rimac immediately contacted the police, but he wasn't prepared to sit around waiting for updates. Fortunately, he had a Porsche 911 nearby with a full tank of gas. He jumped behind the wheel and went after the stolen Bugatti.

The thief already had roughly a one-hour head start and was heading toward Slovenia. Fortunately, the Chiron came equipped with something that would prove particularly useful: live telemetry.

The system let Rimac and his colleagues monitor the car's location, speed, fuel level, and other data in real time. They shared these updates with the police through the group chat, effectively turning the expensive hypercar into a very expensive tracking device.

That said, we're surprised Bugatti couldn’t remotely turn off the vehicle, especially given how much data the company could access through its live telemetry system. While tracking the Chiron's location, speed, and fuel level was certainly helpful, being able to immobilize it remotely would have made the pursuit considerably easier.

Rimac initially hoped the authorities would catch the suspect before he crossed into another country. That didn't happen. The Chiron made it into Austria, where the driver was running low on fuel. The team hoped he would stop at a gas station, but the thief apparently had other plans.

The Thief Even Skipped The Fuel Bill

According to Rimac, the suspect eventually stopped to refuel, put roughly half a tank of gas in the car to feed the quad-turbo, 8.0-liter W16 engine, and continued driving. He apparently didn't pay for the fuel, either.

The chase finally ended when Austrian police intercepted the Chiron. One officer was in the group chat and had been receiving constant location updates, which made it much easier to track the stolen hypercar.

Interestingly, Rimac says he decided not to press charges because he felt sorry for the man who took the car. That doesn't mean the suspect will simply walk away, however. Stealing a Bugatti is hardly a minor offense, even if its owner decides not to pursue the case.

The incident has already changed Rimac's approach to car security. He admitted that the company will no longer leave keys lying around its factory. For anyone considering a similar joyride, he offered a straightforward warning: "We have all the data, and you can't do anything with the car without us."

Rimac also shared security footage from the factory showing just how casually the whole incident unfolded. The video captures the suspect smoking a cigarette before wandering around the facility and eventually discovering that the keys had been left inside the Chiron. Rather than resist temptation, he got behind the wheel of the seven-figure hypercar and drove off, apparently unaware that its telemetry would later help track his movements across multiple countries.

It Could Have Ended Much Worse

The Chiron sustained some minor damage to its front bumper during the ordeal, but nothing too serious. Fortunately, it's an easy fix, so the multi-million-euro hypercar escaped the joyride largely unscathed. Things could have ended much worse had the thief lost control of the 1,479-horsepower machine and crashed it.

It's an amusing story with a surprisingly happy ending, considering what could have happened to a multi-million-euro hypercar. Still, Rimac probably won't be leaving the keys in his Chiron again anytime soon. Some lessons are more expensive than others.

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