Gavin Strickland trekked 500 miles this week, and then he trekked 500 more — just to be the man reunited with a waywardly-parked Nissan.

In a saga that charmed Torontonians into searching indoor parking garages, the 19-year-old from Syracuse, N.Y., arrived in town Sunday for a Metallica concert but later forgot where he’d parked his car.

He knew only that it was somewhere within an $8 cab ride of the Rogers Centre, and that a smattering of ambiguous landmarks may have been nearby.

His father, Eric, posted an ad on Craigslist asking for the city’s help to find the lost car for his “doofy son” and offering a $100 reward. It was the second time Gavin had lost his car after a concert, and he spent hours wandering around different parking garages looking for it before going back home on a bus.

On Thursday evening, with great fanfare and hordes of cameras, Gavin was reunited with the vehicle right where he left it — in an electric car station of the TD Bank Tower on Wellington St. W., with his wheels cocked slightly to the right.

“How did I walk past this?” he asked himself, chuckling as he looked at his car. A blue backpack and a blanket were still perched on the back seat, and Gavin clutched a TTC map in his hand while he chatted with reporters about the solo trek gone wrong.

Next time, Gavin thinks it may be a good idea to bring someone else — and let them drive.

It was Madison Riddolls, 26, who eventually found the car early Thursday morning after she and her boyfriend, Liam Imlack Walker, decided to play detective.

Riddolls and Imlack Walker were debating calling it an early night until they saw the family’s Craigslist lost car ad. “We were really confident in ourselves,” Riddolls said.

The pair started trying to identify the “spiral statue” Strickland remembered seeing near the parking garage and sent a few photos to the family. When that didn’t pan out, they switched tracks, trying to figure out which Starbucks was potentially nearby and within the radius of that $8 cab ride.

“I think we watch too much Criminal Minds,” Riddolls said.

Their search started in the Distillery District and took them eventually to the financial district — running in, around, and out of numerous parking garages.

“The security footage is probably crazy,” Riddolls said.

Finally, at midnight, the weary couple decided to try one more garage. And there it was.

Impark, in response to the saga, is gifting Gavin a Tile Mate Bluetooth tracker — to help make sure he never loses his car again. As well, they’ll be charging him only for the parking fees he would have incurred Sunday, said Michael Giles, the company’s director of account management.

Gavin’s father is relieved to know the car is coming home.

“I paid for the thing, spent $10,000 on it about a year and a half ago so I’m glad I found it, yeah,” he said.

Riddolls will be receiving a $100 reward and Eric Strickland has said he’ll donate to a charity of her choice.

Gavin’s Nissan Versa Sedan is somewhat of an international affair, with a Canadian flag affixed to the left, a “don’t blame me, I voted for Bernie” sticker on the right, Toronto Maple Leafs licence plate frames, New York seat covers, and, on the bumper, an adhesive ad for the best auto deals in Melbourne.

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He’s also a Jays fan, he added on Thursday. As for Toronto, it has firmly pressed its way into his heart after this week’s debacle.

“I think it’s just a great city, it’s got a lot of people that care,” he said — though becoming somewhat of a local celebrity for 48 hours was unexpected.

“All of a sudden, my Facebook starts getting blown up, Twitter, everything. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on here?’ ”

He laughed describing the jokes people had made about the movie Dude, Where’s My Car?, saying he called a friend after realizing he’d lost the vehicle and made the same kind of crack.