A Vancouver car thief chose the worst possible target — a trackable Tesla — in what appears to be one of the first cases of that make being reported stolen in Canada.

Katya Pinkowski and a friend left a concert near Granville Street on Thursday night and headed to an underground parking lot to hop into Pinkowski’s beloved dark blue Tesla Model S 85D, bought last year from the Vancouver store.

The car had mysteriously disappeared, however, and the towing company told Pinkowski it hadn’t picked up any Teslas that night, she said.

Her next call, to her husband Cary, quickly turned up the location of the high-tech electric vehicle: According to the Tesla Model S app on his smartphone, it was cruising through Richmond at 70 kilometres per hour, presumably with a thief behind the wheel.

“I could watch him go in and out all the streets in Richmond,” Cary Pinkowski said.

The thief, it turns out, had gained access to the car using an extra electronic key fob the couple had bought earlier in the week and mistakenly left inside the vehicle.

As he approached the futuristic car and touched its self-presenting door handles, it must have beckoned him inside, Katya Pinkowski said.

“The car opens and is going, ‘Come on, sit down, let’s have a ride,’” she said with a chuckle. “He couldn’t say no.”

But the Pinkowskis were able to pit tech against tech, and as the thief swerved into courtyards and busted U-turns, the Pinkowskis relayed the car’s location to a 911 operator who then worked with Richmond RCMP to form a plan.

“It was so much fun, actually,” Cary Pinkowski said.

“I could tell the 911 operator was excited ... they’d never had this before, where they could actually track the car.”

The Pinkowskis debated contacting Tesla to kill the car’s motors remotely, or using the app to operate its sunroof and horn, but felt the situation was better left in the Mounties’ capable hands.

Indeed, the joyride soon came to an end as Richmond RCMP caught up with the thief by some railway tracks near No. 5 Road and River Road.

In a statement, Richmond RCMP said they were able to surround the vehicle and safely make an arrest.

“This is the first such Tesla recovery our detachment has encountered,” said Richmond RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dennis Hwang.

“What was unique in this incident was the ability for the Tesla owner to provide the E-Comm police dispatcher with accurate real-time tracking data,” Hwang said.

“This information was then expertly relayed to our awaiting patrol and K9 units. From there, it was a matter of co-ordinating, maintaining safe tactical principles, and finally arresting the suspect. High tech definitely played a helping role.”

Howard Geddes Skelding, 24, was arrested without incident, Hwang said.

Geddes Skelding has been charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000, and has a court date later this month, court records show.

The Pinkowskis ended up retrieving the Tesla around 1 a.m. Friday. Aside from a few scuffed rims and traces of the thief’s abandoned dinner, it was in top shape.

Last fall, MarketWatch reported that only four Teslas, priced from $88,000 Cdn, had ever been stolen in the U.S., based on data obtained from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

“It’s a huge testimonial for Tesla,” Cary Pinkowski said of the car’s swift return.

“I think it’s the way of the future, that within five years all cars will be tracked, so the days of stealing cars are going to come to an end.”

neagland@theprovince.com

twitter.com/nickeagland

— with files from Dan Fumano