DENVER (CBS4)– One man says he learned an important lesson the hard way. He left his car running with the keys in the ignition just for a minute while he ran inside a convenience store. When he came out, his car was gone.

“I don’t know. I just had a lot going on that day,” said Darion Mayhorn.

He was out running errands getting ready for his big trip to India the following day. He only had one stop left, 7-Eleven on Montview and Central Park Boulevard in Denver.

“I ran in to get a Slurpee of all things,” he said.

When he got out of his car, he left the keys in the ignition and the car running. It didn’t take long for someone to take advantage.

Darion describes what he saw on 7-11’s surveillance cameras after the incident, “This guy with his two friends… they, I guess maybe talked it out when they walked past my car and saw that it was running. They come into the store they talk briefly and then the guy goes back out looks at it again comes back in they talk again and he takes off with my car.”

The thieves made off with a lot more than that. They got his laptop, wallet, and passport. That meant he had to miss the trip to India he had been planning for months.

“I was really excited about it and I was not anticipating this happening,” said Mayhorn.

He said he thinks his car might be in Aurora because someone on Nextdoor was in a hit and run accident with it the very next day. Now he’s asking the community to be on the lookout for the vehicle and if you know they people in this video he hopes you will call the police.

Mayhorn has also learned a valuable lesson about leaving your keys in your car, “I certainly would advise someone not to do that, and to definitely purchase travel insurance.”