A Bugatti Chiron at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show (file photo, not the stolen car). Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mate Rimac says someone walked onto his company’s campus outside Zagreb, Croatia, on the afternoon of Oct. 28, got into his Bugatti Chiron and drove away. The keys were inside, as they had been in his cars for years.
In a video he posted that Croatian outlet N1 summarized, Rimac said he left keys in the Chiron and in his Rimac Nevera because he feels safe in Croatia and because employees sometimes need to move or test the cars. He called Croatia very safe, said that seems odd to people who live in the U.S., and said he is proud of it. He also said the campus has no fence or strict security, and that he will stop leaving the keys inside.
Arrest at a petrol station near Graz
Styria state police said Autobahn officers arrested a 36-year-old Croatian national shortly after 7 p.m. that evening at a petrol station on the A9 Pyhrn Autobahn near Seiersberg. Police said he had driven to Slovenia and entered Austria at the Spielfeld border crossing, that Slovenian and Austrian authorities searched together, and that the Chiron, which police put at about €3 million (roughly $3.3 million), has been returned to its owner. Police said the man fully confessed. On the Graz prosecutor’s order he will be reported while remaining at liberty, and state criminal investigators took over the case. ORF’s Styria desk reported the same details.
Rimac said the car’s telemetry sent its position to a server and showed it heading toward Slovenia, and that he followed in his own 911 while friends stayed with police. He said an Austrian officer in a group chat with the details helped lead to the arrest. N1 reported that police from three countries were looking for the car. Rimac said the Chiron was damaged during the chase; the Styria release does not mention damage.
What the suspect told Rimac
In the video as N1 reported it, Rimac said the man told him at the police station that he had come to the campus to apply for a job, saw the Chiron with the keys inside, took it for a drive and meant to go to Germany. Rimac said the man blamed him for leaving the keys. Those are Rimac’s words about what the man said. Police have not released a motive, and I found no statement from a defense lawyer, no named charge and no court date. Rimac said he will not sue the man privately but expects prosecutors to proceed because of the car’s value.
Why Croatian police are not citing Rimac for the keys
After the video, tportal reported that Croatian police looked into whether leaving the keys in the cars broke the Road Traffic Safety Act. According to the report, which cites 24sata for the police statement, police found no elements of an offense and will not file a complaint. Their reasoning, as relayed: the car was on company premises, and Article 88(1) covers vehicles left on public roads and other traffic areas, where a driver has to stop the engine, close the windows, lock the vehicle and take the key. tportal put the fine for breaking that rule at €30, or roughly $33. The police statement as tportal relayed it does not repeat that figure, and I could not confirm it against the statute text.
The rule follows the location, not the price of the car. On that reading, a Chiron with the keys inside at a curb on a public street would fall under Article 88(1), and the same car in a private company lot does not.
A safety bet with a tracker behind it
Rimac’s reason for the policy was a belief about Croatia, and he repeated it after the theft. His remarks were about Croatia, not Europe as a whole, though the car crossed two borders before it was stopped. The record supports part of the belief: the car was found and a suspect arrested the same evening, and the owner has the car back. It does not show that open keys on an open campus were what kept the cars safe for years. According to Rimac, what recovered this one was a telemetry feed and an officer in a group chat.
The arrangement was legal on private ground and, by Rimac’s own explanation, a convenience for his staff. The convenience cost a night of police work across at least two countries and, by Rimac’s account, a damaged Chiron. Prosecutors, he says, will proceed with or without him.
What happens next
Neither the Styria release nor ORF names a charge or a court date. Which country’s prosecutors take the case, and whether the charge is theft or unauthorized use of the car, has not been announced in anything I found. Backfire News has covered the theft and arrest and how Austrian law separates theft from unauthorized use of a vehicle.
A $3.3 million car on an unfenced lot with the key inside: confidence in Croatia, or a dare?
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