Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac’s Chiron Stolen After He Left His Keys In It
Sometimes something happens that makes you completely rethink something you’ve been doing for years. Just ask Mate Rimac.
The Bugatti Rimac CEO revealed that his personal Chiron was stolen from one of his company’s factories in Croatia earlier this week. The reason? The executives left his keys in the hypercar.
Rimac, who became the head of Bugatti in 2021 when he was just 33, shared the story with his one million Instagram followers on Thursday. In a five-minute video posted to the social-media platform, he said because his native Croatia is “super super safe,” he “always” leaves his keys in his car, whether it be his Chiron, his Nevera, or any other coveted vehicle he happens to be driving that day. In Rimac’s defense, there’s a reason for this. He, like so many executives, is in and out of meetings all day, and the easy access to his keys allows his colleagues to easily move his hypercars when necessary.
This was not how things had played out on Wednesday, though. That day, an unauthorized person walked onto the campus, got into Rimac’s unlocked seven-figure hypercar, and drove off in it. Someone at the factory spotted this happening, alerted the executive, and when it was determined the person behind the wheel of the Chiron was not a colleague, police were called (a second video posted to Instagram shows the thief sidling up to the car and getting in once he realizes no one is looking).
It wasn’t just the police on the case, though. Rimac was, too. Using the Chiron’s onboard telemetry data and a Porsche 911 he had on hand, the executive set off in pursuit of the vehicle which was, at that point, speeding toward the Slovenian border. Rimac shared the data—which included location, speed, and fuel level, according to Motor1.com—with authorities, who were eventually caught up with the man in Austria, shortly after he stopped for gas, which he also didn’t pay for.
Later at the police station, after Rimac had proven the Chiron was his, he was given the chance to meet the thief. The man told him he had come to the factory looking for a job, but, after spotting the Chiron with its keys inside, decided to steal it and drive to Germany instead. Despite being a little annoyed at the man for trying to push some of the blame onto him—“like it was my fault,” Rimac said with a laugh—the Bugatti boss said he declined to press charges. That doesn’t mean the man will get off easy, though. Due the value of the Rimac’s Chiron, he will still likely be prosecuted by authorities in Croatia and Austria.
Rimac also said that he will no longer leave his keys in his cars going forward.
