Getting your car stolen has got to be one of the most irritating things ever. I assume it’s way more aggravating when your car is a McLaren 570S. The aggravation must wane a bit once you learn that the person who stole your car is a complete moron and got themselves caught quickly. Well, that is exactly what happened when a McLaren 570S got stolen in the U.K., and the thief got pinched trying to have a shop change the locks while the car was reported stolen.  

Don’t steal a supercar then take it to a shop to change the locks

According to the New York Post, the nearly $200,000 McLaren 570S was stolen from an apartment complex in Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the month. The car was reported stolen, and police reports filed, and, of course, local shops were most likely alerted to keep an eye out for the flamboyant supercar. 

The West Midlands Police tweeted, “Shortly after the McLaren was taken, it turned up at a garage in Birmingham by the suspect claiming that the car was his and he needed to get the locks changed.” 

If you Steal a McLaren, you gotta know someone’s looking for it

Shortly after the theft, the 31-year-old suspect took the bright-orange McLaren to a garage for the bizarre work request to change the locks. This would be a strange request under normal circumstances, but with a stolen supercar alert out, this is about the dumbest thing I can think of. The problem is, I can’t really think of any reason why/how someone would drive their McLaren to a garage and ask for the locks to be changed unless they had just stolen it. 

“We were able to trace a suspect to an address this morning, and he was swiftly arrested,” Brum City Centre Police Sgt. Aisha Parveen said. “We have one happy owner now that his car has been recovered.”

Let’s see what the thief was trying to get here

The McLaren 570S falls at the bottom of the McLaren totem pole, but the bottom for McLaren doesn’t really mean much. The 570S houses a 562-hp twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 mounted in the middle. Not only does this powerplant make a ton wheel burning goodness, but the mid-engine mounting also makes the weight distribution ideal for running around corners like greased lightning.

The mid-mounted V8 is paired with a quick-shifting dual-clutch automatic transmission that feels straight out of one of the company’s Formula 1 cars. Due to all its power and quick-shifting gearbox, the 570S can do 0-60 mph in only 2.7 seconds and can hit 100 mph in only 6 seconds—the top speed caps at blistering 204 mph. 

Unlike many other supercars, the McLaren might look extreme from the outside, but it is all business on the inside. The no-nonsense British company didn’t care to make it look fancy and flashy. Instead, it designed everything to be functional and almost dry. The point being, make the McLaren line a series of driving-focused supercars and less of an attention-grabbing one.