When Andrew Garcia had his Lamborghini Huracán stolen two years ago, he was heartbroken. He admits, “I cried.” The Orange County, California, resident had his prized possession nabbed by a crime ring that took more than 20 luxury vehicles from a rental service, changed the names on the titles, and resold them.

Garcia says, “It was a blow to a lot of people, very frustrating.” Over the years, some of the stolen cars reappeared—but not Garcia’s Huracán. Then someone DMed him on Instagram.

“It said, ‘Did you sell this car?’ And I thought, that’s random!” Perhaps the messenger was considering buying the Huracán, had identified it as Garcia’s, and wanted to make sure they weren’t walking into a scam. Whatever the reason, they included photos of his Huracán.

Garcia realized the photos were fresh—and they weren’t taken in California. That meant his Lamborghini was still around, and he had an important clue. So he turned to ChatGPT.

“I figured, let’s use ChatGPT, let’s see how strong this thing is.” The AI chatbot helped him identify where the pictures were taken. Then he used Google imagery to double-check “the longitude and latitude.”

According to Garcia’s online sidekicks, his car was in Denver, Colorado. He contacted local authorities, and they immediately recovered his vehicle.

Cale Gould, a spokesperson for the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority, says, “This proactive intelligence gathering is a really great benefit to helping recover stolen vehicles.”

Garcia was jazzed after getting his Huracán back. “You can ask for help, but us Americans, we want to do things for ourselves.”

Meanwhile, two suspects in the theft ring that stole the Lamborghini are going on trial in October.