Nantucket is an island 30 miles south of Cape Cod. It’s 100 square miles with about 15,000 year-round residents and an additional 70,000 summer residents. The tight knit community has such a “small town” feel that it’s common to leave your keys in your car. After all, where would a thief go? So residents were shocked when a Mercedes-Benz G Wagon was stolen last week. And everyone was truly puzzled when the SUV disappeared without a trace.

Imagine you spend summers on Nantucket and have a vintage, convertible Mercedes-Benz G Wagon SUV for an island car. It’s old, but on an island just 14 miles wide it’s all the car your family needs. One Sunday evening, you drive down to the Nantucket Stop & Shop for some groceries. When you come out of the store, you can’t find your car. You walk around the downtown parking lot twice, but it’s truly gone.

This is exactly what happened to one Nantucket resident. When they went to the police, the officers assumed they’d left the keys in the ignition and someone had made a mistake. But the weirdest part was the SUV’s owner still had the keys. There was no neighbor they’d authorized to borrow the SUV. It had just been stolen.

The Nantucket Current news website posted a photo of the 1991 SUV and a plea for residents to be on the lookout. The response: “Who steals a car on Nantucket? Where are they going to go?”

It’s a fair point. The police simply had to tell the car ferry operator to not allow any Mercedes G Wagons onboard and any car thieves were up a creek without a paddle.

By the end of Monday, no one had spotted the stolen Mercedes on any roads. No one had noticed it parked at a neighbor’s house. That’s when folks really began to wonder. Had some criminal hot-wired the SUV and already disassembled it for parts? Smuggled it on a boat? Who? Where?

Or was it stolen by some kids messing around? If so, why hadn’t it turned up?

Was the G Wagon nabbed for a Nantucket joyride?

Nantucket Police Department Lt. Angus MacVicar said joyrides are his first suspicion when a car disappears. “That’s often a case of a one-off scenario, or the case of a couple of juveniles who take this on as an extracurricular activity, doing it multiple times until we ultimately catch them…Normally, the way these things would go, the joy ride vehicles end up at a remote area, a beach, Surfside, or behind Bartlett’s Farm. The ones used for just getting home are in the neighborhood where the person needed to go.”

Naturally, MacVicar checked all the usual lots where you might ditch a car. There aren’t many of them. But he found no G Wagon. Older residents did remember one case where a car disappeared on the tiny island. MacVicar explained, “The only vehicle in my tenure at NPD that I know of that was stolen, if you will, long enough for the insurance to pay off the owner of the vehicle, was a Jeep that was ultimately located months later by a hunter on the back side of Altar Rock deep in the bushes. That was many years ago. It was unbelievable we couldn’t find it. But once the foliage dropped and the hunters got out, there it was.”

This time, residents wouldn’t need to wait until fall to find the lost SUV.

The missing Mercedes finally found

Nantucket resident Alex Miccio said, ” I saw the story on the Current,” and it caught his eye for a personal reason. Miccio also has an old Mercedes G Wagon, a 1985. But his wasn’t missing. As far as he knew, his was parked in front of his summer house. He thought, “‘Geez, good thing I didn’t leave the keys in the car! ‘” and he kept scrolling.

Then something odd happened. “Another friend called and said your G Wagon is still in the Stop & Shop parking lot.” That’s when the pieces fell together in his mind.

Miccio actually wasn’t on Nantucket on Tuesday. He was on the mainland. On Sunday night, he’d driven his G Wagon downtown, parked it in the Stop & Shop parking lot, and hopped a ferry back to the mainland. What happened to his SUV? He’d handed off the keys to a family friend he met coming off the ferry, a family friend who was staying at his house. As far as Miccio knew, the friend had started his 1985 G Wagon and driven it home.

He picked up the phone and dialed his summer house. “I called them and asked for the license plate.” Sure enough, the family friend had driven the wrong SUV to Miccio’s home. They had “stolen” the 1991 G Wagon parked in the same lot.

Miccio’s friend drove the Mercedes back to its owner, and turned themself in to Lieutenant MacVicar. “The vehicle was taken by mistake and has now been returned to the rightful owner,” MacVicar said. “There will be no criminal charges filed against those involved.”

One Nantucket G Wagon mystery remains

So how did one set of keys start both Mercedes? That part isn’t entirely clear. But Mercedes didn’t begin officially importing the G Wagon to the U.S. until 2002. So both of these SUVs are special imports, perhaps restored military surplus vehicles. Maybe they came from the factory with identical keys, or perhaps they had the same aftermarket tumbler installed during restoration.

MacVicar had one final PSA for Nantucket residents.”This is not the first time a vehicle has been taken by mistake…If you are sent to retrieve a vehicle, please double-check you have the correct vehicle by verifying the registration plates BEFORE you drive away with the vehicle.”

So what is the most common mix-up? “It happens at the airport, or at one of the Stop & Shops – especially at the downtown Stop & Shop. We’re very aware of that: there’s so many red Jeeps with the keys under the mat.”