'You just have to laugh': Winnipeg woman's car stolen, recovered and then stolen again
A Winnipeg woman said she can only laugh at her bad luck after her car was stolen in November, recovered – and then it was stolen again.
"This is the funniest thing that's ever happened and the most Winnipeg thing ever," Alana Schlichting told CTV News.
It all started at the salon on St. Anne's Road where Schlichting works. She said in November, a man walked in the back door, grabbed her car keys from her jacket she had left in a back room, and then took off.
She chased the man down the street as he got in her car and drove away.
"I called 911 immediately," Schlichting said. "I was like, 'Oh, my car's been stolen.' They're like, 'When?' I go, 'Right now, I'm watching him drive down St. Anne's.'"
Schlichting said her car was recovered later that night with minor damage just a few blocks away, but that wasn't the end of the story.
Due to MPI backlogs, Schlichting had to wait weeks to get her car back from a shop on Pembina. When she was finally able to pick it up in February, she got some unbelievable news.
"The shop was broken into… and guess whose car they stole," Schlichting said.
Winnipeg police told CTV News no arrests have been made in the first theft. Police arrested one adult in connection with the second, but no charges have been laid at this point.
Police said there does not appear to be a link between the two thefts.
"Winnipeg man, like where else would this happen," Schlichting said in a video she posted on TikTok.
She said after posting the video, comments started streaming in and Schlichting realized she wasn't the only one this has happened to.
"I think it's the funniest thing that's ever happened to me. And apparently, it's happened to other people," she said. "Someone saw it and (said) like, 'This just happened to my brother, like the same thing.'"
Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) told CTV News so far in 2024, there have been more than 750 stolen vehicles reported. Last year, MPI received 3,339 stolen vehicle claims.
Schlichting said she's never had anything like this happen to her before.
"I've had my car window smashed, but no, never stolen," she said. "Now I've gotten it twice in a few months. I think I'm good. I think I'm in the clear now."
Still, she doesn't plan on leaving things up to chance. Schlichting said she is making some changes, like keeping her car keys close by instead of leaving them in her jacket pocket.
"At this point, you just have to laugh and hope for the best."
Schlichting has since got her car back for the second time, but after two car thefts, she said she’s planning on selling it.
"I think the universe doesn't even want me to have it at this point."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.