VANCOUVER — The owner of a stolen Bentley caught a glimpse of his car after it was filmed going the wrong way on the Coquihalla Highway.
Dash-cam footage of what appears to be a silver Bentley travelling north in a southbound lane about five kilometres north of Exit 186, the Othello Lake Road exit, was captured by Jonathan Corrigan on Thursday.
In the video (warning: he swears in it), Corrigan, who is from Vancouver, only has a moment to change lanes as the car approaches at high speed on the wrong side of the divided four-lane highway.
Raymond Campbell, the general manager of Coquitlam’s DriveCo Motors, said the Bentley was stolen from his Langley home early Thursday, scuttling his plans for a drive to work with the top down.
Later in the day, he saw the footage and recognized his missing 2007 Bentley Continental GT, an ultra-luxury coupe that retails new for about $250,000.
“I was able to blow the video up and I realized that’s my car,” he said.
Campbell immediately contacted Kelowna RCMP, which confirmed that the vehicle was his. Police told him they had chased the driver, but called off the pursuit out of concern for public safety.
It was one of at least two high-speed chases involving the car, as Mounties in Merritt briefly tried to apprehend the driver as well.
“Merritt police chased him,” Campbell said. “That’s why you see the vehicle going in the opposite direction. They tried to evade police, and police again called that pursuit off because of public safety.”
Police were still searching for both the driver and the vehicle, and suspect he may be laying low after escaping two high-speed chases.
While Campbell hopes to be reunited with his vehicle, he said his primary concern now is the safety of other drivers who may encounter the thief on the road.
“Now it’s not really about getting the car back. It’s about making sure this guy doesn’t hurt anybody. He easily could have killed somebody. Forget about the car,” he said. “This guy is crazy.”
