This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
The Twilight Purple 2016 Rolls Royce Wraith Florida resident Bob Benyo gave his wife a rare one — he estimates about six of them are in the country.
“It stands out. I mean, it’s kind of hard to miss,” Benyo told Insider.
So when two people followed his wife to their home and stole the car on September 21, he knew he had to get it back.
“I can’t replace that car. Even though it’s not brand new — it’s a 2016 — it’s special. It was an anniversary gift,” Benyo told Insider.
Benyo said he worked with law enforcement, combed through surveillance footage, and reached out to Rolls Royce for assistance. However, his most useful tool in recovering the car was his very own business: a sky banner company.
‘My wife and kids were literally one room away’
Benyo told Insider that the incident occurred on a Thursday afternoon when his wife drove home with their two kids, seven and nine. A car followed her home without her knowledge and parked across the street in front of their neighbor’s home in a silver Mercedes in their Miami neighborhood.
Benyo said surveillance video captured from outside his home shows the two suspects hop out of their car as soon as one of the three garage doors closed on his house. Benyo said police with the North Miami Police Department believe they used a remote device to open the garage door.
After rummaging through the garage, Benyo said the thieves were able to find the keys to the Rolls Royce on a side counter. He said that his mother-in-law pulled into the driveway while the robbery was taking place and wondered why the garage door was open, but did not see the suspects. Benyo said he believed they were also trying to steal his Aston Martin.
He later learned from police the suspects were armed: “My wife and kids were literally one room away with one door in between them,” Benyo said.
He contacted local law enforcement and called Rolls Royce, asking to use their tracking system to locate the car. This was just the beginning of Benyo’s journey to return the luxury car back to his wife.
He said “immediately after” speaking with police, he decided to take some matters into his own hands.
‘Stolen Purple Rolls-Royce Reward’
Benyo said he’s known for using his company, Aerial Banners, to send unusual messages. He once used a banner to ask a business to pay him money he said he was owed.
He used one of his planes to tow a sign asking the citizens of Miami-Dade County if they’d seen the regal dark purple automobile worth over $200,000.
“Stolen Purple Rolls-Royce Reward” the aerial sign read, with a phone number attached.
He offered a $5,000 reward. And it worked: Soon, the tips came in.
Benyo told Insider he received 310 calls and messages in total, some of which included people wishing him luck. He said about 100 calls were legitimate tips, with people telling him they had seen the car.
“There was only one or two that were somewhat negative,” Benyo said. “Like ‘your car’s ugly’ or ‘I hope you don’t find your car.'”
It took days of searching, haggling with the people who stole it — who Benyo said were already being pursued by police for other crimes — and combing through tips until a call from a generous woman named Fay helped get the car back in his garage.
‘Next time you should think about stealing a black one’
Eventually, Benyo got his first good lead: Someone was offering the Rolls Royce for rent on Telegram.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really ballsy,'” Benyo said.
Benyo said he worked with private investigators and the person who sent the tip throughout that Saturday to infiltrate the chat and try to convince the thief to rent the car to him.
Eventually, Benyo, using the tipster’s Telegram account, let the person offering the car for rent know that he was the owner trying to get his car back.
“I said ‘I’m not trying to have the police meet you. Just park the car and walk away from it. I just want to get it back.'” Benyo told Insider.
The suspect kept pushing back, he said, telling Benyo that they knew it was a set-up, and refused. Benyo said he told the suspect that they would eventually be caught.
“I said ‘next time you should think about maybe stealing a black one that blends in’ — making jokes trying to make light of it and trying to get him to give it up. And I wasn’t getting anywhere.”
Then, right before midnight, Benyo said he got another tip. A woman renting an Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale said she saw the car parked outside her window in a neighborhood with a maze of streets difficult to maneuver.
“They found a great spot to park it,” Benyo said.
Benyo said the woman — who only wanted to be identified as Fay — got the reward after police determined she wasn’t involved with the people who took the Rolls Royce.
“It’s getting a window replaced and some dings and scratches fixed and that’s pretty much it,” Benyo told Insider. “New keys of course being made. They’re hot on the trail of the suspects. They told me they know who they are. So it’s just a matter of time before they make the arrests.”
Benyo said his family is relieved to have the car back but is taking extra precautions to secure their valuables, like storing their keys in a locked box and setting their alarms. Despite the negative experience, he said the entire incident had a silver lining.
“I think the most unique thing is the amount of people across Miami-Dade County, Fort Lauderdale, and across the country that took their time to reach out to me to just say ‘Hey, man, I’m so sorry, I hope you get your car back.’ And I thought that that was really, really unique… to this day, I still get random messages.”
North Miami Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. The Miami-Dade Police Department referred Insider to the NMPD.
This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur
