Mate Rimac’s habit of leaving keys inside his Bugatti Chiron led to a daring theft and an international pursuit.
When the chief executive of Bugatti’s parent company, Mate Rimac, parked his personal Bugatti Chiron inside the Rimac factory in Croatia, he did what he had done for months: he left the keys inside the car. The habit stemmed from his confidence that the country’s security environment was “super safe,” allowing colleagues to hop in and move the vehicle without waiting for a formal hand-over.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, that confidence proved misplaced. An unauthorised visitor entered the secured campus, slipped into the unlocked hypercar and drove away, setting off a chain of events that would span three nations.
The factory’s surveillance system captured the moment the intruder approached the blue Chiron.
After confirming that the vehicle’s doors were unlocked, he paused, checked his surroundings, and then slipped inside. Within seconds, the engine roared to life, and the car vanished down the factory’s private road. Employees who witnessed the breach quickly alerted Rimac, who immediately contacted local police.
The incident highlighted a rare lapse in an otherwise tight security protocol and sparked a frantic response.
The chase across the Balkans
Rimac did not wait for authorities to catch up; he grabbed a nearby Porsche 911 and began a real-time pursuit. Using the Chiron’s built-in telemetry system, he accessed live data that displayed the car’s GPS coordinates, speed, and fuel level. The telemetry showed the hypercar heading toward the Slovenian border at high speed, with only a few litres of fuel remaining. Rimac shared this information with police forces in Croatia and Slovenia, who coordinated a cross-border interception.
The thief refuelled at a gas station in Slovenia without paying and continued toward Austria. Thanks to the continuous data feed, Austrian officers were able to locate the vehicle just after it stopped for another fill-up. The Chiron was seized, and the driver was taken into custody. At the police station, the suspect—a man in his mid-30s—claimed he had come to the factory looking for employment, spotted the keys and impulsively decided to steal the car, intending to drive it to Germany.
Legal fallout and security lessons
Although Mate Rimac chose not to press criminal charges personally, the authorities in Croatia and Austria proceeded with prosecution, given the vehicle’s multimillion-dollar value. The episode served as a stark reminder that even in low-crime environments, leaving a keyless entry or any access device inside an expensive vehicle can invite opportunistic theft. Rimac publicly announced that he will no longer keep keys inside any of his cars, reinforcing the need for stringent procedural controls regardless of perceived safety.
