The mystery over the disappearance of a ute, later found parked and locked near where it was stolen from, has been solved.
The owner of a white Nissan Navara ute was stunned to see his vehicle being driven from its parking spot in Teviot St last Thursday morning.
The man immediately contacted police. The mystery deepened when the locked vehicle was found soon after, parked in nearby Timaru St.
Police found no sign of forced entry, prompting a plea for anyone with knowledge of the incident to come forward.
And they have. But this is less a whodunit and more a case of severe caffeine withdrawal for a tired boss.
A worker at a nearby garden centre, who declined to be named for fear of embarrassment, said the mix-up started when she was given a loan car from a garage.
When her boss wanted to get an early morning coffee, she gave him the keys to the loan car, and pointed to the grey Nissan parked outside.
Her boss unsuccessfully tried to get into another vehicle, but he ''must have wanted coffee really badly ... and then tried the ute and the key fitted perfectly''.
Back at work, her boss handed back the keys, commenting that the ute was a bit of a mess and was ''amazed I hadn't had a moan about it''.
''I said `what ute?' and pointed again at the sedan out the window.''
She said they laughed about the mix-up until they saw the story in Saturday's Otago Daily Times about police being puzzled over the incident.
''He 'fessed up on the Monday, and they had a good laugh over it.''
Sergeant Steve Aitken, of Dunedin, said, ''It was a genuine mistake, and it would have stayed an unsolved crime if we hadn't mentioned it in the paper.''
Case closed.
