- A Nairobi businessman has recounted the moment he discovered his car had been stolen from a residential parking lot along Kenyatta Road
- CCTV footage later showed thieves calmly spending nearly an hour to gain access and disable trackers before driving away
- Elkanah Mbaka says the experience left him emotionally shaken long after the vehicle disappeared, despite acquiring a replacement
A Nairobi man has opened up about the anguish of losing his car overnight, describing the experience as “a story I never thought I’d tell”.
Source: Facebook
The businesswoman, who operates a car hire service along Kenyatta Road, said what began as an ordinary evening ended in disbelief, shock and days of emotional turmoil after his vehicle vanished from a residential parking lot.
Day Elkanah’s car was stolen
In an emotional post on Facebook, Elkanah Mbaka disclosed that it started as a normal night with the car parked safely at an apartment parking lot.
Like many motorists, he locked the vehicle with the quiet confidence that morning would find it exactly where he had left it.
Since there was nothing unusual, no alarm, and no suspicion, it looked like another routine day closed peacefully, until he received a phone call that changed everything.
“‘Gari haiko.’ The car isn’t there,” he said. “That call instantly changes your breathing.” At first, he thought it must be a misunderstanding.
Perhaps it had been parked in the wrong bay. Maybe the caretaker had moved it. But when he arrived at the compound, he was met by a space.
CCTV showed moment car was stolen
CCTV footage revealed how the theft unfolded. The thieves arrived calmly in a Toyota Corolla and spent nearly an hour in the parking area.
“There was no hurry. No panic. No fear. One full hour,” he recounted. “Imagine sleeping peacefully while strangers are outside fighting your car door step by step.”
The footage showed them moving around the vehicle, attempting different access points before finally gaining entry through the rear left door. Two tracking devices installed for safety were disabled at the scene.
In the hours that followed, disbelief gave way to something stranger. Elkanah found himself returning to the apartment several times, almost bargaining with reality.
“You start doing irrational things,” he admitted. “Looking in places you know the car cannot possibly be. Hoping maybe it will magically reappear.”
How car theft affected Elkanah
He left her home at 4 am to pursue leads, moving from one police station to another, filing reports, recording statements and answering the same questions repeatedly.
“Where was it parked? What time was it last seen? Who had access? Was it locked? Again and again and again,” he said.
Seventeen hours later, he realised he had not even showered or eaten, and for nearly 72 hours, his appetite disappeared.
The stress seeped into everyday life. Every red car on the road looked like his. Every passing Demio made his heart race. He slowed traffic to double-check number plates.
Source: Facebook
Why Elkanah shared car theft story
Even after securing another vehicle, the trauma lingered. On one occasion, he absent-mindedly parked and then panicked, convinced it had been stolen again. He searched for almost an hour before remembering where it was.
“That’s when I realised the impact wasn’t just financial,” he said. “It was psychological.”
As if to underline how disoriented he felt, he later found himself stopped by county enforcement officers along Muindi Mbingu Street, accused of making an illegal 90-degree turn.
He added that he is telling the story not as a business owner, but as a human being who has endured the pain of losing a car and understands the moment when reality suddenly stops making sense.
Brand-new Lexus reduced to scrap by thieves
In another part of Kenya, a group of about 20 armed thugs stormed someone’s home in the dead of the night and stripped the high-end car of its valuable parts.
All the physical features that give Lexus cars their distinctive aesthetics were violently removed, leaving the posh machine in a sorry state.
The owner of the KSh 35 million SUV was in the company of a female friend and sound asleep during the daring raid that lasted for hours.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
