A UK man who paid more than $26,000 to replace his stolen car later discovered he had unknowing bought his own vehicle back, UPI reports.

Ewan Valentine, 36, from Solihull, England, said he discovered February 28 that his black 2016 Honda Civic Type-R had been stolen from its overnight parking space.

Valentine said he was distraught about the loss and hoped to replace the car with a nearly-identical vehicle.

“Sure enough, I found one for sale. Same color, same year, same custom exhaust system," he wrote on social media.
The license plates and VIN were different from his stolen vehicle, so he didn't think too much about the similarities until he had already paid more than $26,000 for the replacement ride.

"I started to notice some odd things when I got it home. I noticed a tent peg and some Christmas tree pines in the boot. I noticed the locking wheel nut was in a Tesco sandwich bag. I noticed some wrappers in the central storage section. All oddly similar to my stolen car," he wrote.

Valentine decided to check the car's on-board GPS and discovered it had previously been to his house, his parents' house and even his partners' parents' house.