This is the moment a man bravely fought off a ‘car thief’ in a shop car park in Dublin after he thought the man was trying to steal his car in a 'hilarious' mix-up.
The scary incident happened on Tuesday night after the man, named Karl, came out of the shop and got back into his parked car, ready to drive away.
Suddenly, another man opened the car door and tried to pull Karl out of the car while ‘shouting abuse’ at him.
Thinking he was being carjacked, Karl jumped out of the driver's seat to confront the suspected car thief and tried to fight him off.
Karl was ‘just about to tackle him’ when he spotted his own car, which was the same colour, parked in the spot next to them.
Thankfully both men saw the funny side of the mix-up and no one was injured in the scuffle.
Taking to social media after the incident, Karl who uses the name Lord Tweet on Twitter, wrote: “Just back from shops. Unlocked my car which beeps when unlocked.
“[I’m] in the driver's seat and suddenly my door is opened and a fella tries to pull me out while shouting abuse at me. I shove him back and jump out to challenge him.
“He comes at me again and I was just about to tackle him when I see my car. [His] car had a similar year reg, same colour and was parked next to mine.
“He had left his doors unlocked so I assumed when I heard my fob beep that my door had opened but it wasn't my door.
“I had jumped into his car and he thought I was stealing it and I thought he was trying to rob mine. It could [have] ended badly but he saw the funny side of it when I pointed at my car.”
People on Twitter thought the story was ‘hilarious’ and many shared their own tales of similar incidents that happened to them or people they know.
One person wrote: “A neighbour of my Granny got into a car who she thought was her husband's and handed him a 99 cone and was talking away. After a few minutes she looked over and realised it was a stranger. The gas thing is he was sitting there eating the cone, not a bother on him.”
Another wrote: “Had a similar experience when picking my wife up at the train station. A fellow opened the passenger door to my car and started to get in when he realised I had the same make, model, colour and year as his car. After exchanging pleasantries we found we also used the same mechanic.”
One woman shared how she nearly kissed the wrong man when she got into her neighbour’s car by accident, writing: “My husband was waiting for me in his car in [a] car park opposite my work.
She continued: “I ran across, jumped into car, leaned across to plant a kiss on a neighbour with [the[ same colour car, not even [the] same make. Mortification, [my] husband never lets me live it down. He has got yards out of it.”
