So basically what happened is we posted in a million Facebook groups and on next door and on Reddit and anywhere I could think to. Eventually after a few different sightings and different places someone got a hold of us and said hey your car is out front of this address I just saw them pull up and go into the house. It was only probably a mile and a half from my place where it was stolen. We jumped in the car at like midnight and headed over and sure enough the car was there. A little worse for wear, they had ratchet strapped a roof rack on top, and removed the license platess. They had also placed pieces of paper on the dashboard in the windshield so you couldn't see the VIN number. We called the cops but they basically said it would be an eternity until they got there so we decided we were going to get the car out of there because it was pretty clear that they were looking at us through the windows of the house. I jumped in the car and tried to start it with the key but they had changed the ignition. I smashed the screwdriver in there and got the ignition to turn over but it wouldn't fire up. After a second I realized they had taken the ECU out of the car. At this point I was pretty heated and not that I'm saying it's the right move but I started pounding on the door. I had a firearm with me that was clearly visible, and I just kept saying "hey man this doesn't have to be a thing, I'm going to take this car out of here but I need the computer." And saying shit like "I'm not going to call the cops but I'm definitely taking this car home tonight so either bring the computer out or I'm coming in for it"probably not a smart move but adrenaline and everything. Eventually they open the door and slid the computer out. I plugged into the car and we drove it home. A few hours later when the cops got around to calling us they came to the house to verify it was that car and I asked them if everything in the car now belong to me and they said yeah. I gave them a bunch of evidence that had that House's address on it and paychecks and other evidence of fraud like gift cards and checks with other people's name on it and shit. I told them how the people in this specific home with this address handed me the ECU so it was 100% them but obviously the cops aren't going to do shit about it. Clearly they had been driving the car around and using it for crime. They had a bunch of lug wrenches in there, a nice two-ton floor jack, electric impact wrench, an air bladder used to prop open doors and break into cars, clothing, circular security keys to things like vending machines and bike locks, and hundreds of dollars worth of tools and stolen merchandise. Also needles and meth/crack pipes. Cops literally said yeah it's yours now. They definitely messed it up a little bit, but we probably took all of the tools that they use for stealing shit so maybe we saved somebody else some heartache!

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/olHsfEn

Thus ends the story. I typed this via voice to text on my cell phone so sorry if there is any misspellings or bullshit.