A Vancouver car thief chose as his target a trackable Tesla in what appears to be one of the first cases of that make being reported stolen in Canada, reports the Province.

Katya Pinkowski and a friend left a concert near Granville Street on Thursday night and headed to an underground parking lot to hop into Pinkowski's beloved dark blue Tesla Model S 85D, bought last year from the Vancouver store.

The car had mysteriously disappeared, however, and the towing company told Pinkowski it hadn't picked up any Teslas that night, she said.

Her next call, to her husband Cary, quickly turned up the location of the high-tech electric vehicle: According to the Tesla Model S app on his smartphone, it was cruising through Richmond at 70 kilometres per hour, presumably with a thief behind the wheel.

"I could watch him go in and out all the streets in Richmond," Cary Pinkowski said.

The thief, it turns out, had gained access to the car using an extra electronic key fob the couple had bought earlier in the week and mistakenly left inside the vehicle.

But the Pinkowskis were able to pit tech against tech, and as the thief swerved into courtyards and busted U-turns, the Pinkowskis relayed the car's location to a 911 operator who then worked with Richmond RCMP to form a plan. In a statement, Richmond RCMP said they were able to surround the vehicle and safely make an arrest.