Criminal released from prison and asked to teach how to start the van he stole

On December 19, 2023, Olive Teague, 26, of Seattle, had her 1996 Ford RV stolen just two weeks after she bought it. The car was later found four months later, but it was broken and wouldn't start with the key. To avoid breaking the ignition, Aberdeen police asked the RV thief to teach Olive how to start the car without the key, The New York Post reports .

Olive Teague of Seattle bought a Ford F350 van in December 2023. According to the publication, she invested all her savings in it, converting it into a permanent home and storing work gear and mermaid outfits in it - she teaches people freediving at the Seattle Mermaid School.

But two weeks after the purchase, on December 19, her house was stolen from one of the city streets. Only four months later was the car returned. Olive received a call from the police in Aberdeen, Washington, asking them to come and get the Ford. Then she learned that squatters had spent the winter in the car, driven it a little over 2 thousand kilometers and smashed everything inside.

When the car was returned, the policeman and Olive's friend tried to start it, but to no avail: the ignition switch had literally been hammered into the dashboard. The policeman then decided that the best way to start the car was to temporarily release the man who had stolen it.

"You know what? Let's not break the ignition switch any more. I know a guy, he's right there at the station - he'll probably know how to [start a car]," is what the policeman said, according to Olive, before going after the van thief.

The girl thought the policeman had gone to get a colleague, but he returned with a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit. That's when Olive made a video that went viral on TikTok - where the prisoner teaches her and her friend how to start a car without a key. It has already been viewed 12.6 million times.

"He was a really good teacher," Olive said later.

Now Olive is planning to restore her Ford after the damage caused by the kidnappers, and she is sharing her progress on TikTok.

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