HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The moment a thief saw his chance to steal a tow truck, he jumped into it and took off, and it was all caught on camera.
Now Hollywood police are investigating.
Some people might call it poetic justice, because the victim was a repo man, and he had the tables turned on him right in front of his eyes.
Police said there were four culprits -- a woman, her boyfriend, who came to pick up her repossessed car, and their friends in a second vehicle.
"They're leaving with their car -- the one that was repossessed," Victor Puran said as he watched the surveillance video.
Puran owns AAA Asset Recovery in Hollywood. But Monday night, a crook turned the tables on him. One of the woman's friends stole Puran's tow truck.
"I was in shock. This is my hard-earned money that I paid for this truck," Puran said of the $65,000 truck.
"Did you have any confrontation with this guy prior to this?" Local 10 News crime specialist John Turchin asked Puran.
"No," Puran said. "They were very friendly."
Just as one of Puran's driver's pulled up and ran in for a moment, that woman's friends circled back and made their move.
"My thought was, at that moment, to get my truck," Puran said.
Puran said the driver of the stolen truck was trying to run him off the road and make him crash. The thief repeatedly slammed into the front end of Puran's Nissan Maxima.
"The tires spun out and got stuck in the mud," Puran said. "He jumped out, he ran on foot and somebody picked him up, and he was never seen again."
Actually, the thief made a cameo appearance on camera at the financial lending center, where his friend was taking care of her loan.
Police are now investigating, trying to locate the thief.