Palmetto realtor tracks down her stolen car, parked with other lifted vehicles, property

PALMETTO, Fla. - A realtor from Palmetto might want to consider becoming a detective after finding her own stolen car. 

Rachel Speight took matters into her own hands and was able to track it down within 24-hours, but that's not all she found.

Speight says she won't be letting her white Mercedes out of her sight any time soon. It was stolen when her daughter left the keys in another unlocked vehicle. 

"All night, I couldn’t sleep. It was like my car was saying, ‘Why haven’t you come got me yet? They're driving me around all crazy, come get me,’" Speight said.

That's when she summoned her inner detective. 

She had called the sheriff’s office and reported her car stolen. Now she was ready to take matters into her own hands.

She posted hundreds of flyers. She canvassed the neighborhood. She wasn’t just going to wait.

"I had a lot of memories with this car. It was a car I was going to keep in my family forever," she said.

Speight looked high and low, and then, there it was.

"I drove up that street and saw those cars sitting in the back and how I knew it was my car because my grandkids awards [were] hanging in the window. I was like, ‘There go my baby!’"

Her car was on a vacant lot on First Avenue East in Palmetto, parked with three other stolen vehicles.

Investigators also found stolen purses, IDs, and more.

"I felt like I work for the sheriff’s department. I felt good. I was able to help other people find their cars. The Mustang was stolen in the morning," Speight said.

She may be a realtor, but thieves better not mess with her again.