Mercedes G-Wagen Mix-up on Nantucket Leads to Accidental Car Theft

Car and Driver

02-07-2025

If it's happened once, it's happened a thousand times: You send your friend's aunt and uncle to grab your vintage two-door long-wheelbase convertible Mercedes-Benz G-wagen from a grocery store parking lot, and they accidentally steal a different vintage two-door long-wheelbase convertible Mercedes-Benz G-wagen and set off a two-day Grand Theft Auto car-hunt. That's what happened a few days back on Nantucket, which is not known as a stolen-car hotspot, on account of it being an island. And whether or not you think your SUV might be able to briefly serve as a boat, the 30-mile passage back to the Massachusetts mainland is a long way to swim. So everyone was pretty sure that the missing 1991 Benz was still back on ACK, but the question was where.
Alex Miccio
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Car and Driver
Not a bad way to get around Nantucket. Nor, evidently, an uncommon one.
The answer arrived on Tuesday, when Alex Miccio—owner of a 1985 300GD—was texted a curious photo from a friend back on Nantucket. It was his car, parked where he'd left it on Sunday, in the Stop & Shop parking lot. Miccio and his wife, Sofia, had departed that day, entrusting the keys to a friend's aunt and uncle who were just arriving on the same ferry. Notably, they didn't hand over the keys in front of the car. Sofia, seeing the news about the stolen G-wagen on Nantucket, deduced that their key must have worked in the other old Benz, allowing their friends to drive the wrong car back to their house. That explained why the 300GD was still in the parking lot and why the accidental Benz-booster had told Miccio, "I didn't see the glow plug light that you told me about, but it started."
Alex Miccio
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Car and Driver
This one's the diesel.
Miccio says he promptly called his friend's uncle and said, "Do me a favor and read me the license plate of the G-wagen, will you?" It was, of course, the wrong one. So that man on Nantucket did get in and truck it back downtown, but not before making another phone call. "I said let the police know you're coming so they don't see you and pull you over thinking you're notorious car thieves," Miccio says.
We've asked Benz what the chances are of two old Geländewagens sharing the same key, and we'll let you know what we hear, but regardless of the answer, it took a cascading series of unlikely circumstances to trigger the Great Nantucket G-wagen Caper of 2025.
Alex Miccio
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Car and Driver
Among other things, Miccio's friends had only seen his 300GD once before, and a long time ago. That was important because his Benz is original, and the one they drove home is more like a resto-rod, with an updated front end and a gas engine. "They'd only seen my car once and assumed I'd done a restoration to it," Miccio says. Fortunately, the mix-up was resolved before they took the newer G to the gas station and tried to fill it with diesel. Which maybe wouldn't have worked, but then again, one key isn't supposed to start two cars, either.
The teachable moment here, if you've got a car on Nantucket and you're planning to share: make sure you check the license plate first. If this can happen with G-wagens, just imagine if you have a Defender.
Ezra Dyer
Senior Editor
Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.