The power of social media goes far. A Sioux Falls man recently had his car stolen from his dad’s garage.  With the help of Facebook, word quickly spread and it wasn’t long before the car was found.  

The car was posted all over social media and various car sites as stolen for 12 hours. 

Erik Knutson’s ’66 Nova was stolen over the Thanksgiving holiday.  In less than 24 hours, he had it back thanks to help from strangers.

“Couldn’t have done it without Facebook and the police,” said Erik Knutson. 

Knutson and his family were in Rapid City when they got the call the car had been stolen.  So he turned to Facebook and got a huge response. 

“A lot of people kept sharing it, kept sharing it, and word got around and we were able to track it down. The police were right on cue helping us all day,” said Erik Knutson. 

The post was shared more than 800 times and while Knutson was out of town, his dad followed up with callers who had seen the car. 

“This lady called and said that she saw the car. She was taking out her garbage, walked back saw this nice car in the parking lot and goes, ‘that’s really a nice car.’ Then was looking on Facebook a few minutes later and said, ‘oh my gosh, that’s the stolen car’ and dialed 911,” said Bill Knutson. 

Soon the classic car and suspect were in sight. 

“I chased him for awhile, I couldn’t catch him. I’m old, he’s young,” said Bill Knutson. 

Police were close behind and able to make an arrest. The father and son both say they’re grateful for the kindness of strangers and social media. 

“It was a picture perfect as far as having a bad situation turn out,” said Erik Knutson. 

“Social media did something. It helped us get this car found. If people would do it and they see something wrong or they see somebody doing something and they forward it, it has good results like this,” said Bill Knutson. 

The Knutsons say the car was locked and secured in a safe place. There were multiple posts from the Knutson family as well as other pages which each got more than 800 shares and another huge response.