Tessa Gurley noticed a man behaving strangely in her apartment gym, and about an hour later she realized her keys were missing. “I went to go try to find my keys, and they were just, like, gone,” Gurley said. By the time she pieced it together over the weekend, her white 2020 BMW X5 was already gone from where she'd parked it.
Rather than panic, Gurley opened the BMW app on her phone and used it to locate her SUV at a shopping center about 10 minutes away, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. She called police once she pinpointed the vehicle's location rather than confronting whoever had taken it, and officers recovered the car on Monday. Phoenix police identified the stolen vehicle as a 2020 white BMW X5, the outlet reported.
A Circus Performer's Tools of the Trade, Gone
Gurley is a professional circus artist who depends on the SUV to get to performances and haul her gear, and she said her circus and fire-performing equipment was missing from the car when it turned up. Among the missing items: an X-Pole lollipop lyra and her fire-performing equipment, the station's report notes. The lollipop lyra is a specialized hybrid apparatus that fuses an aerial hoop with a stage pole system, and retail listings from Vertical Art Dance show the hoop attachment alone runs between $600 and $700, not counting the base stage assembly — making it an unusual and identifiable item should it surface for resale.
Whoever took the SUV left plenty behind, too. Inside the recovered vehicle were a hot dog costume, drugs, plants and rugs that did not belong to Gurley, per the same account. As of the report, the suspect had not been caught, according to Gurley. She thanked Phoenix police for helping recover her vehicle and is now asking the community to watch for her missing equipment, including checking Facebook Marketplace listings, and to notify her directly if anyone spots an X-Pole lollipop lyra for sale.
Phoenix Still Arizona's Vehicle Theft Hotspot
Gurley's ordeal came amid a sharp decline in statewide vehicle thefts. The Arizona Automobile Theft Authority reported that vehicle thefts statewide fell 25% in 2025 to 12,686 total thefts, the lowest annual figure recorded since 1992 and a break from the previous record low of 16,785 stolen vehicles set in 2015.
Newer model years and pickups featured among Arizona's top stolen vehicles.
What Comes Next Legally
Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1814, theft of a means of transportation is a Class 3 felony, according to FindLaw. The same statute occurs when someone knowingly takes control of another person's vehicle without authority, intending to permanently deprive the owner of it. For thefts reported remotely, state law requires the victim to mail or deliver a sworn police affidavit within seven days. If the agency has not received it within 30 days, the vehicle may be removed from national and Arizona crime databases.
Hoodline has previously covered similar BMW X5 thefts around the Phoenix area, including a chase that ended in a Tombstone rollover and exposed a broader car theft ring. FOX 10 reported that Gurley said the suspect had not been caught and her performance gear was still missing.
