Jillian Brown of Winnipeg couldn't believe her eyes while out on a bike ride on Thursday evening — there was her stolen car being driven past her.

"As soon as I got up on to Assiniboine [Avenue], I was riding for another 10 seconds, then it hit me. I saw my car," she said. "I was like, 'That really looks like my car.'"

Brown, 26, moved downtown nearly two weeks ago. About a week later, on Tuesday, her car was stolen.

Even though it was a surprise to see her car, Brown started following it, and then the driver noticed her.

"He saw me in his rear-view mirror and he was very suspicious as to why there was this chick pedalling like a maniac after him," she recalled.

Brown said she caught up to the man, but she couldn't think of what to say when he asked what she was doing. So the man drove away, turning up Fort Street and heading toward Broadway Avenue.

Brown continued chasing him on her bicycle, finally catching up to him.

"I just blurted out right there, I was like, 'You're driving my stolen car! Get out of my car!'"

And to her surprise, the man, who appeared to be in his thirties, did just that.

'I just blurted out right there, 'You're driving my stolen car! Get out of my car!''-Jillian Brown

"He was saying to me, 'I didn't steal it, it wasn't me who stole it, somebody else stole it.' And then he just walked away," Brown said. "I was shocked. And he just kind of disappeared between some buildings on Fort Street."

Brown said in hindsight, she would not recommend approaching a thief.

"It was an absolute mix of aggression, of disbelief. It was very much shock," she said of her decision to chase the car. "I couldn't believe I just happened upon my vehicle, my stolen vehicle."

For the time being, Manitoba Public Insurance has Brown's car. She hopes to have it back within days.

As it happens, an international conference discussing auto theft prevention wrapped up in Winnipeg on Friday.

Brown said she hopes delegates to that conference came up with some good ideas for preventing auto thefts.