WhistlinDiesel recovers fan’s stolen truck after shop allegedly scams her of $25k

YouTuber WhistlinDiesel helped a fan recover her stolen truck after the shop she sent it to for work allegedly scammed her out of $25,000 and wouldn’t return the vehicle.

With nearly 9M subscribers on YouTube, WhistlinDiesel is among the most popular car-focused creators on the Google-owned platform.

While most of his content consists of destroying vehicles, whether it’s on purpose or on accident, the YouTuber often spends his time helping fans in need.

In a January 24, 2025 upload, WhistlinDiesel, whose real name is Cody Detwiler, documented the process he went through to recover a fan’s stolen pickup truck from a shop she paid to restore the vehicle.

WhistlinDiesel recovers fan’s stolen truck

In the video, Cody and his team traveled up to Plymouth, Indiana, where he spent several weeks trying to get the shop owner to give up the truck. The truck’s owner, Jade, gave the YouTuber the legal ability to handle the situation.

Detwiler quickly made contact with the shop owner, Tristan, who seemed willing to give the truck back. However, after several hours of not hearing back from the man – WhistlinDiesel ended up calling the police who told him he had to go through the courts.

Over the next few weeks, Cody had several more interactions with the police and other people involved with the shop before finding out the truck had been moved over to a storage unit nearby.

After a fair bit of continuous back and forth with an informant from the shop, WhistlinDiesel ended up recovering the truck from the storage unit with the help of the local police department.

The YouTuber, however, was unable to get any of the money allegedly owed to the truck’s owner and none of the work that she had paid for was finished.

“Tristan still owes Jade [$10,000 worth of work] and money. We’re not going to stop until this is just, and Jade is going to be taken care of regardless. We are also going to legally pursue Tristan for this. We’ll let you know what happens in the courts,” WhistlinDiesel said.

This comes just days after the YouTuber flew to Los Angeles, California, to help out residents and firefighters fighting the wildfires ravaging the city.