Calgary police said a strange coincidence led them to arrest a man who was in possession of a stolen car, less than 24 hours after their appeal to the public for awareness of the fastest growing crime in the city.

At around midnight, police were called to a liquor store in northwest Calgary for reports of a robbery.

When officers got to the scene, the culprit had fled.

As police searched for the suspect, a man driving a stolen car drove up to another liquor store a few blocks away.

He parked next to a police officer in an unmarked vehicle involved in the search and then went inside the store. The man was arrested when he came outside.

The arrest comes after police released some dramatic HAWCS helicopter footage in the hopes of illustrating the impact of stolen vehicles on the general populace.

In the footage, stolen vehicles are seen being driven recklessly, off roads, against traffic with little care to the safety of officers or the general public.

Inspector Mike Bossley with the CPS Investigative Operations Section told the media on Thursday that a significant amount of police resources are used to track down stolen vehicles. He said that sometimes the simplest changes can help cut down on the amount of vehicles stolen every day in Calgary.

“We did that Operation Cold Start at the beginning of December and in just one week, our officers found about 800 cars that were left running with the keys in them. You can just imagine the easy availability that is for them, for the offenders to be able to access that vehicle to ultimately take it and become involved in the instances you see in those videos.”

He said that on Wednesday, 14 vehicles were stolen while left running with the keys in the ignition.

In 2016, 4,879 stolen vehicles were reported in Calgary, a 51 percent jump from the five-year average.

Police are glad to make the arrest and reclaim the stolen vehicle, but the original suspect in the robbery remains at large.

Investigators say that the man robbed the clerk at knifepoint but they aren’t sure what was taken.

The clerk wasn’t harmed in the incident.

The only descriptive feature they have to go on is that the suspect was in a black coat.