The vehicle was originally taken from a construction site in Yeronga, prompting its owners to embark on a quest to locate it themselves.

After a three-hour search, they finally spotted the car thief on a street in Rochedale South around 9:30 p.m.

Security camera footage captured the dramatic moment as the owners rammed their own ute and then attacked it with baseball bats in an effort to reclaim it from the thief.

“That’s my car! He stole our car!” one of the men can be heard shouting while striking the vehicle’s doors, mirrors, and windows.

The intense confrontation lasted approximately three minutes before the thief managed to escape, but not without causing additional damage by reversing through Danielle and Craig Mason’s front fence.

Chris remarked, “Just hours earlier, my son could have been playing in the front yard and been hit.”

“What’s the world come to?”

The driver still hasn’t been found despite a large police search, but the Mason family are more upset with the vigilantes than the thief himself.

“I was mostly angry about the vigilantes’ chase, because I think that that’s what created heaps more chaos and violence and damage than the guy stealing the car,” Danielle said.

“Which is obviously wrong, but I just don’t think we should take it into our own hands. Just leave it to the police.”

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.