While Ludacris has a lot of experience with car theft on screen, he got his Mercedes swiped yesterday after making a rookie mistake.

Luda left his car running in front of an ATM and an opportunistic thief jumped in and sped away.

While he didn't get a good look at the thief, the car had a tracker and was traced to a spot in Northeast Atlanta.  The cops found Luda's property at the location, but not the car.

Later in the day, the cops did find the ride outside a Dunkin' and it was returned the rapper/actor.