Ever had your car stolen?

[Parker]

Never had one stolen, but with my old truck someone used to rummage through it on a regular basis. They used to leave the door wide open after they did it. I never locked the doors because there was nothing in it worth the cost of the window that would have gotten broken.

[spikehs]

Had mine stolen a couple of months ago... 2000 civic. It was from my underground parking at my condo, managed to get footage of the guy who did it. Except it was to blury to be of any help. Stole the car in under 2 mins from the time he walked up to it! They ended up finding it 5 days later, insurance fixed evertying, I didn't even have to pay the deductible. The car is actually in better condition than it was before!

[lorenz0]

Just wondering, but what type of car was it???

i hate people who steal car's. at mazda its sad cause every second car that i work on has a dent above the door handle (old models you used to be able to hit it with something and the door would open). but there are all these people who get damage on their cars for nothing.

[EmilyB]

It was just a Dodge Calibre. The cops said...oh, we don't get many of those stolen......

So they did find the car last night out of gas. Her cell phone and gadgets were gone, they left their jackets and their cheap cell phone...lol.. Funny the cops didn't keep the jackets??? They did keep the cell phone when my daughter jokingly asked if she could keep it..

But, the crooks kept the keys. So.....they could go get it again whenever. She's working on trying to solve that now. Can you get your car locks changed? Expensive, I bet...

[brizzo]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

Can you get your car locks changed? Expensive, I bet...

Yes, and yes! Good to hear they found it undamaged though! If you know where they found it exactly, might be worth a drive to see if you can spot the keys on the side of the road.. it's a long shot, but sure beats getting everything re-keyed/replaced!

[Patrick1]

I have had a run of bad luck with many vehicles. I am glad your daughter got her car back. My father had his prized caddy stolen last year after some one lifter his keys from his jacket at a resturant when he went to the washroom. They wrecked the brakes and tires pretty bad.

So I gave him one of my company cars to drive for a few weeks at the end of November while we got it sorted out. Oh and yes they never called us from impound until a good week or so of storage had been racked up.

So while the Caddy was getting the ABS repaired he was Chrismass shopping in the car I loaned him... Broad daylite down town Johny Crack head jumps my father busted his ribs and shoulder up steals the keys and takes off with the car...

So the car is found about 3 blocks away only the fifty bucks in his wallet taken. Now the druggy that beat and robbed my father fits a pretty easy to spot description. I wasn't notified until several hours after by my brother. I followed up on the police report a couple of days later beyond filling out the paper work nothing had happend.

In hind site I am not sure if I wish I had known what I know now. Because almost a year later it makes me feel like you have to take care of some things yourself.

In keeping this thread about auto theft. I own a company in the vehicle industry. We had a vehicle pass through with a swapped VIN. The poor new owner had his vehicle seized. FYI we now have an auto theift unit in the calgary police. So all the info gets passed to them I met with the inspectors over the matter..

Wait for it...

The guy who sold the car showed up at my office.....

I called the office from the auto theft unit "hey I got this guy here I'll keep him busy, send some one ASAP"

The response "oh I am having lunch give the guy my number and have him call me"

WTF....

All I can say is wow, I was in youth work for a while and had to quit because it was just dragging me down and now I have lost a ton of faith in the people and system that is suppost to be protecting us. I mean vehicles is one thing. My father is a whole other and they way it was handled leaves me to belive they only care about fees (Impound) and money(Traffic Tickets). I could go on and on about the stabbing on my front step and the neighbor who cornered the guy and the police said they could'nt leave to go arrest them because they had to protect the crime scene. EMS had scrubbed it and left meaning it was no longer a crime scene..

What can I say hope others have better luck with the police and thefts than I have.

[Delphinus]

My story doesn't touch yours but I was still incredulous about how the auto theft unit detective handled the case.

Detective: We think we may have found your car, can you identify it?
Me: Of course I can, where can I go see it?
Detective: No no, you have to tell me something about it I can use to identify it.
Me: Well what about the VIN? Did you check the VIN?
Detective: We don't check VIN's..
Me: (stunned silence) What? What do you mean?
Detective: You have to tell me something else about the car I can use to identify it as your car.
Me: Ummmm it's a black VW Rabbit GTI, it has a red interior .. there's a slight dent in the lower right corner of the hatch, .. um ..
Detective: Did you have ground effects on it?
Me: What? Er, .. no.. um ..
Detective: Was the car is really bad shape?
Me: What? Er, no .. um .. no it wasn't er, .. what do you mean in really bad shape?
Detective: This car is is really bad shape. It must not be yours. Thank you, we'll keep looking and let you know ...
Me: Well, couldn't I just come look at it? I mean I'll know right away if it's my car or not.
Detective: No, you can't come look at it until we make the determination that it's yours. You said your car wasn't banged up, this one is, it's therefore not your car. Thanks, have a nice day! <click>
Me: ... WTF? .......

I mean at this point I guess I didn't care anymore as I had my insurance claim settled and it wasn't technically my car .. but to think that in SIX MONTHS perhaps not some damage might have been done to the car that I didn't know about, MIGHT have been a possibility??? I mean wow. And to be told six months later "Yeah OK it must be yours. You may come take a look now." Uh, gee, thanks ...

EmilyB: Even if you find the keys, I would not be so quick to dismiss the possibility a copy may have been made. I would rekey the house and rekey the car just in case. One would LIKE to think that the odds of them coming back to victimize her a second time are pretty slim, but why play the odds. If I was not able to lock the car in a garage when I'm not in it, I would get a steering wheel lock in the meantime, or see if it can be disabled in the meantime (ie. disconnect the battery or something when not using the car). Heck, take a wheel off (Ok maybe that's pushing it.. I don't know). The fact that her keys are "out there" is something I would treat with great caution.

Best of luck and I hope this is resolved quickly.

[EmilyB]

Unbelievable stories..

Yes, I know the key thing is bad. She can park in the garage where she lives, but the garage key is also on her key chain. It doesn't look like they messed with the glove box at all, so they may not even have the address, but then, it IS possible and I know I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.....

I think she's just going to keep it garaged at a friends nearby for the moment.

[Lance]

Im very glad your daughter got her car back.
As for the legal system in this country it does seem to be all about the money. Cops spend most of their time on traffic because that's where the money is: traffic fines, etc. The dopers & thieves they bust don't have any real income to pay for fines so they don't seem to spend as much time on them. They don't put them in jail anymore, just slap probation on them. And it seems to be getting worse all the time. I know an individual who has been busted 3 times for selling coke & crack. Has at least one assault/battery conviction. The last time he was busted he had a loaded shotgun in his possession. Didn't do any time. Still riding around in his $100,000.00 vehicle.
I just don't get it!!

[lorenz0]

if she had her house key on the key chain have the whole house re-keyed

last thing she needs now is to come home to a break in. i don't know if this is the same with dodge but all of our keys have to be programmed. maybe she could just get the car re-programmed to a new code and the most they can do is get into the car but it won't start. i will have to ask at work if its possiable, just an idea right now.