...and I'm still a little freaked out. I don't know what happens after your car is stolen. It was only a year and a half old. The guy who stole my car stole my keys as well (they were on my desk) and my laptop (which was in a backpack by my desk) but not my purse (which I was carrying while I walked around looking for my keys, that he had taken sometime before).
I thought I'd enjoy looking for a new laptop. Not so much. And I thought I'd enjoy looking for a new car, since it seems unlikely I'll get mine back. Not so much on that one either.
Anyone been through this, and if so, what was your experience?
It's a bummer, but I'm very grateful that no one was hurt, that it's just property loss. Well, and data loss, but nothing sensitive was on the computer, so it's just a matter of lost work. As my house keys and office keys were on the stolen keyring, there'll be a hefty bill in changing locks.
The up side is that my son's school backpack was in the car, so this bought him a few extra days to get his homework done. He was happy about that, and it's provided him with some exciting stories to tell at school. He was with me when it happened. It'll be interesting to see how much the school charges us for his stolen textbooks...*sigh*
A big part of me just wants to go lay in bed and be thoroughly depressed. Friends have been calling to make sure I'm okay -- and it's not about the property loss, it's just the sense of being unsettled and a lack of security in realizing how illusory my sense of safety really is. It's times like this that make me wish I drank.
*edited the title with the happy news
[ June 13, 2007, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: jeniwren ]
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Wow. Do you know who took it, then? I'm sorry.
Shopping for a new car, unless it's a first one or to replace one that's been on the fritz a while and which you can amply afford, is never fun, IMO.
Posted by J_84 (Member # 10351) on :
Have you reported your car stolen to the police and your insurance company? That's the first thing I did when my car was stolen two years ago.
Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :
(((hugs))) We had our car stolen out of our driveway last year. It is very unsettling. Give it some time before you replace it though - they may still find it. It took them a week to find ours. We were out car shopping that night and decided to think overnight about our purchase, got home and found a message saying they had found our car. Definately notify your insurance company and get the locks changed ASAP if you haven't already. If you are handy with a screwdriver you could buy a set of 4 knobs and 2 deadbolts all keyed the same at Home Depot and change your locks yourself in a few hours.
Posted by Fitz (Member # 4803) on :
My cousin's car was stolen just last week. It's the third car their family has lost to theft, the second at their current residence. They don't even live in a particularly bad area, but all the cars they've had stolen have been older cars, which I guess are easier to steal and a target for joyriders.
The one he just had stolen was a '99 Pontiac Sunfire, which isn't worth much in tradein value. He was planning to sell or trade the car soon, so he's hoping that he'll get more from insurance than the paltry amount most dealerships were willing to give him.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
kq, I don't know the guy personally, but yes, I had a nice conversation with him just prior to him stealing the car. We know for sure it was him, as it could not have been anyone else. The kid came in to our church office (where I volunteer) and asked to use the phone, then was waiting in our lobby "for his ride to come pick him up". We kept a close eye on him, but clearly not a close enough eye.
I called the police within 5 minutes of him stealing the car and they called in a lot of police to search the area -- a friend of ours went out looking for it also and saw a similar car in a pawn shop parking lot. Within seconds of him spying the similar car, three unmarked police cars pulled up. So there was actual effort involved with finding it, at least at first. I haven't heard anything today.
I made all the other calls last night: the insurance company, our home security provider (to fix the system so we could arm it -- we'd been having problems with it and I hadn't gotten around to fixing it; I slept a lot better last night knowing that the alarm was set), the police with the serial number of the computer, and various other people whom I owed emails and/or work that was now not going to be completed on time because my laptop was gone.
We'll get the locks done tomorrow, I think. The expensive ones will be the ones at the church office because they're really old and an odd shape. (I'm debating about whether we should pay for them...they were my keys after all, and it could be argued I was being careless with them, though it could also be argued that it could have just as easily been the executive assistant's keys instead because hers were also openly laying on her desk and she was not sitting there most of the time the guy was there.)
Thanks y'all...I just hope the worst of it is over.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Fitz, the police officer who came to the office to get our statements said that your cousin's type theft was far more common than what happened in my case. He said that in such cases, the theif takes the car, drives it until the gas is gone, then ditches it, which makes recovery fairly likely. He didn't seem very confident we'd get my car back given how new it was and the fact that it was fully loaded; it really depends on if the kid has connections to dispose of it profitably. I couldn't guess at that, of course, though I know he was a local. He knew our office building used to be the old alternative high school and he referred to it by name.
I'm sorry to hear your cousin had his car stolen too. Posted by Mathematician (Member # 9586) on :
Our car was stolen in April of this year. It only took the police a day and a half to find it and return it - but it was so stripped a salvage yard would only give us 200$ for it. Further, we didn't have comprehensive coverage on the car, since I didn't drive it that much, so our insurance did NOTHING to help.
Hopefully things work out better for you, but like you said - it's just stuff, at least no one was hurt.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
(((jeniwren))) That sucks. Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
(((jeniwren))) I'm so sorry. How yucky and unsettling. Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Thanks, y'all. I heard from the insurance company that I'll have to wait three weeks before they'll make a decision on the car, which is fair, I guess. In the meantime I get a rental, again, seems fair. Best is that I'll have the money for the laptop replacement later this week and they totalled that out at a pretty reasonable rate. I can't complain. I got a new computer today and it's very cool.
Anyone know if I have to upgrade Vista to the business version to be able to use domain services? I have Home Premium.
It didn't cost very much to have the house locks rekeyed, though I haven't yet figured out how to change the frequency of the automatic garage door openners. Still working on that one.
Thanks again everyone for the well wishes and encouragement. It's been a bummer the past few days.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Yes, got it back late last night when the police called to say it had been abandoned at a McDonalds not 3 miles from where it was stolen. The gas tank was still full and there was no damage, nor was anything missing except the keys, my laptop and my son's school backpack. Today I went back to the McD's to check and see if they might have found the keys. They didn't, but they did find the backpacks -- apparently the thief went in to the men's bathroom with them, took the laptop and wallet of DVD's and left the backpacks behind.
So we still have to rekey the car, since we don't know what happened to the keys. But other than that, it's been a surprisingly happy ending to a pain in the neck experience.
I was talking with my favorite barista at Starbucks this morning and she said that she has a car that's been stolen 3 times! She keeps getting it back but said that she's never going to buy that model of car again. I guess not! Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Congrats on getting the car back. Bummer that the good stuff is still gone.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
"I was talking with my favorite barista at Starbucks this morning and she said that she has a car that's been stolen 3 times! She keeps getting it back but said that she's never going to buy that model of car again. I guess not! [Smile]"
Heck no, I wouldn't either. Congrats on getting your car back. I personally doubted you'd get it back.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by jeniwren: But other than that, it's been a surprisingly happy ending to a pain in the neck experience.
Yay!
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I have to laugh. I told my best friend where my car was found and she said that she'd seen it there yesterday afternoon when she was going through the drive-thru. Her immediate thought was "Hey, Jennifer's here!", then she thought, "No, her car got stolen, that must be someone else's car." But no, it was actually mine.
Guess who is going to put some distinctive bumper stickers on her car just as soon as a find a few I like? Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :
Glad they found it! My car was found about a mile from our house. If we ever have one stolen again I'm going to drive a 5 mile radius myself looking for it.....
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
I actually hope my car is stolen, Ill pay $1000 and get a brand new car, as opposed to pouring in another $1000 into repairs only to have the mechanic say, "Well we think we've fixed it, if the engine light goes back on we will have to take another look." They said that to me TWICE!
I'm never buying VW again, NOT EVER.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Might insurance pay for changing the lock on the doors and ignition, rather than just rekeying the car? If the thief is still in the area, I wouldn't like the idea of someone out there with my spare keys.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
quote: I have to laugh. I told my best friend where my car was found and she said that she'd seen it there yesterday afternoon when she was going through the drive-thru. Her immediate thought was "Hey, Jennifer's here!", then she thought, "No, her car got stolen, that must be someone else's car." But no, it was actually mine.
I once found a friend's car that way.
I saw his truck parked funny on a side street I was passing. The next day, I happened to run into him and he was telling some other friends about how his truck got stolen. And I said, "but I just saw your truck at the corner of Main & 9th parked along the curb!". He rushed over there, and sure enough, it WAS his truck. Someone had just taken it for a joyride, and to get out of is whatever they could.
Too bad your friend didn't call you and say "hey, there's this car that looks just like yours...."
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Jeniwren, I am glad you got it back. Most stolen cars are abandoned. We had ours stolen, a Volvo station wagon. The guy was drunk, and ended up in a high speed police chase(imaging the aforementioned Volvo station wagon) The car was then crashed. If it had just been stolen, we would have been reimbursed. We had theft. When the car is stolen and then wrecked, there ios some freakin loophole. It was a nightmare.
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
There was a report in the paper recently about a guy who kept getting his car stolen. He was so annoyed that he took the battery out to prevent another theft. Well, someone decided to try stealing it again and got about four blocks before they got tired and pushed it into the nearest driveway.
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