San Antonio Police ROCK (Howe, San Pedro: car insurance, crime, buying)

[suz1023]

My car was stolen yesterday and local law enforcement took it very seriously. A sharp eyed officer spotted it abandoned and called me at midnight to let me know.

In a city of this size I am astounded and impressed as hell.

I am writing letters to their higher ups, and making up a few baskets too.
Way to go folks!!!

[bspray]

I am glad you had a good experience.

I have a similar story with a less pleasant outcome. I will qualify this by saying it happened about 10 years ago so things at SAPD certainly could have improved since then. Having said that, I had my car stolen from my driveway. I called the police, they came out and made a report. They were certainly nice enough but didn't seem all that concerned about finding it. They told me to contact my insurance company because it likely would not be recovered. The car was 8 years old and paid off so I only had liability insurance on it.

I started calling both SAPD and the SAPD impound lot daily to see if they recovered the car. After two weeks, SAPD had still not found the car. I ended up buying another car. I continued calling SAPD once a week for a month and they never found it. I figured it ended up in Mexico or something and eventually gave up.

About 3 months after it had been stolen, I got a call from SAPD notifying me that if I didn't pick up my vehicle within 48 hours, they were going to sell it at auction. I told them I didn't know they had recovered it and that I had just called them 2 days prior and they hadn't recovered it yet. I asked them when they found it, turns out, they had found it about 3 days after it was stolen behind a pawn shop on San Pedro near Oblate. I had to pay almost $600 in fees to get the car back.

There is no arguing with the police and there is no recourse when they do things like this. Their attitude was very much 'just come get your car and stop bothering us'. The trunk was left open along with the window the thieves broke to steal the car. SAPD didn't bother to close the trunk or maybe put a trash bag over the window or anything. They just let it rain in my car.

I ended up selling it for about the same amount of money it cost me to get it out of impound and replace the window. I spent a lot of time cleaning that car when I got it back. I should have just let them auction it.

Anyway, I am glad you had a good experience and I am happy to hear that it sounds like they've gotten better about communicating with the victim after the theft. My experience was not so pleasant.

[TheBlasphemer]

Recovering stolen vehicles is a crap-shoot. It's good your experience was positive, but it was a roll of the dice. I had a car stolen from my job (a local restaurant) and it wasn't recovered for almost 3 months, found parked on the side of the road like any other vehicle.

I think it's important for citizens to have a balanced perspective on Law Enforcement. We shouldn't be overly condemnatory and blaming them for everything and anything imaginable, but at the same time we shouldn't be blind, deaf and dumb cheerleaders that celebrate every time a cop does his job.

In fact, you ask any of these cops that happen to have done something others might consider "heroic" and they'll all tell you the same thing, which is that they were just doing their job. Which is true. I think it's important to recognize that, and not have an overinflated belief in who and what they are, as that's the 1st step towards "going negative" on them the 1st time they fail to meet our overinflated expectations of what "their job" is. Two sides of the same coin, is what I'm saying. Example is the Ferguson riots. People there have this exaggerated expectation of what a police officer can do, all these fantasies about "non-lethal use of force" and all the various ways in which the Officer could have handled the situation better.

Pure fantasy. And, then when the Officer fails to deliver on the "promise" of that fantasy, suddenly he's a bad cop, violent, incompetent, racist, etc....

Neither of these are true, or have ever been true. There's certain things that are humanly possible, and we as taxpayers have a right to expect that they are consistently delivered, while there are other things that are completely impossible, and we're stupid for believing otherwise. All it does is set us up for disappointment, and the Police Officer for undeserved scorn and derision. We should remain balanced on these things, and have a realistic set of expectations. Someday, I'd like to read an essay from an intelligent, gifted law enforcement officer about what he/she thinks about citizens that have unrealistic expectations. They absorb a lot of crap. I'd like to see one hand it right back. Should be a hoot.

Anyways OP, glad you got your car back. I had to drive a 20 year old Aries "K" car for 3 months while mine was AWOL, and if you weren't careful sometimes the engine would catch on fire after you shut it down. I had a special towel I kept on the front seat to beat the flames down (the leaking oil would catch on fire) every time it flared-up. Best day of my life was when that Aries K car went to the junk yard.

[Azure110]

After 3 months, wouldn't the car insurance company have paid you for the car by then? If so, it would be up to the car insurance company what to do with the car because they would own the car.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[bspray]

Originally Posted by TheBlasphemer

Recovering stolen vehicles is a crap-shoot. It's good your experience was positive, but it was a roll of the dice. I had a car stolen from my job (a local restaurant) and it wasn't recovered for almost 3 months, found parked on the side of the road like any other vehicle.

I think it's important for citizens to have a balanced perspective on Law Enforcement. We shouldn't be overly condemnatory and blaming them for everything and anything imaginable, but at the same time we shouldn't be blind, deaf and dumb cheerleaders that celebrate every time a cop does his job.

In fact, you ask any of these cops that happen to have done something others might consider "heroic" and they'll all tell you the same thing, which is that they were just doing their job. Which is true. I think it's important to recognize that, and not have an overinflated belief in who and what they are, as that's the 1st step towards "going negative" on them the 1st time they fail to meet our overinflated expectations of what "their job" is. Two sides of the same coin, is what I'm saying. Example is the Ferguson riots. People there have this exaggerated expectation of what a police officer can do, all these fantasies about "non-lethal use of force" and all the various ways in which the Officer could have handled the situation better.

Pure fantasy. And, then when the Officer fails to deliver on the "promise" of that fantasy, suddenly he's a bad cop, violent, incompetent, racist, etc....

Neither of these are true, or have ever been true. There's certain things that are humanly possible, and we as taxpayers have a right to expect that they are consistently delivered, while there are other things that are completely impossible, and we're stupid for believing otherwise. All it does is set us up for disappointment, and the Police Officer for undeserved scorn and derision. We should remain balanced on these things, and have a realistic set of expectations. Someday, I'd like to read an essay from an intelligent, gifted law enforcement officer about what he/she thinks about citizens that have unrealistic expectations. They absorb a lot of crap. I'd like to see one hand it right back. Should be a hoot.

Anyways OP, glad you got your car back. I had to drive a 20 year old Aries "K" car for 3 months while mine was AWOL, and if you weren't careful sometimes the engine would catch on fire after you shut it down. I had a special towel I kept on the front seat to beat the flames down (the leaking oil would catch on fire) every time it flared-up. Best day of my life was when that Aries K car went to the junk yard.

In my case, I don't think my expectations were unrealistic. I get it that administrative errors happen, they found my car 3 days after it was stolen and it sat at their impound lot unclaimed for 3 months. Had I not been following up with them regularly, I would own the blame and owe the fees. However, I had been following up and I had been told repeatedly that it had not been recovered. When I got the call saying it had been recovered months earlier and I was now on the hook for $600 in storage fees with no recourse, than the burden of being wrong shifts to the police dept and the fees should have been waived. Again, there is no ability to have an honest discussion and there is no recourse. You simply have to do things their way, whether they are in the right or in the wrong.

[suz1023]

I think my vehicle was found because I have very distinctive license plates which the thieves didn't replace or cover, and that they had the theft on security camera may have helped too.

I am a bit weirded out that it may have been used in a crime however.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Azure110

After 3 months, wouldn't the car insurance company have paid you for the car by then? If so, it would be up to the car insurance company what to do with the car because they would own the car.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Can anyone answer this question? I am curious. If my car was stolen for 3 or more months, I would go ahead and have insurance company pay me for it and forget about it. I wouldn't go through the trouble of dealing with getting it out of the impound lot at that point. It just doesn't make sense to me to do so when the title belongs to them.

[Rapscallion]

Originally Posted by Azure110

Can anyone answer this question? I am curious. If my car was stolen for 3 or more months, I would go ahead and have insurance company pay me for it and forget about it. I wouldn't go through the trouble of dealing with getting it out of the impound lot at that point. It just doesn't make sense to me to do so when the title belongs to them.

If you're speaking of bspray's experience, the car was only insured with liability.

Originally Posted by bspray

The car was 8 years old and paid off so I only had liability insurance on it.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion

If you're speaking of bspray's experience, the car was only insured with liability.

Ah, makes sense. I was asking in case I ever have a car stolen. I missed that part.

[TheBlasphemer]

Originally Posted by Azure110

Ah, makes sense. I was asking in case I ever have a car stolen. I missed that part.

Mine also had liability only. Full coverage insurance is EXPENSIVE. Dave Ramsey recommends NOT carrying full coverage.