I recently had the misfortune to experience what a person goes through when their vehicle is stolen. It's a gut wrenching thing to go through, especially when it happens in less than eight hours of you parking your vehicle once you got home.
To shorten the story, I came out in the morning to where I had parked my vehicle only to find that the lock on my door was popped and vehicle was gone. Thanks to social media, the type of vehicle I have was made known widely on how to steal it. I gave my self five minutes to freak out and started getting myself together.
First call I made was to 911 to report my stolen vehicle. This is where it gets a bit unorthodox. Instead of a police officer coming to me to where my vehicle once was parked, I gave my information to the operator who then had an officer contact me. I gave the same information to the officer and was told that they would contact me at a later time with any follow up questions or information.
Once I collected myself and started on my way for the day, I didn't think much of it. I went to my appointment, work and everything else I had to do that day. See, I was about to go on a long work trip and wasn't too worried about my vehicle one way or another.
While on my work trip I received a text message stating that my vehicle was found, damaged but found. At first I thought I was being pranked because I have never received a text message from a police officer before. I followed up and by giving a call and was very surprised that this was true and I was given all the information needed so I could pass it along to my insurance and make plans for my vehicle to be moved. The thing with being out of town and having your vehicle recovered doesn't allow for you to do much.
Over the course of the next few days I received pieces of mail (while still out of town) letting me know where my vehicle was and how to set it up. My insurance took care of all that for me. I was also made aware that my vehicle was gone through to see if anything was evidence in the vehicle. When I was able to lays eyes on it finally, it didn't look like much was done.
I did go through it and found several items that were not mine and followed up with the police again. They didn't want it stating that they had no idea if it was mine, the culprits, or belonged to another victim. However, the lady I spoke too was very kind and coached me a bit on what to do next.
My vehicle was stolen on a Monday morning and by the following Saturday they had found it. They were swift about it and it was literally only like five miles from my apartment. Battery dead, gas gone, inside destroyed and ransacked. But I want to thank the police for doing there job as there were items in the vehicle that had sentimental meaning and I was able to recover most of that. read more