5 Replies to "What a way to start the weekend"

• A August 11, 2007 (11:26 am)

  I completely sympathize. We had a similar experience about 2 years ago. Had to park on the street due to repaving of our small parking pad, and got up Saturday morning to no car. Little had we known that we’d parked our car (86 Honda Accord) on a block that was a “staging area” for local honda thieves. (for others: 20th between Trenton and Henderson – don’t park there… there’s a chop shop at the end of the block and stolen cars are parked there while awaiting chop.) On Sunday evening we were driving through the QFC parking lot, and lo and behold there was our car with a bunch of officers surrounding it – including Officer Hylton who had taken our report on Sat morning. The man is a rockstar.

  Sadly, we did not have theft insurance on it, and the woman who had it was a junkie and a prostitute. The car was completely destroyed inside due to meth and heroin fumes. She’d also been “doing business” in it all weekend. EW.

  We took a huge loss on it and traded it for $500 at Huling.

  As an aside, when we were walking the neighborhood looking for the car, I noted license plate numbers of cars that looked suspicious. While they processed our car, Office Hylton ran the plates I’d noted and they were all stolen. All were parked in the same block as our car had been.

• Christopher Boffoli August 12, 2007 (2:23 pm)

  If Seattle has such high rates of car theft, why doesn’t the SPD use those rigged bait cars to catch the thieves? They seem to work really well when I see them on Cops.

  At the recent Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNO) meeting the SPD rep said that 86% of stolen cars in Seattle at recovered.

• Chet August 16, 2007 (9:10 am)

  The SPD (or maybe just the WSP) does use bait cars but we still have one of the worst car theft rates in the nation. I’ve had my car stolen and the police are like, “next!” The victim has to then run around and get tickets dismissed that the cops wrote on the car AFTER it was reported stolen to the cops! How does this make sense?! No cross referencing, not their job or not their department (insert more BS here). But pay your taxes or else! I also had to play the games to get the recovery report for the insurance company. The victim needs the report but you have to ask for it and when you ask for it they say just send a letter requesting it. I asked, does it cost anything? The answer was no. So I sent my letter but then I got a letter saying I needed to submit $1.00 for the report. I encountered more BS but I’m running long. Basically it’s just the cost of living in the city. Own at your own risk.. all you can do is be a little proactive (lock doors, have an alarm, don’t leave cash on the seat, etc) have good insurance and say a prayer.

• roger August 31, 2007 (10:21 am)

  My old 97 Nissan pickup truck was stolen from 35th and Avalon in WS on Monday 8/27. Why anyone would steal it is beyond me. Being so old, I only had liability insurance on it. I’m really bummed out…it wasn’t much, but it was paid for and it was mine. Are stolen cars really found sometimes? I’ve sort of written it off as gone.

• Chet August 31, 2007 (1:40 pm)

  Sorry to hear about this Roger. I feel your pain. Mine was found in an apartment lot with orange “do not park here” stickers all over it. Someone finally reported it to the police and it was recovered just days before the insurance co was going to give me the totaled value. Thankfully my insurance co had the car serviced and it was returned to me in better condition than before it was stolen. So they are found, I think more often than not. The city needs to stiffen penalties or do something to curb this crime which is clearly out of control.

Sorry, comment time is over.