How to tell if your car is stolen

First, if it's gone, ask your wife if she parked it somewhere else if she says no, it's probably stolen. That happened to me, several years back. I can put up with a lot, but don't take my things. I guess I have been fairly lucky. besides the car I have only had a battery taken out of one of my tractors. About 3 months later I got a call from a impound lot, saying they had my car. I called them they said the motor was gone. I went to see it. Then they couldn't find my Buick. Someone said I think it's way in the back. They drove it out. I was about to be robbed again. I imagine some of you aren't so lucky. Not tractor related, but just something that happened to me. Stan

I have had 2 vehicles stolen. In 1985 I had a 1980 Ford Courier (Mazda) pu stolen. Never recovered. Did not have ins on it so lost on that one.
In 2000 I had a 1 month old GMC K2500 PU stolen. They found it about 6 weeks later. Totaled! Ins paid for that one but not for a bunch of tools I lost.
Dunno how they got either of them. Keys were in my pocket both times.

I had a nice 71 Cheyenne 1/2 ton with a fresh, spare no expense motor I had just put in, stolen by a crack addict coworker. It also had a couple thousand in tools inside.

No insurance, it was too old to have regular insurance, declared value was beyond ridiculous!

I never saw it again. I did see the unique rear bumper on an old beater truck heading into a bad part of town. I followed him for a while, finally resolved it wasn't worth getting killed over.

I had to work with the coworker that arranged to have it stolen for several more years. Though he denied it, no doubt he supplied a key to the thief, I stupidly let him use it the day before it was stolen. Lots of other things came up missing that he had access to. I like to think I have forgiven him, but there is still a really bad taste still left.

Friend used to own a tractor dealership up here. He's long dead now. Anyway, I was having coffee at the dealership one day and the subject of keys came up and he says he always knows where they are because he never takes them out of the ignition. I was surprised and asked him if he left them there at home because he lived in the village and parked on the street. He said he did. I told him, being a local Trooper, that #1- that was illegal in NYS although no one ever gets written up for it, and #2- someone was likely to steal his truck. He gave me the "Are you nuts?" look and stated, "Be serious Bret, no one is going to steal my truck. That doesn't happen around here." Sure enough, about 2 weeks later a drunk stole his truck and crashed it! He never did answer my question when I asked him why he had a different vehicle...

Chief. My wife parked in the same spot at her job in Houston every day. Just right outside of her desk so it was normally always in plain sight just outside of a large glas pane. Well one day she noticed it not there. Yeah it was stolen and used in a large business robbery. Was lead on a medium speed police chase until our car ran out of fuel. All criminals were caught. Yeahhhh. Bad thing is that the car became part of criminal investigation. Had to be fingerprinted etc. etc. Didnt get car back for about 3 weeks later. Criminals really didnt abuse our car other than getting it dirty. Not a good experience. Wingnut

It's the sinking feeling in you stomach. Decades ago went to a bufay for supper in my then 12 YO 72 F250. Came out after eating and looked to where I thought I parked it but crazy thought I parked it somewhere else. Nope. Gone. No word on it for a month or more. Then got a call from an impound yard that they had it. It had been parked in a low rent neighborhood under a tree out of gas and I guess someone finally called to have it removed. It was stolen again years later. Parked in front of my house I heard a truck start up but didn't think anything about it till the wife says where's your truck. I quick got in the other car and tracked it down. Cops already called the tow Company and it cost me $60 to get it back. I could have driven it home if it hadn't been already towed.

It wasn't my vehicle, but when I was a GM salesman we had a used pickup stolen.

We had this squirrel in Lincoln detailing our used vehicles, and we decided we weren't going to have him do any more work for us, for various reasons. He had a GMC 3/4 ton pickup with a nice above cab shell of ours that he was working on. After he'd had it a couple days, our Sales Manager and someone else were in Lincoln on other business but decided to swing past the guy's shop. If the pickup was done, they'd bring it back and we wouldn't give him any more work.

They went past the guy's shop and found it locked up with a note on the door from the landlord that he'd changed to locks and the guy would have to bring the rent current before he had access again. The Sales Manager (Doug) and the other fellow looked in a window and it was obvious all of the guy's detailing supplies and equipment were gone, plus no sign of our pickup.

Doug called the guy's wife and asked her if she knew where he was. She said she'd been looking for him for a couple of days, too. We had no choice but to report the vehicle as stolen.

This was in March. We heard no more about it until early in December Doug got a call from a police officer in Phoenix, Arizona. They had the guy locked up on a DUI charge, and the officer wanted to know if it was OK for the guy to be driving that pickup in Phoenix with our dealer plate on it. Apparently the VIN of the vehicle had fallen through the cracks and hadn't gotten reported to the national data base of stolen vehicle, but the Phoenix officer was following his professional instincts. Doug told the officer, Hell no it's not OK for him to be driving that pickup in Phoenix. We've been looking for that SOB since March.

An hour later, the guy tried calling Doug collect from the jail in Phoenix. When the operator asked Doug if he'd accept the charges, Doug told her, I can't think of one reason on this Earth why I would want to talk to that guy.

But, the insurance had already paid us for the pickup and the guy was locked up in Phoenix, so at that point it was between him, the law, and the insurance company. We heard no more about it.

One more stolen car story...

Back in the mid 70's, my cousin was a real estate agent, knocking down some serious money. She had bought a top of the line Pontiac Firebird. It came up missing. Partly her fault for leaving her purse, with keys, along with a briefcase filled with ongoing property sales, in the car unlocked.

Turned it in, insurance paid it off, years passed...

Then she got a call, seems an insurance investigator was working on another stolen property case. There in the back of the small town impound facility, under a dirty tarp, was the Firebird!

It had been recovered the next day, undamaged. Turns out someone at the impound ordered it put in the back and conveniently lost it.

She didn't get the car back but did get her purse, brief case, and some personal items back, just like they were 10 years earlier!

1972 F 250,I heard them drive off.cops found it when a neighbor came home and my truck was in his garage.Hot wired it. My wife parked her Grand Cherokee in front of her store,key in it. She saw it make a u turn,she ran next door to she if our daughter had taken it,she had not. The police were waiting for it twenty miles away,they saw him make a turn. Parked it in a tavern lot and was gone when they got there.

Crew cab 4x4 F250/350's have been a hot item around here for several year. They are a coyote favorite, especially the white ones because there are so many in Texas. They take the back seat out and have lots of room for customers or merchandise. A friend had his stolen from a parking lot in town. San Antonio P.D. found it two weeks later. They told him to have insurance total it out because of the possibility of drug residue.

Every super duty a hot commodity for many years, the plastic paddle door locks and usually no anti-theft systems make them ridiculously easy to steal by meth heads.

We had a spell of cars missing from the grocery store parking lot. Small town many natives leave their keys in the ignition. Two or three times folks came to find their cars gone.
Cure was to look around the parking lot, if there was a yellow Ford LTD you just take it and drive down to Willies house and swap cars.
Willy was getting senile and forget which car was his. so he just took whatever was available. Poor guy died a few years ago.

Dad had a tractor stolen from a hay patch we were doing for a neighbor. they had to winch it on the trailer because we had the points and condenser with us to get replacements. You could see where they had dropped the ramps and where the chain dragged through the gravel.

The trucks must really be in demand now. Stan

Not really a stolen vehicle, but came home from a Easter Egg Hunt party at a friends house and found a Winnebago sitting in my driveway. Not mine. Talked to the neighbors they said someone in a white car followed it in the driveway and then left. Called cops, but being a larger city it was way low priority. About 2 hours later someone walked by and asked if that was mine and I said nope and they determined it was their missing RV. Apparently they had it in for service and the RV place delivered to the wrong address. Interestingly the owner called her lawyer over the whole thing and never did call the cops. Older couple and apparently neither one could drive it and wanted to leave it in my driveway until their son could come sometime the next day to move it. I said no because there was snow on the way so I ended up driving it a block and parking it for them. Never had driven anything like that before and they ended up complaining about my parking job. I said oh well at least you found it before I had the cops tow it off.