Our car was stolen almost two weeks ago on a Sunday night. Granted, we left the keys in the car and the back seat had a half case of wine sitting there, waiting for an unscrupulous individual to help themselves, but I was still surprised and more than a little angry to find the car missing in the morning. I had pretty much written it off as gone and we've since been shopping for a new vehicle. In the mean time, I've been learning of all the other goodies we left in the car for the thief to enjoy. First, there's the FasTrak. The car (and FasTrak) was used 3 times to cross the Richmond bridge. They even have a picture of the guy in our car... which seemed like good news for us, but it turns out it doesn't really matter (I'll tell you why in a minute). I also found out that we had a check book in the car. The genius paid his water bill (of $179) with our bank account. It seemed to me that this case was nearly at an end, so I contacted the wonderful Concord police department to forward all my information to and they gave me the the phone number of the detective who was assigned the case. Everything seemed pretty open and shut to me. All they'd have to do is match the name on the water bill with the FasTrak picture and we could have our criminal and our car back. Easy as cake... That was a week ago. I still haven't had any of my calls returned.
In the meantime, I decided to do some of my own detective work. I called the water utility company and tried to get a name or account number of the bill I paid. Unfortunately, they don't give out any names, even if you're the one that paid the bill. They need a court order to do so. So, Sara tried to get the pictures from the Richmond bridge. Apparently that's not possible without a judge or police officer either. So, right about when we started to feel totally defeated, we got a call from the Petaluma police depot claiming that they found our car and it's at a towing yard. I said, "Great. I'll come pick it up tonight... but, Do I pay for the towing or does the police department?" She replied, "I think you'll have to, but your insurance will cover it." I told her that liability insurance doesn't cover towing and she assured me it would be a small, "nominal fee." So, I called the towing company and quickly learned that "nominal fee" means $329 (which is roughly 1/3rd the value of our little Kia Spectra). He assured me that he was very sorry and that I was an unfortunate victim, but I was still going to pay the fee, which is increasing by the hour, and if I pick it up after 5 or on the weekend then there's an extra "after hours fee." He added that if I don't pay then he'll put a lean on the car and keep it. But again, he's "very very sorry for my circumstance." So, Sara and I left work and we trucked out to Petaluma (thank you Meaghan for driving Sara from SF, that was a huge help).
To make a very long story into a short lesson, I'll just say that arguing with a police officer does no good. The truth is, I kinda lost it. I still think the system is disgusting and I can't imagine how anyone could make a living by preying on car theft victims like that, let alone how a city could hire towing contractors to sanction the whole thing, but I have learned my lesson. It does no good to ague with cops, thieves, or towing companies. They all have you buy the covered bits and they know it. The only difference is that the thief has to steal your car when you aren't looking. The towing company and the police get to do it right there in front of you. Either way, there isn't much you can do about it... of course, unless you have theft insurance, which - poetically - does not distinguish between theft by criminal, theft by towing company, theft by the police, or any combination thereof.
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