I only had one set of keys and think I left them in the car. I have an AirTag in the car and tracked the vehicle five blocks away and don’t know if I should stake it out or call the police.
If the police tow it to some impound yard I won’t be able to afford getting it out or a new key. If I wait and ask the person entering my car to kindly give me the keys, I won’t encounter any cost.
I have comprehensive and uninsured coverage with Geico. What will they cover in my situation?
Someone stole my car. I know where it is. What is the best way to report this and what charges will I encounter?
byu/MegaCOVID19 inInsurance
Posted by MegaCOVID19
11 Comments
> If I wait and ask the person entering my car to kindly give me the keys, I won’t encounter any cost.
That… might not work out well.
If you have proof of ownership I suppose you can go to the parts department at the dealer and see if they can make you a key for it. We would do this decades ago when I worked at Enterprise, but IDK if nowadays the dealership might need the car present to code a key for it. Worth asking anyway.
You can have it towed to your home or other secured location. Have a locksmith get it open. Remove a crucial part that makes it run (like the battery) so the thief can’t easily come back for it if it needs to sit unattended. Have a locksmith make a new key for the car and recode the locks. If you have proof of ownership you can probably have a locksmith do all that right at the car where it’s at, if you’re not afraid of a confrontation.
You can claim the cost of the tow, a replacement key, and possibly the recoding fee, plus any actual theft-related damage to the car. Some policies have a specific section that addresses keys and lock recoding.
Call the police. Don’t go over there to confront the thieves or to try to covertly steal the car back. Are you thinking that if you go and directly confront the people that stole your car, they’re just going to say “Hey, my bad. Here’s your key back. Sorry for the trouble”? Or is it possible that something worse happens?
Comprehensive will cover theft, but you are going to have to report it to the police. I would caution you against confronting the thief. If they feel they are cornered by someone who isn’t the police they could get violent or worse.
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This can’t be a real post what’s the best action to take? Call the cops duhhhh
Yeah, I’m sure kindly asking for the keys back from the person who *stole* your vehicle will go over well.
>I should call the police.
FIFY
Sure OP, go ask for your car back nicely and let us know how it went…
Being realistic.. the moment that car was stolen, CALL THE COPS. file the police report, contact insurance, you don;t know if that car has already been used for a crime or if they are planting drugs on it or what and if you “get it back on your own” you might end up in either a violent situation, retaliation, or even worse being caught in the middle of a crime investigation.
My car was stolen and I had name and address of who took it. Was a mafia chop shop. Police refused to go. At one point cop said I make $42,000 a year wire a wife and kids I am not risking my life to get you car. Just file insurance claim. He then put one hand over badge and other on gun and said get out of here. I left the police station quickly.
They don’t care.
When my car got stolen they called me to go pick it up from where they found it.
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