Give me your ideas guys, what do I have to do?

[crimsonride]

You know, when my cherokee was stolen I reported it. Three days later at four in the morning my phone rings and it's the police telling me I have twenty minutes to pick it up or they're going to tow it. I inform them it was stolen and the response is "Uh...oh, ok well you'll need to pick it up right away or we're going to tow it. It's blocking a driveway."
So I pick it up. It's stripped to the bone and I barely get it home. The next day I call the police to ask them if they are going to finger print it so I can start cleaning it up and the response is "well, now that you've gone through it there's nothing we can do."

So a year passes. My landcruiser is parked out behind my work and at the end of the day a guy pulls up in a old ford, gets out and asks me if I'm interested in selling the cruiser. He chats with me for a while, tells me he does fiberglass repair for a living, blah, blah, blah. So I start the cruiser (there's a special procedure) and I let him test drive it. He says he has to ask his wife for the money and leaves. ...the next morning it's gone.

So here's what I tell the police. I know what he looks like, I know what he drives (quite specifically). I know he was at the DMV that day because he had a one week temp liscence in his truck window that expired in exactly one week. I also know the general area he left to when he left since my sister left at the same time as him and ended up coincidentally following him a few miles on her way home. ....Nothing from the police at all.

Three years later I find my own stolen vehicle in a storage facility with records, security cameras and other vehicles that were brought in with the cruiser and the very most the police do for me is come pick up the cruiser and take it to the impound.

Is it me or does it seem like they can do a little better than that?

 

[NE_Utah]

Man that sucks. They should do more. I guess little crimes like vehcle thefts are not big enough for them. I would call the chief of police or the Mayor. Contact the news. It always helps to ***** slap them to make them see.

I would be really pissed off if that is what they did to me.

 

[richpblaze]

Somebody tried to steal my 4-Runner.

When I asked about finger prints I was told that was not part of the procedure. At that time I was grilled as if I were the thief. I will never call them again. They really don't care about car theives was the attitude I got. How will they tie more than one crime to a person if they don't tkae prints???????????

 

[xjshorty21]

that sucks i say get everyone invole and start to piss them off

 

[themaniam1]

I can feel your pain. I have had three cars stolen, two were Cherokee's and one a Cutless Cierra. That GM steering column is so easy to get into. My first car was a Cherokee. My reported it stolen, police came out and talk to her and she showed them the pile of glass in LDS Hospital parking terrace where the Jeep was. Four days later I get a call to come get it or it will be towed. I reminded them that it was stolen and they said "oh ya, your right. Come get it anyway" So they tell me where it is, out by the airport. I show up and it is in a ditch partially on its side in water up to the bottom of the doors. They said good luck try to start it and getting it out, Idiots! I asked about finger prints and they said they wouldn't do them with it in the ditch and I said well "I am going smuge them when I get in" their relpy "so". Well I jump in, use the screw driver they theifs used and started it right up, put it in 4x4 and backed it right out.

Long story same theme as above. Nothing ever came of it. Same with the Cutless but they did catch the gang bangers that stole my last XJ.

 

[mbryson]

Unfortunately it seems like there are quite a few of us on this board who have had vehicles stolen. I really don't know what we can do other than write our state legislators regarding our experience. I'd also write your local police and the police that were involved in the 'recovery'.

My experience was a little different and the Salt Lake PD was actually very helpful and quite courteous to me. I had mine recovered within 24 hours. My disappointment is with the courts.

 

[rxcarl5]

I Had my Jeep stolen right from in front of the police station in down town salt lake. 200 s 300 e. Not around the block literally right out front. when I called to report it stolen They would not even come to the crime scene ( I guess it would have been to far of a walk 30 feet at most.). The police man just took a report over the phone. I was very disapointed with the service I got. When they found the jeep they called me and told me what impound lot I could go pick it up in. I went out to retrive it and figured there would be finger printing dust all over, to my surprise there was none. I hopped up in the jeep and found the tool they were using to start the jeep. I called the detective on the case to have them come finger print it and he told me "honestly kid we never really find these car theives." They would not even come out. I was majorly dissapointed, but very glad to get the rig back. Sorry about your situation That stinks.

 

[Spork]

In case anyone was wondering they are all waiting for you to cross the double white line to get in the car pool lane.

 

[gripguru]

Sounds like some really lazy police work in those instances, but fairly consistent. That is not pleasing at all. I have had three vehicles stolen, my toyota pickup was stolen twice.. the second time it was completely worthless, dont know why they stole it.

First time, I am at work at the hardware store ( i was 18 ) and my buddy calls me all frantic, cause he is chasing my truck through some subdivision Gone in 60 Seconds style. He is yelling and crazy, the guy is mobbing peoples yards and hit a stop sign going 65....in a subdivision. My buddy is telling me to call the cops, which I do and I tell him to let it go, it isnt worth getting both of our cars demolished or hitting somebody. The police call me two days later and my pickup is in impound, they picked it up 250 feet from where my buddy gave up the chase and wanted $400.00 for the impound. The important thing here is the police didnt say it would cost anything, the impound was a tow yard and it was the tow yard that wanted the money. Now it is my assumption, but if the guy stole my truck and ditched it in somebody's yard the second that he did not see my buddy in the rear view, why would my dash be stripped and my stereo stolen???? I told them to pound sand since I had called in the stolen vehicle and they knew how to contact me. I also outright accused the tow company of stripping the truck and I called the cops while at the impound. They said they had printed the vehicle and it was part of a huge police investigation into toyotas being stolen (since there is only like 40 key patterns total) so they footed/waived the bill and there was fingerprint dust on the truck. BOTTOM LINE call the BS as responsibly as possible, it is not like you did anything wrong.

I learned from that experience to be extremely thorough and detail oriented. The cops did not seem to drop the ball like the ones in some of these other stories, but I did keep track of names, badge numbers, etc... and to this day I think that tow yards are the biggest crooks of all.

 

[Meat_]

..."honestly kid we never really find these car theives."...

Maybe that has to do with the fact that they never look for them.

 

[Cody]

My parents street is the border between SLC and SL County. I've had cars broken into and if you call the County (which is the side we live on) they tell you to call the City, and if you call the City they tell you to call the county. I don't think I ever saw any police patrol on my street either in the 25 years I lived there. Although, once I got a parking ticket from the City for parking the wrong way on my side of the street (my side is the county) and they were pretty firm on making me pay even though it wasn't in jurisdiction they claim when there is actually work to be done.

 

[Brett]

... and to this day I think that tow yards are the biggest crooks of all.

I don't suppose this was Snowy Mountain was it?







I have a good story if it was

 

[ZUKEYPR]

Those stories all really blow. I'd be majorily pissed at the treatment as well but in all honestly someone has been watching to much CSI, it is an extreme rarity that any crime, let alone autotheft is solved via fingerprints. It's not like TJ Hooker where someone comes in, 5 minutes later lifts a perfect print from the door handle, puts in in a computer, and 20 seconds later it spits out the mugshot of the perp.


Anyone on here had a TJ stolen yet with the computerized key other than from simply towing it off? Just curious as to how theft proof that really is.

Edit: If I got the BS treatment about come down here in 20 minutes or we'll have it towed I go pick it up, but I guarantee I would be in both the cheif of Police and mayors office the very next morning.

 

[Tacoma]

even though it wasn't in jurisdiction they claim when there is actually work to be done.

No f'ing way I'd pay that without whatever fight it took.





















eh, maybe I would.

 

[ALF]

I guess i can tell my story

I had my 4 wheeler stolen when I lived out in Magna (SL County jurisdiction) The bastards loaded my quad on my trailer in my back yard in broad daylight and of course no one saw anything. Cops wouldn't even come out to take the report instead I had to go in. I gave them pictures and such because I'd done alot of work to it and it was easily recognisable (sp?) heres where it gets good...few months later i see it wrecked in a driveway a few streets over...I'd thought i'd heard it crusing around the neighborhood so me and my buddy run home to grab my key that I still had and my truck. I knock on the door as my buddy calls the cops. Guy answers and I tell him I'm taking it and he said it was his sons but didn't seem to care much. As I'm loading it the cop shows up. I show him the registration and explain. Meanwhile the guy that had allegedly bought it shows up and asked what was going on. The cop knew him by name and he continues to tell the cop that he bought it with no ignition, title, registration or anything. He was just getting home from surgery because he wrecked it the night before. The cop tells me he beleives his story and was going to go over to where it was bought and arrest them. No one was ever arrested. And without an arrest you can't file for restitution. Cops suck...I handed them a criminal and they still did nothing

 

[DevinB]

We had one of our jetskis stolen from in front of our house one night, lifted right off the trailer. Cops did nothing. A couple years later, one of the kid's dads finally gets a little suspicious and calls the cops with the VIN number, which we had given them. They said they had no record of it. The dad persists with it and calls the local Kawasaki dealer and reads off the VIN, who trace it back to us. Then the kid's dad brings it back with his kid to make him apologize. There wasn't any damage to it, just a No Fear sticker added to it, and my parents didn't press charges. Sounds like we're lucky we haven't had anything else happen!

 

[gijohn40]

I'm not making excuses for the cops but my GF (gischick) is a dispatcher for SLCPD and she gets these calls all day long... what good is it to send a cop that is already stretched to his limit some days to a house just to take a report that she can do over the phone... after all what is the cop to do? come look at empty airspace? now some times if you can give them an accurate discription of the people and give enough info like plate numbers of the car that the item was loaded on... or things like that they might send someone out to take the report but then again she could take that over the phone....

now in the case where you find your stolen car and call the police they should be coming out to take down info case they do have a case file they need to update (that is if you reported it stolen in the first place) and depending on the situation they might take prints and such but then again anyone that knows about fingerprinting knows that most prints do not last more then a few days before the elements wipe them clean... oils do dry up!


AGAIN BEFORE YOU BLAST ME WITH FLAMES.... IM NOT MAKING EXCUSES FOR THE COPS.... just telling you what I hear from the GF everyday when she gets home....

 

[Meat_]

You guys should stop living in the ghetto

No f'ing way I'd pay that without whatever fight it took.

It's a cheap way to prove that they have to answer your calls.

 

[Kiel]

You guys should stop living in the ghetto

You won't be saying that when they steal your tractor

 

[Meat_]

You won't be saying that when they steal your tractor

I have 283 guard wasps on my tractor