I'm soo stressed out, Anyone have a vehicle stolen? Update..

[Lyn]

ARGGG! Someone stole our truck right out of our driveway on friday. I went outside with Bubba and Lola at about 3:45am and no truck. I was up until midnight and I know it was there when I went to bed.

We have never had anything stolen before and range of emotions going through me are unreal. The poor cop was trying to write everything down and when I'm upset I talk a mile a minute. My entire body was just vibrating.

To top it all off it was my hubby's birthday. That was a nice wake up call for him. OMFG honey the truck is gone.. by the way happy birthday.

Anyone here have a vehicle stolen? Can anyone explain the process? We filed a police report and contacted our insurance but haven't heard anything since.

I'm hoping we get the truck back and it's not damaged or at least fixable, but it's been 3 days. I figured they would have found it by now. I don't know what I'm going to do if it's not found or is damaged beyond repair, we owe quite a bit yet on it to the bank. Probably more than it's worth.

[Nina]

Do you have theft on your insurance policy? If you do and it is not found your insurace will give you the book value of the vehicle. If it is found but will cost more to fix than it is worth the insurace company will also give you the book value. I would call your insurance company and ask them what is going on. Keep bugging them.  Sorry you are going through this.

Nina

[jennifer]

Oh Lyn, I'm so sorry.  What a rotten thing to wake up to!  

I had my car stolen about 15 years ago from my then work parking lot and it was stripped clean.  They even took the little ball from the top of the stick shift!  The worst part? We just returned from a holiday trip to the west coast and all our Christmas presents were in the back!   I didn't have theft insurance on it as the deductible was more than the value of the car (it was an 82 Toyota Corolla station wagon). So it was a real loss for this struggling single parent.

It's certainly a nuisance, but more than that -- it's a personal violation. How dare someone come onto your property and take your truck! Unacceptable!!  

Hope you get some good news soon!

[mynameislola]

Hallmark should have a card for that. Sorry it happened to your family.

Now I shall put on my Risk Manager's hat and let's think about what you can do to make sure the baddies don't get the next one.  I expect you have already thought about parking in a different place.

My favorite method of securing a vehicle is to have a automotive electrician install a cut-off switch in a hidden area that can be reached from the driver's seat. Get it installed in a place in the wiring harness so that the vehicle cannot be quickly hotwired.

If the electrician knows a carpet person, you can get a switch put in under a flap of carpet held down with Velcro or put a pressure-activated switch under the carpet in an area unlikely to be touched during normal operation of the vehicle.

Also, think about getting a car alarm that goes off if the vehicle is touched.  Train the dogs to bark at the alarm. There are also proximity alarms that go off if anyone is moving near the car.  They can be set to say words, like, "Move away from the car."  Alarms make nice birthday presents and can be less expensive than something like LoJack.

What I'd really like is what they do in decoy cars to catch thieves.  The vehicle shuts off, the horn blares and cannot be shut off, the doors lock and cannot be unlocked from the inside, and the car fills with tear gas.  The dash cam catches their expression.

Are you thinking of replacing it with the same style of truck, or do you get to go shopping?

I have never had a vehicle stolen, but one of our houses was robbed (before we had doggies) and my fuel tank has been drained twice.  It is a diesel car so I take some solace in thinking that maybe my fuel made their car run poorly.

[Lyn]

Yes we do have theft on the truck. The bank required it to be fully insured since they are the lienholder. We just got this truck in June of 06. So we pretty much still owe close to the full amount. I doubt the book value will come anywhere close to that. We will end up owing on a vehicle that we don't even have.

My mother just talked to the insurance company (the truck is insured under my father) and I guess I was suppose to contact the bank and tell them it was stolen. I thought the insurance company would have done that since the bank is listed right on our insurance slips as the lienholder. Anyway the bank said they have no problems giving us another loan to purchase another vehicle if they don't find the truck or it's a write off. So I guess that's some good news. But at the same we'd be starting over with another loan which blows big time.

Family and friends think it was stolen for parts since it was in excellent condition. Plus we just bought new rims and tires (which must have been a bonus for the a-hole) 4 months ago that we are still paying for.

mynameislola, Trust me our next truck will have an alarm and an immobilizer.

God, We have the worst luck. Go figure too we just filled it with gas that night. So it could be anywhere.

Edited to add.. that Bubba and Lola were completely useless. They didn't even wake up, nevermind bark.

[ZooCrew]

So sorry to hear your truck got stolen.
I hope that if it's found, it's with minimal to no damage.  That is good though, that you had the theft on it, at least it will partially cover you. 

[Lyn]

I tried to find your post but I can't seem to find it. But WOW! A lie detector.. WTH?

From what I found out also is that we don't have 'gap' protection on our loan so we are responsible for the difference. Depending on how big of a difference that is we won't be getting another vehicle until it's payed off.

If they don't recover our truck we won't be getting a hummer. We will more than likely be getting another truck maybe a bit bigger one.

[bigdogs@5501]

Trucks hold thier resale value more than cars. The first offer from the insurance company will be a low offer because most of the time the insured is so upset that they take the first offer just to get thru the ordeal. Start looking for ads for trucks that are similiar to yours in style and mileage. Have your information ready. Also show the receipt for the tires and wheels, they will include that when they value the vehicle. If you can prove the regular maintenance, get those records together. I had a truck totaled and went thru the ordeal of getting a reasonable settlement. I hung up on the adjuster 2 times after explaining to him that I was not an idiot and to come back with a reasonable offer, I got my price.

Next if you are thinking of another truck- think Chevy or GMC. They usually hold the best resale of the American made trucks and they come with a little added bonus called OnStar. OnStar is a reasonably priced service that can locate the vehicle anywhere, I also think that your insurance will give you a discount if you have OnStar activated on the vehicle.
Good Luck- keep us posted and tell the Hubby that BPO wishes him a Belated Happy Birthday.

[Lyn]

Thanks everyone!

I found out that there was another truck taken the same night 20 minutes from my house. Same make and model just 2 years newer. It hasen't been found either.

The longer this goes on the less hope I have of them finding it in one piece.

I looked through the autotrader and trucks with similar milage and options are selling for $13-15,000 (Minus our rims, tires and duel exhaust and hard tonneau cover). But we owe $5-7000 more than that. This sucks. I hate thiefs.

[Lyn]

bigdogs@5501, Our truck was a GMC. But it was a 2003 so no OnStar. I was going to buy him and alarm with an immobolizer for christmas since the rims and tires were expensive and he wanted to put a body kit and all this other stuff into it. Must be a guy thing.

Anyway.. we got our rental car the same day. It's a 2007 Nissan Sentra. Does that make any sense you? Ummm.. We just had our 2003 truck stolen and your giving us a brand spanking new car to park in it's place. Now today they call us and tell us they had a truck come back and that we can return the car and have it instead. Ok great hubby would prefer a truck anyway since that's what he's used to driving and I could stop being so worried that the damn Sentra would disappear. Even though I know it's fully insured I was getting up in the middle of the night to check on it. So I ask him what this truck is and it's a 2007 Ford F150. *shakes head*

Now of course if it was under any other circumstance I would love a new truck. But I'm a worrier to begin with. Although I guess if we get our truck back or buy another truck I'm probably still going to be getting up in the middle of the check on it regardless. God I sound like a freak.

[Nina]

With the added rims ect to your truck, as long as you have the receipts that adds value to your vehicle. You may not owe the bank anything. Just hold your ground with the insurance company!

Nina

[Scootergirl]

Here's my 2 cents on the insurance offer. Make sure you tell your insurance company all the features that were on your truck, including the new rims and tires. Call a local dealership and ask them what they would give you as a trade-in value for your truck with all the features you had on it. You can even tell the dealership what's going on and how much the insurance company offered you. The dealership is going to want you to come back to them to spend that insurance check so they are going to give you the highest value they can.

When I wrecked Aaron's car, he did this and he got almost $2000 more out of the insurance company than they originally offered.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[Pyr Heaven]

Oh my gosh!

I have no advice to give as I would have NO idea what to do in this situation....b ut I hope you find your truck soon!!!

People these days. Seriously! What is this world coming to!?

And if they don't end up finding the truck...I hope you get a nice new one without oweing the bank for the old one!!!

[bigdogs@5501]

How weird, we have the 2003 Silverado with OnStar. Just get the reciepts together on the rims and everything that you have in the truck- The ins co will add that to the value of the vehicle. I understand the guy truck thing. The Silverado Z71 that we have has he lift kit, the bubba tires, the special exhaust and the side step things etc and the monster gets all of 13 miles per gallon. I dont drive it during the week - I am in the beater Mazda pick up that gets 30 miles to the gallon. I could care less what the truck looks like- I am trying to get to work with out padding the pocket of big oil.

[Lyn]

The insurance adjuster is coming tomorrow at 10am so I'll let you all know how it goes. 

I got on autotrader.ca .. again.. Since the trucks I found in my previous search were no longer listed. This time there was only 2 in all of Ontario that came remotely close. The options, year and model and overall condition were the same problem is they are 14-19,000kms less than our truck. BUT they are not a stepside, don't have a tonneau cover and are stock rims/tires and exhaust. It might balance itself out? But I don't know if she will accept them since they are not exact. Apparently the our truck came in 2 different body styles and the only stepsides I found had way more kms.

I could probably contact some dealerships.. but I only have a photo to show them.

I'll be so glad when this is over with.