Cross-posted at Liberaltopia
The Puget Sound area is suffering an epidemic when it comes to auto thefts. It has gotten so bad that the state legislature has been working on legislation that would increase penalties for such crimes. (Currently, a person would have to commit up to seven felonies before he or she ever saw the inside of a prison for auto theft)
Why am I bringing this up?
This morning, at about 3:45 in the morning, my roommate banged on my door to tell me that someone was stealing my car with a tow truck. My great little Audi A-4 spends its night in my car port, out of the weather. I pamper it, making sure it stays clean and meticulously serviced. There isn’t a dent or blemish on the car — it is my baby.
I immediately jumped up out of bed, and called 9-1-1 to report my car stolen. My roommate took off in his car to follow the tow truck and attempt to head it off at the pass, so to say. A few moments later, he calls me to tell me he made contact with the tow truck driver — who works for a repossession company called Western Automotive Recovery of Washington, Inc which goes by its acronym, “WAR”.
The driver had been looking for a 2001 Saab that the bank had listed to repossess. Instead he latched on to my 1999 Audi A4 only because the color matched what he was looking for. When that revelation was brought to the driver’s attention, he told my roommate that this was only a “prank” and that he would promptly return the car.
A few moments later, he arrived back at my house, backed the car back into my car port, lowered it and sped out of my driveway, almost dragging the car behind it as he sped off. Immediately, a Snohomish County deputy pulled him over, and I ran down the street yelling that I wanted to press charges for auto theft.
The officer told me to go back to my house to see if there was any damages to my vehicle.
When I tried to start the car, it wouldn’t start. The bumper had been pulled away from the corner, and there was a small dent in the right front fender. Those were the obvious damages, and I let the deputy know this.
My Audi is an all-wheel-drive car. It cannot be towed without damaging the transmission. Not even for a short distance. The car had been towed for about five miles while it was still in park.
The deputy refused to arrest the driver, telling us that the driver “was only doing his job”. He would make a police report, but he wasn’t going to do anything further than that. He wouldn’t give me the name of the driver, or the contact information for the company he worked for, until he completed his report sometime the following night.
After a lot of phone calls and searching the internet, I was finally able to track down this company. I called the manager, “Rich”, who hadn’t heard from his driver about this as of 8:30 this morning. He told me that he knows if his driver screwed up, his company was liable for damages, but first he had to talk to his driver. I gave him the police incident number, telling him that he didn’t even need to talk to his driver since the sheriff’s department caught him in the act of returning the car. (I mean, what more proof does he need?)
He told me that he was going to send a ‘flatbed’ truck over to pick up my car and take it to a shop to be examined. He would also pay for a rental car during the time I would be without a car. That was at 10:00 this morning. Now, five hours later, he is ducking my phone calls, and telling me that he is going to wait for a copy of the police report. [NOTE: he received a copy of this police report at 7:36 am this morning when I faxed it to him]
Since that time, I was finally able to start my car. However, the transmission doesn’t shift properly, and there is still the matter of the bumper that was pulled away from the car.
As far as I can tell, this is a totally unregulated industry. You would expect, when dealing with expensive private property, there would be some sorts of protections in place to prevent things like this.
For example, requiring positive identification of a vehicle before it is taken. In this case, a simple check to see if even the make or model matched the information on the repossession would have prevented this from happening. License plates could be switched, but at least verifying the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) should have been mandatory. The fact that none of this was done takes it far beyond what anyone could consider an “honest mistake”.
And what if nobody had seen this driver take my car? What if my roommate hadn’t caught up with him? Would he have quietly slipped my car back into my car port and driven off with nobody being the wiser? Would he have simply unhooked the car down some quiet street and pretended like it never happened?
What do you think the chances of him coming up to my door and telling me he had made a grave mistake and that his company would foot any bill for damages up and to making complete restitution for any losses I might have incurred?
- Why aren’t these repossession people required to notify the police that they are going to take a vehicle prior to them doing so? It would at least protect them from pulling the wrong car and then getting caught with it. You know, call the local cop shop, tell them you have legal repossession paperwork and that you have spotted the vehicle and have made a positive identification that it is, in fact, the correct vehicle.
There is way too much room for abuse and mistakes, and the innocent person whose car was snatched by one of these people end up having to pay the price while the repossession companies get away with committing crimes.
So here I am, over twelve hours after I became the victim of a crime that the police refuse to prosecute, and the company trying to duck their responsibility under the guise of “looking into it”. I have been deprived of the use of my property, which is now damaged goods.
I do have some recourse available to me. My insurance company will cover the cost of the repairs, but only to the point of the value of the vehicle, and when that value is exceeded, the car then becomes “totaled” They are then only likely to give me the retail value of the car, which is less than the cost I’ve paid on the car.
Secondly, if the insurance company has to foot the bill for a new transmission at the cost of roughly $6500, then the car gets awarded what’s known as a “salvage title”, thereby cutting the value of the car in half — again, a loss for me.
I could sue the company itself, and attach its bond thereby taking away the ability of the company to perform business in this state, but there is nothing stopping the company from simply abandoning its bond and reapplying for a new bond under a different name.
Update: I received another police report from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department that identified the driver of the tow truck. One of my roommates actually knows this guy, and he is a real piece of work. He has a very bad driving record, and apparently the only background check Western Automotive Recovery did when they hired him was to review the forged copy of his driving abstract that HE provided. Apparently, they must have forgone the “fogging the mirror” test.
According to Richard Vollmer, the registered manager/operator of Western Automotive Recovery of Washington whom I have been speaking to for the past couple of days, the driver ditched the truck and never returned to the company.
Now Richard trying to get out from under responsibility for any of this. He doesn’t think he should be held responsible for his “negligent driver’s actions”, and gave the following analogy as his reasoning (and I quote):
“If my driver had gone to rob a bank in my truck, should I be responsible?”
- Richard Vollmer, Manager of W.A.R.
I told him that if his driver had been driving his truck, owned by his company, and sent by that company to the bank — then yes, he would be responsible.
Thank you for playing Really Bad Analogies.
The fact is, his driver, as an employee and agent of his company, driving a truck owned by his company, was sent out by the company to reposess an automobile by any means necessary (as long as the company can claim culpable deniability, apparently) When HIS driver as HIS agent, hooked HIS truck up to MY car on MY property, then by legal extension, he becomes liable for any damages or wrong-doing that results. It doesn’t take a legal expert to reach this conclusion.
Richard wants me to either drive my car down to a particular shop he is familiar with in Kent, WA so HIS mechanic can inspect it. I’m thinking that he doesn’t get to decide what shop is going to look at my car and make decisions what needs or should be done — especially one that might have a vested interest in making Rich happy. I want a shop that specializes in Audis, since they are not your typical car. I suggested the Audi dealership, since they are the most familiar with these kinds of vehicles. At least for the purposes of an inspection. I also expect Richard to pay for the inspection at the Audi dealership shop.
He told me that if I dropped the car off at Barrier Audi in Bellevue, he would put it on one of his flatbed trucks and ship it to his prefered shop anyways. My response was to tell him that I do not want my car on any more of his trucks, given his apparent driver hiring practices. Additionally, I would consider such an attempt on his part to move my car an act of theft — again.
At that point, he told me that I was being “childish” and unreasonable, and that he still feels that he cannot be held responsible for what happened. He says that he has no records with my name, address, or vehicle in his paperwork, and no proof that his driver even took my vehicle. When the Snohomish County Deputies arrived on the scene, the driver had already returned the car and was only seen speeding out of my driveway. (he doesn’t take into account that a Washington State Trooper saw him with the my car attached to the truck a couple of miles away from the house, or the fact that there are three eyewitnesses.)
When I told him it was absurd for him to think that he wasn’t ultimately responsible for what happened, he then told me I should talk to his attorney, which he provided the name and phone number.
At that point, I figured that trying to be reasonable with this person was out of the question.
So I have decided I would let my insurance company deal with this. I mean, I have full coverage insurance, and for something like this, I was told that because I didn’t do anything wrong, my rates won’t increase because I am filing a claim. My insurance will pay for any repairs to my vehicle, and they can use their attorneys to go after re-embursement from this guy.
I’m not a vindictive person, and I’m not trying to cash in on any of this. I just want my car to be returned to the shape and condition it was in before his employee invaded my peace and property and severely depreciated the value of my vehicle. I have given him plenty of time and opportunity to make things right, and all he’s done with it is to try and find ways to weasle out of it.
I don’t know how many times something like this has happened before. It might be happening all the time, but most victims don’t know it happened because these things go on in the middle of the night when they are asleep. They wake up, get ready to go to work and come out to either find their car missing and presumed stolen, or they find their car just doesn’t work any more. All they know is that it was there and working when they parked it. The difference here is that someone was caught in the act, and I am very upset about it.
Mr. Vollmer apparently thinks I don’t have a right to be upset or even outraged about it. I would find it very hard to believe that he wouldn’t feel exactly the same way if this had happened to him. Ask yourself how YOU would feel? Would you be “understanding”, and accept the damages incurred? Of course not.
Mr. Vollmer seems to think that the “negligence” falls solely on this particular driver, and that is where all responsibility ends. I would have to argue that it was Mr. Vollmer’s negligence that hired this driver in the first place without checking this person’s background.
I don’t want this to happen to anyone else in the future.
I would like to see the next session of the Legislature take up the issue of regulations for this industry. The state has stiff regulations on taxi drivers, complete with criminal and driving backgrounds, but they are awfully silent when it comes to the property recovery industry. Here are a few things I would like to see addressed:
- Criminal and driving background checks conducted prior to being hired.
- Each driver should be bonded and have full drivers insurance prior to starting the job.
- Each driver should be required to go through a standardized training program and tested for knowledge and practices to obtain a state license that allows them to reposess vehicles and / or other valuable property.
- Prior to the attempt to repossess any vehicle or property, positive identification of that property should be made. A phone call should be placed to the local police jurisdiction identifying the driver, the order for repossession, the description of the property to be repossessed, and the driver should attest that the property he is about to seize is the actual property listed in the order.
- When going on private propery, the local police jurisdiction should be notified of the address, and the description of the property to be seized — including serial numbers, physical description, etc.
These are just off the top of my head. I could be even tougher, like requiring a court order of repossesion to be issued prior to the actual repossession to take place, but I am not trying to make it impossible for creditors to get their property back or make it impossible for a reputable company in the business to operate. But I think some protections should be in place to prevent problems like what happened to me from happening again. I think that the five suggestions I just made would go a long ways in offering just those protections.
Update #2: The insurance adjustor will be out here tomorrow to inspect and write up the claim. Basically, the insurance company is going to cut a check to me for the cost to fix everything that was damaged on the car, then go after Western Automotive Recovery for the loss.
Without having done an actual mechanical inspection yet, this is what I can tell you about the damage this company caused:
- The transmission shifts funny now, there is a lurch sometimes when the car comes to a halt.
- The front end makes a clunking sound
- There is a visible dent in the right fender where the driver struck something.
- The front bumper has been pulled where it was dragged after the right front wheel slipped out of the truck’s stirrup as the driver sped off with the car.
- There is a vibration when you drive down the road.
None of these problems existed prior to when my car was taken.
Update #3:
Listen to us discuss this on KLAY AM 1180 Equal Time Radio
April 9th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
This is BS! This really MUST be stopped!
Take a look at this story from StolenStories.com
http://www.stolenstories.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7
April 9th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
The predatory practices of tow truck companies in this area is out of control. I once parked in a pay lot in Seattle (which I paid for) on my second day of a new job. I went to retrieve an item on my lunch break and, lo and behold, no car. It’s a good thing I did. Otherwise, had I waited until it was time to go home, I would have been stranded. Of course this was before I had a cell phone. Here I was in lower Queen Anne, my car was clear the hell out on Aurora, and I lived in Tacoma. Had I not made the discovery when I did, I wouldn’t have had a ride to pick it up. It was over $200 to have it released. Fortunately, it wasn’t damaged.
Give ‘em hell, DJ!
April 9th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
JESUS! Sounds like some calls to state legislators are in order. To know that these weasels can just grab a car, ANY car and ruin it AND the owner and get away with NO consequences twists my colon. They just declare a “my bad” and laugh it off is outrageous.Prank my ASS. This has GOT to be dealt with at a state level. Banks and credit card companies got their “morally bankrupt” bill through congress. THAT pissed me off and I am about to start SCREAMING about that, because it will bring the middle class to it’s knees. THIS makes that issue look like kiddie games and SHOULD be a no-brainer, but like I said earlier, the banks and predatory credit corps are butt-banging us with no end(except OURS) in sight. I’m glad you contacted the local media DJ, I’ll do the same AND start lobbying state and national Dems and SHAME them into doing something about all these Dickensian attacks on Americans.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:45 am
From a comment left at Digg.com
April 10th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I’m not sure what state you reside in, but in order to consider your car salvage material the repairs have to be greater than 75% of its pre-damage value. Generally, the salvage is applied where there’s major body and panel damage. In general, they shouldn’t salvage your car, there’s tons of people who have engine swaps and rebuild trannies all day long…
Now, as far as the Repo-responsibility. I guess it’s more of a question of how often does this happen? I have a friend that’s a repo driver, and he’s very aware when snatching a car. Usually checking VIN# etc.
I would say it’s more of a bad employee/chance situation.
but it’s too bad it had to happen. And more news on it?
April 10th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Hey DJ,
Did you think you would get this much attention?
The power of the internet… and what interest people.
Started with Digg.com, went to jalopnik.com and now I see it here blog.cardomain.com
Who knows, maybe the MSM will pick it up. You know they would rather talk about this then war and presidential responsibility and culpability.
Washington Woman
April 10th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Yes, I have posted an update on this thread.
I am in Washington, and the value of the car is around $11,000. The cost to replace the transmission, fix the bumper, and front end will run roughly $8,500. There is also the possibility that the frame is bent, because in his haste to get the car out and on the road, he pulled it through a drainage ditch at the foot of my driveway as he was speeding away. The car wasn’t strapped to the stirrups, and the left front wheel bounced off of the stirrip and the car was suspended by the bumper on the tow equipment.
April 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
My god! This is absolutly CRIMINAL!
Frank… I hope you are thinking about doing at least half of this fridays show concerning this issue and others like it.
Maybe Steve Kirby can add something to this.
Kevin
Washington Woman
April 10th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
This morning I spoke to our man on the floor of the house who has appeared on our show weekly since the leg went into it’s session. He told me that these businesses ARE regulated to some degree and they just passed a bill that would keep insurance companies from challenging claims without cause. From what I was able to explain while driving and he, on his way out the door, he said that this sounded like a mistake and a civil matter. I guess even something as obvious as THIS matter, has to involve lawyers. DAMN!
April 10th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Frank,
I think he needs to talk with DJ or at least read this “diary”.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Given the damage to the car and the facts of the event you should have a strong action for conversion against the company to recover the full value of the car. Speak with an attorney in your jurisdiction to be sure.
There may also be a criminal conversion action against the tow truck driver and if so, you may need to push the police to press charges over. Again, this is something your attorney can inform you of.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I hope the insurance company hands the tow company their ASS!
Will they be covering to complete cost of repairs?
Have you thought of going to KOMO TV, Kiro radio, newspapers, etc. with your story? They usually love doing stories about tow companies.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Just damn.
A corporation-hatin’, Bush-hatin’ liberal you may be. But your points are all rock-solid, I think your case is too, and you deserve mad props for writing so much with everything spelled correctly when you’re obviously and righteously ticked.
I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to do so well. Good luck.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I dunno, Deej, but this sort of thing gets my thong in a wad. I had a similar situation, oh, twenty years ago, when a condo association decided my car was an ‘eyesore’ and had it towed. (It had plates and was legal.) The cops knew the towing company and were friendly. The police refused to take my police report. I called the State’s Atty to no avail. I even called the FBI to report the police violating my Civil Rights. I was pissed.
Lessons I learned from this little episode:
1) Make no phone calls; everything must be done in writing. Write to the police department asking for the form to file a complaint for auto theft, and also ask for the address for internal affairs. Also ask for another copy of the police report for the incident and the officer’s name that refused to take your complaint. (You may be required to pay a additional fee for this but the incident report may have been changed.)
2) Contact the State’s Attorney and ask for (in writing) their policy for investigating auto theft. (Nice thing to blast all over the intertubes.)
Meanwhile, I will contact some friends of mine and find out how to make life miserable for these cretins. (I’ll ask Sig.)
April 13th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Another towing horror story.
Original story is here:
Why are towing companies given a free pass to do as THEY see fit?
This towing company purposefully would wait to call in a towed car just so they could get MORE money!
I really am starting to hate all tow companies.
April 13th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Ya know, it just occurred to me that banks and finance companies pay these evil, corrupt bastards to repossess a product that will more than likely be sold at an auction, and it would follow that the bank or whoever would like to get the most money FOR that car. It wouldn’t seem to be in those business’s interest to have a piece of junk due to the repo company dragging it around like they did DJ’s car. So you would think there would be SOME calling for SOME regulation on these suns-a-bitches. Or am I dreamin?
April 14th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Sure, that would make sense — to the person whose car just got repossessed, but in reality, the bank doesn’t care what the car would bring at an auction. The act of repossession is just a message sent, that’s all.
The amount of money the bank would receive at an auction will only offset the amount the debtor is still required to pay to the bank. The debt itself never actually goes away — in fact, it continues to increase through interest and repossession fees. The bank could conceivably sell the car for a dollar, and the debtor would still be without a car and still owe the money — for which the bank would get a judgment and the debtor would wind up paying eventually.
Here is an example. Notice the company involved?
April 16th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
If your state provides for citizens arrest, see if you can locate the driver and arrest him yourself. The police will have no choice but to take him into custody. It is then up to the DA to press charges.
Also a good reason to have a good alarm on your car. The stock factory alarms are not worth a crap.
April 16th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
For such an unregulated practice, we should be able to legally respond in an unregulated manner. I applaud you for handling the situation so well because I know things would be different if this happened to me. I would’ve chased the sucker down and would’ve taken a baseball bat to his knees.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Initially, I suppose I was angry enough to do something like that, but it really wouldn’t have had a positive outcome.
Contrary to what many might think, I am not out to ‘punish’ anyone, I just want two things:
They used to hang horse thieves in our not-to-distant past, NOT so much for punishment, but to send a message to other would-be thieves. As a society, we rely on our transportation as a means to survive.
Not much has changed from then to now, except for the mode of transportation.
I don’t have a beef with auto/property repossession as a necessary industry. If someone doesn’t make their payments, the lender should have the mechanism in place to take back their property. Where I do have a beef is when the industry cuts corners by hiring shady characters, pay them next to nothing, and gives them little or no training on regulations and practices.
A lot of traffic has been sent here on this story by The Consumerist, where a few people took me to task for being impatient.
An example of this sentiment can be found in this comment:
In other words, he probably didn’t have any ‘respect’ for me to begin with. Never mind that he completely overlooked the fact that this company spent their entire time looking for ways to sidestep their responsibility.
After two days, the company had the entire story in front of them. By noon on the first day, they had the police report and the fact that the driver had ditched his truck and taken the GPS unit with him.
The first thing the manager/agent did on Monday morning was to cancel his bond and have a new one reissued. Hardly the actions of a person who was trying to get to the bottom of anything. He knew he was screwed right from the beginning, and was looking for any way he could to get off the hook.
Never mind that not once did the owner/agent ever try to get in touch with me to let me know if he had made any progress. Just a phone call from him to me to keep me in the loop would have sufficed. Instead, he waited until I called HIM for updates.
I tried to be nice and understanding of the COMPANY. I tried to be patient, but I can tell when I am being jacked around — and I was.
So I involved my insurance company as a last resort, when I could have done that immediately. I was just trying to give the company the first chance to make the right move and they tried to take advantage of it.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:21 am
When you settle for the damage to your car, you should keep in mind that you should have your insurance company also pay you for diminished value of the car. In order to do this, I think you’ll probably need to talk to a “certified automobile appraiser”, and find out how much the value of your vehicle has dropped. Once you get a written estimate, though, your insurance company should cover that for you. If they don’t want to, work your way up the chain in the insurance company, using the phrase “failing to act in good will”.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I will keep that in mind. But I think that if the damage is fixed, it shouldn’t effect the value of the car, unless there is a “salvage title” issued — at which point, I will consider the car totaled, and expect a full replacement thereof.
But I don’t expect that to happen.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
DJ and others.. take a look at these links.
Pinch My Ride
Edmunds.com
I got these after following a link from your site stats.
Kevin
Washington Woman
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Here is one more…
Answer Bag
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Well, my car was taken by a tow truck, and short of chaining the damn thing to the house with a strong chain, no on-board security system would have mattered.
Today, the insurance adjuster finally made it out to see my car. The fender and bumper damage was a given, and they will pay for that repair. However, if the damage includes either the transmission or differentials, if they discover any damage they might call “normal wear”, there would be the possibility that I would have to foot the bill.
Never mind that the symptoms I am experiencing did not occur prior to them taking my car, it would be up to me to “prove” that those symptoms aren’t a result of this “normal pattern of wear”.
So I still might have to take this repossession company to court on my own if my insurance company denys that part of my claim. I will also have to take my own insurance company to court for breech of contract if that happens.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I know that this is way after the fact, but did the repossession company ever pay for the damages. Also if you have not thought about it, not sure, but im sure you probably have, you could also sue this company for a “Wrongful repossession.” As a repossessor “former” I have never done that, thank the lord. But it does happen from time to time. Not making excuses for the agent that did it, but it can happen. That is why I was trained to VIN check the vehicle before even touching it. That saves you from so much liability. Now in this case, it is clearly obvious that this repo agent from the company totally ignored that rule. In my opinion he stole your car. He personally can be and should be responsible for the damages, as well as the owner of the repossession company. It would be interesting to hear more from you on a more personal level. If interested please leave a reply to this post, with your email, and I would be more than happy to discuss other things about this company that I personally know.
November 14th, 2009 at 5:14 am
@ kevin22262:
Im a teenager getting my license this month and hopefully my car too but i have to say how glad i am i read this. One good idea iv learned is, if you have the money, spend 50 to $100 dollars to by a video camera to watch your car or park the car in a garage if you can. I may be a little more paranoid about my car getting stolen but i DID learn i have more legal actions to take than i thought. Thanks for posting this!