So, my truck was stolen.  It’s been missing for several weeks.  It was recovered today by the Arcadia police department, who had it towed some twenty miles away to the lot of a private tow company.  I received a message from the Arcadia PD to this effect, with the number to the tow truck company.

I called the tow truck company.  To release the vehicle, I apparently need to bring in a vehicle release form from the PD.

Also, my registration has lapsed.  I’ve been not operating it, but apparently I needed to give the DMV money for the right to have it parked and not being operated.  Fun.  And I didn’t do that.  The registration expired in January.

But apparently my registration was canceled last June.  This was because I didn’t have it insured.  This seemed reasonable because, you know, I wasn’t driving it.

Also, for a long and horrible reason that deserves a longer explanation in a later post, I don’t have the title for the vehicle.

That’s not the only thing I need to release the vehicle, though.  I owe the tow company $175.  For towing my stolen vehicle to a lot absurdly distant.  I don’t need the truck any longer.  I asked them if it would be OK to just sign it over to them.  They said they needed the original pink slip.  I asked if it would be OK to give them DMV form 227, which is expressly designed to allow transfer of ownership with a stolen title.  No, that’s not OK.  I need the original.  I would get this, by mail, through the DMV.

This would be fine, except that they will charge me $50 per day to keep my truck on their lot.  Now, they automatically own the car after 42 days, at which point they’d hold a lien sale.  But I’d still owe them for the accumulated storage costs ($2100), minus the amount of money they’d get for the truck at auction (roughly $13.17, largely due to the ignition apparently being destroyed in some fashion and the driver’s side door not being closable.)

So, on genius advice, I called the local NPR station to see if they would come pick it up.  They can do that, as early as tomorrow.  And they will accept the transfer-of-ownership-without-title form.  So I can get the release form from the Arcadia PD, pay the tow company $225 ($175 in tow fees plus $50 in storage fees), for the right to donate my car to charity.

So I called Arcadia back, to see what the procedure is to get a release form.

“Well, normally you would come down here and get one,” I was told.  “But your registration has lapsed.  Normally we’d release it anyway, because you’re the victim.  But it’s been ten months [since, unbeknown to me, the DMV canceled my registration].  So it’s up to the watch commander.”

“So, basically, what you’re saying is that whether or not I get a form allowing me to reclaim my vehicle that was stolen from me is up to the discretion of whoever is sitting behind the desk at that moment?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s basically what I’m saying,” I was told.

“That’s funny.  I thought we had a system of laws to determine issues such as these,” I responded.

“Well, we do,” she said.  “But a big part of it is institutional policy.”

What?  Institutional policy?  That’s … surely not what she means.  Surely she means something like “officer discretion”.  I later had a debate with my father about this (short, because I ended it) about whether on not police discretion was reasonable.  I contended that it was not.  My father contended that it was just fine.  I recounted a story I had heard about a police officer who explains that she won’t give tickets for driving under the influence.  It would be hypocritical, she argued, because she drives drunk.  Isn’t officer discretion … what gets us into a place in which minorities are disproportionately targeted versus white people?  Basically, it seems, whether or not I get my release tomorrow is a function of how much the cop likes my story and how I look.  Christ.

So, I’ll keep my readers posted.  We’ll see if I can get police permission to pay hundreds of dollars to a private company contracted by a California city for absconding with and storing a vehicle stolen from me to allow me the right to donate the vehicle to charity.

I think my next car is going to be a pickup truck.  They are just so bloody useful.

A follow-up to my car post of a few weeks ago. In summary, the Viking Insurance rep made an offer for settlement, and I suggested they double it. They’ve called back and have said, essentially, “O.K., we’ll double it.”

Oh, and Audi performed the repair job on my bumper, which ended up running to $2000, for free. I’ll be posting an open letter to Audi in the next week thanking them.

In November 2003 I was in a traffic accident. I had to come to a quick stop, but the two people behind me didn’t react fast enough. I was hit by the car behind me, which was in turn hit by the car behind it. I ended up in physical therapy for a month. One of the cars was insured by the relatively expensive State Farm, who have been nothing but professional through the whole process. The other was car was insured by fly-by-night “specialty insurance” provider Viking, part of the Royal & Sunalliance group, where “specialty” is a euphemism, according to their website, for “mandatory coverages for customers who are less able to afford auto insurance”. Viking has had three BBB complaints in the last 12 months, which the BBB lists as “satisfactory”.

There’s one more piece of data you need to know. A while back I ran into a fault with my Audi. There’s a design flaw in which front bumpers will get caught on parking lot obstructions and tear off (I mentioned this problem here.) Audi quoted me a price of $1300 to repair it, but shortly after I received the quote I received a letter from the lawyers pursuing a class action to get this very issue resolved, so I held out. When the accident occurred, I was missing a front bumper, but this had nothing to do with this case. I wasn’t making a claim for this damage. The insurance adjuster estimated the damage to my rear bumper at $700.

I have been in communication with adjuster Dawn, who has been out of the office for long stretches of time. I got in touch with her today, and these are the highlights of the conversation, from memory. It’s surreal.

Dawn:  We’re offering you $x.

Josh:  That’s lower than what State Farm offered.  Lower by 100%, actually.

Dawn:  But this was a minor accident.

Josh:  Well…

Dawn:  This was a minor accident, and you had previously been in another accident that damaged your front bumper.

Josh:  That wasn’t an accident, that was my bumper getting caught on a planter in a parking lot while I was backing up.

Dawn:  But it did more than $1000 damage to your car.

Josh:  Yes.

Dawn: It was obviously more serious. It did $1000 damage to your car, and you weren’t injured, but you were injured during this $700 accident? I don’t see how that could be.

Josh:  You’re not making any sense.

Dawn:  Well, that’s your opinion.

Josh: No, that’s not just my opinion. Look, if a baseball hit my car and shattered my windshield, and the windshield cost me $1000 to replace, would you consider that a more serious accident than the impact?

Dawn:  You’re comparing apples and oranges.

Josh:  Exactly.  You’re comparing apples and oranges.

Dawn:  But you did $1000 damage to your bumper.

Josh:  They’re completely different.  In one I was driving, in the other I was backing up in a parking lot.

Dawn:  But you weren’t driving when you were hit [by our insured].  You were stopped.

Josh:  The other guy sure as hell wasn’t stopped!

Dawn:  Well, he was coming to a stop, and didn’t brake fast enough.  At least that’s what you told us.  [Switches to dramatic voice:] Or is that what happened?

Josh:  No, that’s what happened.  We’ve been over this, lots of times.

Dawn:  OK, then.

[more bizarre exchange…]

Josh:  [Starting to laugh:] Look, I know full well that you may know what you’re saying is nonsense and that you’re just trying to screw with me, and that’s fine.

Dawn:  [Getting flustered:] Well, what do you want?  Let’s talk about that.

Josh:  $y [where y = 2 times x; that's the amount State Farm paid]

Dawn: Well, I don’t have your file right now, it was taken by an auditor. But call me back on Monday, and I’ll see what I can do.

Josh:  [Laughing:] OK.

Dawn:  Bye.

Josh:  [Still laughing:] Bye.