If the punk who stole our son's car last night

[soup]

crashes it or hurts someone while driving it, are we going to be held liable for any damage?

Does anyone know how that works?

[htuttle]

1. If you reported it to the police...

...you're probably in the clear, liability-wise.

If you didn't, you're probably on the hook, liability-wise.

[soup]

3. thanks.

It was reported about 2 minutes after it happened.

For some reason, didn't even think about the liability thing until just now.

[SoCalDem]

2. If you reported it stolen and called your insurance, you are ok

That sucks though.. I had mine stolen once, but luckinly got it back 3 hours later.. Our cops travel around with a llist of stolen honda accords, so they are always on the look out

[soup]

5. Police database didn't even have

Geo Metro - They tried to convince me it was a Prism, or a Tracker or a Storm.

It was stolen in front of 7-11. Sam had left it running (since there's a problem with the starter) when he went in for a candy bar.

Some guy was lurking at the side of the building , just waiting for an opportunity - and took it.

What's hilarious is the green neon underlighting was on, and the switch is hidden, so there's a car thief out there driving a 96 Geo Metro that is glowing green, can't be restarted, does 0-60 in about 2 minutes, and had about 1/2 gallon of gas in it.

Got his new rims and tires, stereo, backpack with schoolbooks and some personal stuff, though.

Didn't have full coverage, either. boohoo. Since he's 16, our insurance for our cars for 6 months is about 2,500$ - basic coverage.

Oh, well- whatchya gonna do? I was just concerned about any other crap we might have to face because we're victims.

[CanuckAmok]

8. I hate to bring this up, but...

many auto insurance policies have small print which basically cancels the theft coverage if there's evidence that the car was running or had the keys in the igniton at the time of the theft.

Be careful there. Better have a look at your policy.

[soup]

10. no theft coverage.

can't afford it. So there's no recovery for us unless the car reappears.

Poor kid can't even resort to his skateboard. It was in the car, too. Don't know if his roller blades were in there as well.

The bright side is:
He's got a good excuse for lack of homework.

[mopinko]

4. had cars stolen 3 times

got them back 3 times. yup, call your insurance agent. they will be able to tell you what the deal is in your state.

[soup]

6. three times?! ouch.

His car wasn't worth much. It was what we could afford for him - 1st car, 16th birthday present- He's pretty bummed out about it.

Guess we'll need to change the front door lock since they've got his wallet with d.l., student I.D., home address, and his keys.

Geesh. Always something.

3 times?????

Did you send out invitations?

[mopinko]

7. all rotten beaters, too

over a long period of time- 15 years. but that is the only bad thing that has happened to me in all my time in chicago. so it is a toss-up as far as i am concerned. and i got them all back within a few days.

[soup]

9. Cops just told me

that criminally, we can't be held liable, since it was reported stolen and out of our control.

But - and of course, there has to be a but, right? - civilly, anything can happen. Especially since he left the keys in it, someone could say we enabled whatever happens. yay.

Glad you got yours back. Hope they can recover his, mostly for the personal stuff in it. The car itself was a cheap (but cute) little gas-miser, and not worth much more than the $500 deductible on the insurance.

[mopinko]

12. "mostly for the personal stuff in it."

one of them was my well worn, mom mobile, station wagon. my car is always a mess. i am an unrepentant slob. so it was full of kid stuff. stroller, toys, you know. so the cop that calls from the pound is telling me when i can come and get it. i should hurry, cuz the power windows are all down. what are the hours, i ask. yadaa, yada he says. ooooh, well.... i say. need to get someone to take care of the kids?, he says. wow, how did you know, i say. lady, i'm lookin at your car. hahahahaha.

[soup]

14. ah, thanks for the smile.

"Lady, I'm lookin' at it." what a great line.

[CanuckAmok]

11. Wallet, too, huh? Some advice.

Contact your bank, and his bank. Make sure they put a note on your account info that any transactions done via a teller, even deposits, require the customer to provide photo ID.

I had my truck stolen (and recovered) last year. One of the items recovered was a list the thieves had been making by piecing together parts of credit and debit card numbers from various receipts, a bank account number from a deposit slip, our home address from the insurance papers, and my wife's office address from her business card.

The police said, before we do anything else, get the bank to upgrade security on our accounts. Then cancel credit cards, change locks, etc.

And, if your son's car had a remote garage door opener, be sure to change those codes or disconnect the opener for a while, too.

[soup]

13. Frightening.

Thanks for the info! More things I hadn't even considered.

He didn't have any bank cards (he's only 16) so any receipts would have been cash receipts. Did have his driver's license and social security card, student ID and parking permit. Cash receipt for the new tires he'd just gotten, and the rims. Oh, and of course the paperwork for the car, insurance, and registration papers.

Thinking about it in those terms is really scary. 'They' could take your whole life, couldn't they?

[CanuckAmok]

15. Yeah. Imagine how I felt seeing that list...

they had fucking EVERYTHING on us. Luckily, they were too stupid/stoned/whatever to remember to take the list with them when they abandoned the vehicle.

It had everything about us all over it, in places I had never even thought of. The business card from the guy who installed our home alarm--they copied down his name and cell number; our full names; our home address from the registration; my wife's workplace address and hours; my business account info from a deposit slip...

Worst of all was the way they pieced together Visa and MC numbers from differenct receipts: You know how some receipts pring your CC number on them, but 'blank out' certain numbers? Well, get enough receipts and you can piece the card numbers together, like so:

1234 XXXX 9876 1234
1234 5678 XXXX 1234


These guys took the time to do that, and could have seriously screwed our lives up.

It was very, very creepy for a couple of weeks.

Luckily, even though they were never caught, they must have had to abandon the truck in a hurry, because they left that list, and a few hundred dollars worth of stolen tools and stuff in the back. But I got to keep the tools after 90 days!

Note: I now 'black out' the home address on the insurance/registration papers. That's tecnically not legal, but I've been roadchecked by police twice since, and when I tell them why I do that, they say "good thinking", and let me go.

And I don't leave ANYTHING in our cars anymore.