Stolen vehicle alert

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

A repost from another community.

Just a heads up. Dj-black mail just a had his mini cooper stolen out in Somerville. If you have seen his car, contact the Somerville police.


blue Mini Cooper hatch 2008 Mass plate 195 BY9


The vehicle has been found. It was towed and somehow, Somerville PD was never notified.

This isn't the first time this has happened in Somerville. Several years ago, the same thing happened to a friend of mine, only it took several months for them to realize their error, by which time the insurance had already settled and she had a new vehicle. But she was out all kinds of money and had to go through a huge hassle with the towing company and the police when they were the ones who messed up.

The lesson being, if your car goes missing, call the towing company as well as the police. I am guessing these are not isolated incidents and there have been others as well.

But in the meantime, a relatively happy ending to this story.

Comments

[frederic.livejournal.com]

It was towed by the Somerville police, not stolen (according to the link provided).

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Updated.

[ron_newman]

Towed from a city street or from a private parking lot? How could the police tow it and not notify themselves?

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

With my friend, it was from the private lot where she lived. For whatever reason, even though she had lived there a while and had properly registered her car with the property owners, one night the tow company with the contract for her property towed her car and didn't notify the police, so they had no record of it- which was a violation of the law but they were never prosecuted for it.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

This happened to a friend of mine, so she sued the towing company (Pat's, I think) and the person who called them. As part of the settlement the company and to frame the regulation and hang it behind their desk.

Doing this is such a time sink that I can't recommend it, unless, like my friend, you take great pleasure out of sticking it to the Man.

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, five years ago, in new-parents mode, and being car-less for four months due to an accident, when we got our car back, we failed to notice/remember that the registration expired in the interim. We were visiting a friend near City Hall Annex, and came out to find our car gone! We thought for sure we left the keys in the car and that it was stolen, but the kids playing ball nearby said they saw a tow truck. Yeah... not fun.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

A couple of comments/questions:

1. was it legally towed (i.e. was it parked in a Tow Zone, or was it not properly designated as a resident's car?)

2. Who was the tow company? You say the "Somerville police" towed it, but I don't think there are any police-tow-trucks. Don't they pay a towing company to take and impound the car? (I hope it wasn't Pat's Tow).

And who pays the impound fee if the car was taken improperly?

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

It was towed from a private lot from the building where my friend lived. She had filed with her landlord and had lived there maybe 6 months no problem. Then one day she went out and her car was gone etc etc etc. I don't know if it was Pat's that towed the vehicle.

I forget the exact details but it was real ugly, because like I wrote, by the time those fuckers got their shit together several months later and reported the tow to the police, the insurance company had already paid the car off.

[blondeamazon.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, I was living in Somerville and had gotten vanity plates in September and did not realize they ALL expire in November, no matter when you get them. Pat's towed it from the street for not being currently registered. I went to walk to work and noticed it was gone. For about 5 mins, I thought I had forgotten where I parked. Once I verified it was in fact gone, I called the PD to see if they had towed it. They had no record of having it towed but I eventually figured it out. The stinker of it was that I had bought a new car that was supposed to have been delivered on Friday. It was delayed and the old car was towed on Monday night. I had to pay both the initial tow and to tow it to the dealership since I was not going to pay to reregister a car I was getting rid of. Hate Pat's!

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

heh - some years ago my car was broken into on Walnut St. in Somerville, driven around for a while, and then abandoned in Cambridge, where it sat until street sweeping day, whereupon Pat's towed it. even though i had immediately reported the loss to Somerville PD, they apparently had no mechanism for sharing this sort of information with neighboring police departments, and of course Pat's doesn't lift a finger to notify the car's owner that it's been towed, so it wasn't until the next week that a coworker of mine was driving across the McGrath overpass, looked down into the towyard, saw my car, and called me to let me know.

the Cambridge parking ticket wasn't so bad, but having to pay a week's worth of storage charges to Pat's was abusive. :(

-steve

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

IMO they shouldn't tow a parked car with an expired registration, unless the car has no plates or is obviously long-abandoned. An expired registration still identifies the owner, so it basically provides the same benefits to society as a valid registration, except the $41 registration fee.

I think the initial penalty should be a small parking ticket, at the meter maid's discretion.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I agree. There needs to be graduated penalties. I understand the city not wanting the streets to be littered with abandoned cars, but proceeding right to towings? Pretty harsh and not a good way to treat the citizens with respect.