hmm YOU pay for the theft of YOUR motorcycle

[hypertwat68]

My RANT!

my moped was recently stolen and recovered by the police. upon ringing them i was informed that i would have to pay £105 and £12 extra per day for everyday i couldn't pick it up!

Upon asking if i could just scrap it, i was told that i couldn't, i also nicely informed the officer that i was not phoned until i phoned them which means i did not ask for it to be recovered and i would of recovered it there and then nor would i asked for it to be dusted for prints (apperently a large portion of the charge is for this)

i was wondering if any of you know of any legal issues i can exploit to avoid paying this amount?

Also i was wondering if this charge is common practice else where, i am in leicestershire england


LEASSON LEARNED!!

[Louis]

Sorry to hear. I have no idea about the UK legal system.

Good luck.

[IntruderCruiser]

in our area -- you are pretty much stuck ---

I had a bike stolen quite awhile back -- it was finally recovered after the insurance had paid off on it(went to trial --another story). I would say 6 months to a year later the towing company's storage yard called me to come pick it up with quite a hefty storage bill on it. I told them I no longer owned it and call the insurance company. I also wondered why I was notified way before the call I received.

[Ext1jdh]

Move to the States.



Our cops NEVER recover anything.

[Rickster]

The States have have a similar policy.
My story is similar to "IntruderCruiser", where it was 6 months before the tow company notified me to come and pick up my bike, the towing, and storage fees were almost $1000, and like him, my insurance had already paid off on the claim, so I just walked away from it. It really is a rip off.

[IntruderCruiser]

its like if you have an accident and the police call the tow truck, the price is a lot more than if you call the tow truck

[md2lgyk]

The police want to charge you for dusting the bike for prints?? I used to be a cop (here in the U.S.) and have NEVER heard of such a thing.

As for the towing and storage charges, that's pretty typical.

[IntruderCruiser]

just saw a piece on TV about cars that were being impounded in New Jersey for various infractions (unpaid tickets, expired tags etc) and how upset the people were for having to pay their fair shares for mis doings --- why do they think it is okay not to follow the laws

[Ext1jdh]

Actually, i think the post was about law abiding citizens being penalized for reporting their bike being stolen.

Though it does seem a bit harsh to impound a car for unpaid tickets or expired tags. Just throw the jackleg in jail, but leave the poor car alone.

[Freakinout]

Originally Posted by Ext1jdh

Actually, i think the post was about law abiding citizens being penalized for reporting their bike being stolen.

Though it does seem a bit harsh to impound a car for unpaid tickets or expired tags. Just throw the jackleg in jail, but leave the poor car alone.

Send the fines to the IRS, they always seem to get their money. Leave the scooters and cars alone, its not their fault.

[inspiron]

Why isn't there some kind of law that the impound lot can't start charging until there is documented evidence that they made an attempt to contact the owner? As it is described here, I would expect that someone would have sued the impound lot by now.

Your bike is reported stolen, and is later recovered by the police. The bike is impounded and stored for a few months without anyone contacting you. Your insurance company assumes that the bike is lost, and pays out. All the while, the impound lot is compounding storage fees. At some point, they get around to contacting you, and you tell them that it isn't your bike anymore, since you've been paid by the insurance.

The insurance company, who paid you off, now has to either pay off the impound garage (at highly inflated prices) and try to sell the bike (more costs) to recover some of their losses. Or they write it off, and the impound lot has to try to sell the bike to recover some of their "loss".

If I was with an insurance company, I would sick a pack of lawyers on any impound lot that pulled this crap. They have to contact the owner IMMEDIATELY when a bike is recovered, not "get around to it sometime".

I don't know how it is over there, but here, the VIN number of my vehicle is registered along with my license plate number and my address. Even if someone strips the plates from my car, the police can immediately trace the car back to me by searching the motor-vehicles registration database with the VIN number. All they need to know is that my car is registered in Switzerland (which is obvious on my car because of the shape of the front license plate, which are integrated into the front bumper.)

[chrisan]

I had that happening with my stollen car 5 years ago.
The car was stollen, crashed, and towed. I had to indure taking the public transportation and going downtown L.A.'s shady areas to the police station, to sighn papers, then walk by the wackoes all around / and get propperly scared/ to another place where I had to pay 350 to the towing people, and collect my raped car. It felt wrong
Oh and one of the guys was nice enough to lend me a screw driver which he shoved inside the ignition so I can start the car and drive home.
I refused to pay for another towing services for my car to be brought home...

[allan4169]

There has been many stories of towing companies, impound yards being very slow in contacting owners of towed vechicles. There is also the problem of towing companies cruising freeways and surface streets illegally towing broken down cars that are waiting for tows from companies that work with the city and or Highway Patrol. Then they wait a few weeks and then finally contact the owner after storage fees have been racked up. There has even been situations where the owner has filed a stolen car report after their broken down car was towed illegally from the freeway. I would hope that the insurance companies would push for action taken against towing companies since they would have to pay after they have paid off the owner.

[Clint]

Originally Posted by Ext1jdh

Move to the States.



Our cops NEVER recover anything.

You're right... they're too busy shutting down your neighbor's meth lab to spend time looking for your moped. My brother was a cop, and I saw the sacrifice he made for us. You DO NOT want to go there with me.

[ShonR]

Rowdy, it's unfortunate that the stories of good cops go untold because of the alledged abuses of the majority. Anyways, thats a different thread.

I've had 3 of my vehicles 'wrongly' impounded which has cost me $500. One cop charged me with a bogus offence, I beat it, and still had to pay impound!!!! The next vehicle had more owed to impound than what it was valued because it sat in the same place for more than 3 days. The third vehicle was towed because of its design from the factory. It was parked beside my home since I have no garage or drive. It was towed while I was working. I payed the fine without anyone checking to see if i corrected the problem(which i didn't) and got my car back. The Officer simply asking 'whats up' could have solved this without his paperwork or costing me. Impound is about getting money. For who is the question. I think cities and counties must get portions of the revenue. Any tow service in town is $60 or less to anywhere else in town. If the cops make the call, $80+!!!! Even for a bike!

[PacRat]

A word (or two) of advice from a Texas Cop:

Join an Auto club like Allstate that has towing as a featured benefit. If your bike has to be towed (transported) locally, have it taken to your home instead of the service's yard. Your (or the other guy's) insurance adjuster can look at it just as well at your house as he can at a wrecking yard.

We try to locate the owner of the vehicles that we DO recover (yes, we do occasionally find lost and stolen stuff - at least I and my co-workers have) and try to give the owner the opportunity to either come and get the vehicle, or send who they want to get it.

The way we see it, you've suffered enough - why compound it if we don't have to!

Also - put your Driver's License number in as many places as you can on your bike... get an alarm system - LoJac it if you have to.

Peace - PacRat

[raycogxxx]

Just want to add my $.02-I used to manage a city impound yard;
1. The towing and storage costs for impounded cars are set by the city in the contract with the towing company(s)-usually lower than retail.
2. The yard doesn't do the contacting of owners of impounded vehicles-they don't have access to the police database. The police just inform them when it is ok to release the vehicle.usually the only time the yard will attempt to locate the owner is after the city has cleared the vehicle for auction-city gives yard paper work on vehicle including info on owner of record.