Stolen car, advice appreciated

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Stolen car, advice appreciated

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Bung

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#2350124 8-Nov-2019 12:24

A few years back on a "dark and stormy night" most of the cars in our street were broken into. The fingerprint tech only bothered with printing a Subaru. Basically they knew who did it, could never get proof as he wore gloves and they only did the Subaru as he liked them and may have touched it before putting his gloves on. For most stolen cars the Police effort only extends to giving you an acknowledgement that you notified them.

Handle9

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#2350290 8-Nov-2019 15:38

surfisup1000:
Technofreak:

kobiak:

Handle9: I would take a letter to the police station staying you require the car released within 24 hours or compensation to be paid paid.. The police have no reason outside their control to hold the vehicle.

If you make a fuss it will be released.

why would you want to black mail police for the job they are doing? Aren't they trying to find criminals to keep them away from the public? just insane.

If the car was important to an investigation I'd expect it would be processed promptly.

To me the inconvenience and cost to the owner far outweighs any benefit gained by the police hanging onto the car until they get around to checking for fingerprints etc.

I don't think it's unreasonable to put some pressure on for either the fingerprinting to be done or the car released.

Handle9's over the top aggressive approach will cause more problems than it solves. The letter is a laugh -- write it in uppercase and they will be even more intimidated haha.

Police are under-resourced. Ask nicely for your car, they might oblige.

Have you read the OP? They have just been to the police station where they asked for the car.

How is a polite letter from the OP requesting their property to be returned in a reasonable period of time aggressive? It establishes a paper trail that can then be escalated.

Handle9

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#2350292 8-Nov-2019 15:42

kobiak:
Handle9: I would take a letter to the police station staying you require the car released within 24 hours or compensation to be paid paid.. The police have no reason outside their control to hold the vehicle.

If you make a fuss it will be released.

why would you want to black mail police for the job they are doing? Aren't they trying to find criminals to keep them away from the public? just insane.

Lol. A polite letter requesting that the OP has their property returned in a timely manner is blackmail?

The police aren't being reasonable holding the car for over 10 days.

Jase2985

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#2350293 8-Nov-2019 15:51

because you then threatened compensation to be paid

Handle9

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#2350294 8-Nov-2019 16:12

How is that a threat? It is a reasonable request for actual loss by the OP.

The whole point is that the OP wants their car back. They are happy for the police to do their job but not for it to continue to drag on.

duckDecoy

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#2350319 8-Nov-2019 18:05

tehgerbil:

advise you won't be pressing charges against those who stole it, and thus it's not a police matter.

Unlike other countries (or some states within other countries) this doesn't work in NZ, the public don't get to decide whether charges are laid. The police decide unilaterally. In general - if the police decide to go forward with charges there is nothing you can do to stop them.

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sonyxperiageek

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#2350324 8-Nov-2019 18:18

Mum had her car broken into once.. they came to fingerprint it the next day at her house. About 6 months later they found the person who did it and required the thief to pay a reparation of $300. Dunno where that went as it doesn't seem to get paid to us even though we had to pay money to fix the window!

Sony

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#2350391 8-Nov-2019 18:39

Westgate local(ish) reporting in - was this behind the Countdown? This is a bit of a known issue (the other place I'd avoid like the plague is by the old Pizza Hutt down there) so perhaps the police are looking at a proper investigation with it. I'd bloody hope so.

It's never going to be St Heliers or such but it'd be nice to pop down to the shops without having to sprint around the supermarket to make sure your car is still there to take you home.

Batman

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#2350394 8-Nov-2019 18:50

Handle9: How is that a threat? It is a reasonable request for actual loss by the OP.

The whole point is that the OP wants their car back. They are happy for the police to do their job but not for it to continue to drag on.

fast, NZ, cheap - pick one

Donzac

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#2350695 9-Nov-2019 12:16

Thanks for all the replies.
.
It seems like this has been a case of bureaucratic bungling. The car was actually checked for fingerprints within a couple of days of being found.
.
I can only guess whoever checked the car failed to enter it into the system which is why all the police staff we contacted, in-person and over the phone, during the last 10 days, were adamant the car had not been checked

Of course no-one is taking responsibility for the mistake.

My apologies for not replying individually to the 'post responses but I broke my laptop and I find writing on my phone to be torturous

So thanks for the advice

Cheers Don

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