My car was broken into, will I get my things back?
Posted by tygeorgiou@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 35 comments
I am an idiot and supposedly left my car unlocked, found it today an absolute shit tip... Someone has emptied my glove box, boot, and every little pocket just everywhere.
They've broken my radio and backseats, stolen my dashcam, headphones, interior lights, cash, two socket sets, some other tools, etc etc. They've also taken some personal letters, a pack of ready salted hula hoops, and my half empty vape liquid! They've also thrown rubbish everywhere, messed with my seat settings and pulled apart wires that I soldered behind my radio, so that's annoying...
Altogether probably around £300+ stolen and £200+ in damage. I'm in between jobs and I have literally £7 in my bank account, I can't even afford fuel right now. I can't afford to replace and fix all of this.
There's a public camera on a lamppost right next to my car pointed at it, and a chip shop next to it with CCTV, so hopefully whoever did this is on camera. I've got an incident number with the police and they're gonna ring me tomorrow for more info, the person who did my car also did many many others the same night all over the town, the local Facebook is blowing up, so this will probably (hopefully) be taken really seriously by the police.
I have a few questions: How likely is the person to actually be found? If they are found, will I get my stuff back and things fixed? Also, will be insurance believe me and reimburse me for goods inside the car? If I do tell my insurance, will my price sky rocket? (I'm 18 so already paying loads) and is there anything I can do here at all?
I have always locked my car, so I assume one of the doors probably wasn't shut so didn't lock, but the woman on 101 said that they could have also had a 'sophisticated unlocking device'. I also just left tools in there because I only use them on the car, headphones in there because I only use them while out, and cash in there for parking and drive throughs... I suppose I had more faith in humanity and a lot more faith in my dashcam being a deterrent. I have learnt my lesson and now I slam the doors, never leave anything in there, and make sure it locks.
geeered@reddit
Also, using a fake name and slightly different address, do quotes with and without a claim.
Quite likely your insurance will go up way more than the claim will return to you. Edit- as you're 18, I very much doubt it's worth a claim I'm afraid. Also, a claim probably won't be quick either.
If your car has automatic unlocking and you and your key were fairly close by they may have used a device that extends the signal so the car thinks your key is next to the car.
donkey-oh-tea@reddit
Insurance would require car to be locked.
GAdvance@reddit
Let this be a lesson to you.
First thing you do if you left it unlocked and someone's nicked everything, lock it and put the window through.
messyhead86@reddit
But not on camera
GAdvance@reddit
No of course not, it would be absolutely crazy to drive it round to where the aren't any camera then wrap your elbow well with clothes and put it through.
messyhead86@reddit
Just make sure to do it from the outside. I saw that episode of Neighbours in the 90s, where they did it from the inside and it didn’t go well for them.
MountainMuffin1980@reddit
Billy!
Fuck, it's mad that I still know the exact scene and thing you're talkong about.
BDbs1@reddit
Aye, adding insurance fraud to an already bad situation is a great idea
Spiritual_Smell4744@reddit
Insurance companies hate this one trick.
WildKey9307@reddit
“Ready Salted Hula Hoops” 🤣
Captain_Stable@reddit
I had my car broken into in the mid 90s. I am 90% sure I locked it, but there were no traces or breaking in. I lost all my CDs that were in there, including 3 signed ones (I know, I know, what was I doing with them in the car).
Never got them back, even after visiting a lot of market traders/second hand shops, with full descriptions because they were so unique.
Lesson learned, and the next pay cheque went on buying a CD burner for my PC!
Enough_Response@reddit
Cars in the 90s could be opened with a wire to hook the door button up.
super_starmie@reddit
This works on later cars as well. When I locked my keys inside my 2014 car someone helped me get back in using a coat hanger lol
highrouleur@reddit
Back in the 80s, we had an old X reg fiesta that my mum constantly locked her key inside. Eventually she started keeping a bit of that nylon webbing that's used for wrapping bales of newspapers and things. You could slide that through the door gap folded over and hook the know on the door to pull it up.
Still on a father and son cub camp in 1987 some fuckers had to cut out the back window to break it into it to steal a few crappy tools from the boot
Enough_Response@reddit
Yup. I was at high school in 1991 and one of the teacher's locked their keys in the car. A delinquent 15 year old used a wire to open it back up for her lol.
Bigallround@reddit
Even if they caught the culprits, the valuable stuff has likely been sold for crack and the personal stuff has been binned by now
twonaq@reddit
Tho they probably didn’t eat the hoola hoops
hornet-prodder-214@reddit
As you reported it to the Police and, hopefully, would have told them that you had left the car locked when you left it, your Insurance provider should settle the claim as they would require a police report., which fixes the problem for now - but, as you say, you'll pay for it later.
The Police will no doubt obtain footage from the cctv camera and see what happens and possibly locate and prosecute the culprits, who may argue that the car was unlocked and if the evidence supports this then you are fucked.
Seems like you have learned your lesson and hopefully things will work out for you in the future.
PortPiscarilius@reddit
The police will do nothing of the sort. They'll hand out a crime reference number and never think of it again.
mb271828@reddit
The police will do absolutely zero investigation, and in my experience will do absolutely nothing even if you hand them incontrivutable evidence on a plate. I can offer a glimmer of hope though.
I had a drone stolen from the back of my car, as expected the police just handed out a crime reference number. I knocked on doors myself and got some doorbell footage with a clear shot of the thief breaking in. The police were still not interested. I posted the footage on Facebook and got the name and address of the thief. The police were still not interested, despite the crime being all but solved for them. I sat outside the thief's house and waited for them to return, caught them completely off guard by asking for my stuff back (promising that if they did I'd leave the police out of it...little did they know), they were so shocked I'd found them they gave me my drone back, plus some other stuff from my glove compartment I hadn't even realised they'd stolen.
I made a formal complaint to the police, they denied they were useless, blamed lack of resources, and insisted they were tough on crime. I escalated repeatedly to the Chief Constable, who eventually admitted that they were in fact inexcusably useless and sent two officers round to apologise...who still felt the need to offer words of advice that I should leave the tackling of criminals to the police. I laughed.
AndrewHinds67@reddit
Not a chance. Why the hell did you leave your car unlocked? The insurance company won't pay out because of that.
MintBerryFondue@reddit
The brutally honest truth.... No.
We had three work vans broken into at broad daylight and had all our trade tools stolen (some of it are irreplaceable) despite installing the best van lock.
sar_tr@reddit
So... You're saying the hula hoops are gone...? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....
M0ntgomatron@reddit
I reckon you will get the Hula Hoops back mate
tygeorgiou@reddit (OP)
seriously he left a £100 JVC radio and broke the dial on it but decided yeah I'm gonna grab a snack from the hot musty strangers car
M0ntgomatron@reddit
You're hot and musty?
tygeorgiou@reddit (OP)
ah I haven't slept I can't do grammar
after the day I've had I feel hot and musty
Basic-Pangolin553@reddit
The police will not be putting resources into finding your stuff. This would be seen as low level crime, you report it to get a crime number do you can claim against your insurance.
slimshady_I@reddit
Don’t tell insurance the car was unlocked otherwise your not getting payout
_gothick@reddit
I’m afraid it’s unlikely you’ll get your stuff back. I doubt the police will even ask the chip shop for the CCTV footage.
staticspuds@reddit
I wouldn’t hold your breath. I had my car window smashed under cctv and approx time given by neighbours. After the police asked me to confirm the time with the impression of accessing cctv, after giving the time, I got a message saying case closed but should more evidence come to light let them know. They never asked for the cctv.
minipainteruk@reddit
So sorry this happened to you OP. It's awful to go through.
Honestly, you are unlikely to get your things back. You could get super lucky, but it's unlikely. Your items are very generic and not things that could be easily identified as yours, making linking them to you quite difficult even if Police did somehow find them. People who steal rarely steal from the areas they live in, instead they travel to nearby areas, which means your items could be in another area already.
CCTV is notoriously unreliable and poor quality. I would expect that the police may not have much to go off either.
You will be unable to claim on the insurance if you left the door unlocked. They will argue you didnt secure your items. I'm not sure if this will affect your pricing but I imagine it might if you did somehow make a claim.
If the police can determine he did use an unlocking device, you probably could claim, but I'm not sure how they could determine this short of CCTV showing it. Depending on your excess though, you might find it's not worth it to make a claim at all.
It's a harsh way to learn the lesson, but always lock your car and never leave anything you wouldn't mind being stolen.
julialoveslush@reddit
You have no chance with insurance if you left the car unlocked/ can’t say for certain that you locked it.
You could check local pawn shops in the area but o guarantee you’d get your items back even if the perp is caught.
I am surprised your car alarm didn’t go off.
Available-War932@reddit
You’re following what you were told, but the supervisors aren’t giving consistent or structured priorities, which is why it feels confusing.
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