Robbed

[RustyRatRod]

You're right, Tuck. It's easy to get caught up in drama. My apologies.

 

[WileE]

Take him to small claims court. And by the way, Progressive Ins.Co. is the WORST... by far.. avoid them like the plague and tell everybody you know. They make other companies look good by comparison.

 

[99ss]

Bruz I'm not going to go through your diatribe paragraph by paragraph but the short of the long is this:

I live in small town Oregon and havent locked my car door parked on the street in 14 years and have never had anyone break in or take anything. The car was in Washington at a shop when the stuff was stolen from the car. Washington has a higher crime rate. Higher population ( no pun intended)
The stuff was in the car as it was getting installed back into the car and most shops will do the same thing. The $2000 worth of stereo equiptment was not touched and its an easy extraction. Nothing but specific things were taken.

yes Florida is a cesspool of crime and lack or integrity and morals.. its proven daily .. there is no comparison between crime in Oregon and crime in FLA. You couldnt pay me to live in that state. No offense meant by it, its not personal. We wont even talk about the political corruption.

I'll just say thank you for your help. No need for futher input, you've said more than enough and have been more than helpful

 

[MikeyT]

Wow, crazy **** here. I'm glad I have never asked for advice here. Armageddon might break out... Anyway, I digress..... I'm sorry 99ss, that sucks and I know the feeling.... I had a stereo ripped out of my 68 sport Sat while it was at a transmission shop here in Madison. I got the run around from everybody too. His insurance, my insurance... the shop insurance.... To make a long story short... the company said pound sand... This left me with few options....I could of done nothing, lawyered up, or what ever. No, I went guerilla tactic on them. Little did they realize lil Mikey was a writer for the Madison area tech's school paper! This wonderful instrument became the trumpet of my salvation! I felt it was my DUTY to let everyone other student know of the perils of thievery, especially when getting their car fixed. Over the next several weeks I used my experience several times and where it happened several times to help warn people. Finally, wouldn't you know the company called me back informed me, they made a mistake, and the insurance "would" cover it.

I think you make it hurt him where it counts, his pocket book. Talk to the local commerce dept, the BBB, and anywhere else. You as a consumer have protection and you don't need a lawyer to get those organizations involved.

Anyway, just a thought. ( Continue the battle...)

mikey

 

[MAGNUM GT XS22L9R]

yes Florida is a cesspool of crime and lack or integrity and morals.. its proven daily .. there is no comparison between crime in Oregon and crime in FLA. You couldnt pay me to live in that state. No offense meant by it, its not personal. We wont even talk about the political corruption.

Yep, I agree, and I live in Orlando! TRUST NO ONE!!! lol

 

[Bruzilla]

Bruz I'm not going to go through your diatribe paragraph by paragraph but the short of the long is this:

I live in small town Oregon and havent locked my car door parked on the street in 14 years and have never had anyone break in or take anything. The car was in Washington at a shop when the stuff was stolen from the car. Washington has a higher crime rate. Higher population ( no pun intended)
The stuff was in the car as it was getting installed back into the car and most shops will do the same thing. The $2000 worth of stereo equiptment was not touched and its an easy extraction. Nothing but specific things were taken.

yes Florida is a cesspool of crime and lack or integrity and morals.. its proven daily .. there is no comparison between crime in Oregon and crime in FLA. You couldnt pay me to live in that state. No offense meant by it, its not personal. We wont even talk about the political corruption.

I'll just say thank you for your help. No need for futher input, you've said more than enough and have been more than helpful

You know 99ss, I get that you're mad and upset, but being rude and insulting isn't going to get you anywhere. The situation you're in is one I've seen or read or heard about dozens and dozens of times over the years. It's a horrible situation to be in because the party who's ultimately responsible for giving you the reparations you demand, the thief, will likely never be held to account unless the cops get really lucky. So now you're wanting to lash out at insurance companies, the business owner, or anyone else to get some sense of satisfaction. I get that too. Sadly, when these situations are discussed on forums like this, the discussion is as predictable as an old I Love Lucy rerun. First the discussion is all about how rotten insurance companies are, then the talk turns to filing lawsuits and suing someone, and then you get a lot of "hope things work out for you" comments, none of which are very helpful.

To the first point, insurance is not a cure-all for every situation. Unless you and the second party has the right coverage with the right riders, no amount of caterwauling or whining about insurance companies is going to help you. This is why it's important to take steps to prevent crimes like this from occurring and you failed to do that. While there's nothing you can do to take back what happened, you can learn from your mistake and not do it again.

To the second point, you're going to have a very hard time getting anywhere in court. Unless you have a lawyer on retainer, and I'm guessing you don't, they're not going to be interested in pursuing a case where the award will be $2,000. They make their money from punitive awards for negligence, and you're going to have a tough time making a case for negligence. Even worse, a lawyer will likely charge you $2,000 or so to take your case, so you'll likely be out the value of your property and your attorney fees. Yes, you can add the attorney fees to any award you get, but that's only if you win the case and you really don't have a case against the shop owner, especially if he had an indicated policy that he's not responsible for theft or damage to property left on his premises.

Most likely, you'll get referred to small claims court, and you'll plead your case to a judge, and the first thing the judge will ask about is if you practiced due diligence in protecting your property, such as keeping it out of sight in the trunk. Once you say you left it out in plain sight of any passerby, most judges will say you did not employ due diligence. Then he/she will talk to the shop owner and look into what they did, and if they show they had adequate lighting, and placards or other notices clearly stating the limits of their responsibilities, then the judge will find they did exercise due diligence and your case will be dismissed.

If you really want to take some action that might actually help you, quit talking lawsuits, quit badgering the shop owner, and work with the guy to catch the jagoff who's actually responsible for all this. The thief that robbed you will be back. Ask the owner if he has some old parts he could do without and that he could leave in an unlocked car outside the building. Also ask him to leave something laying on the parts that needs to be removed to get the parts out, something like a metal bar or a plastic rail section. Make sure that item, the door handles, window glass, and doors are wiped clean to remove any fingerprints. Since the thief got lucky at that location once, he'll come back to see if he can score again, and if he does he'll hopefully leave some nice clean prints for the cops to use.

And that will be my last input on this matter. If you want to make yourself feel better by talking about potential lawsuits, so ahead, but it won't get you anywhere besides ticking off the shop owner to the point where he won't be interested in helping you. Try working with him instead of against him.

 

[99ss]

Talked to a laywer.. Small claims court for anything under 5k. He said I have a case.
Doing the paper work and will follow through.

Bruz I didnt read what you had to say.. figured it would be best that way.

 

[Budnicks]

. Washington has a higher crime rate. Higher population ( no pun intended)

I'll just say thank you for your help.

that right there is the problem...LOL...

- - - Updated - - -

good luck in court

 

[440+6]

99ss just wondering if you where able to talk to the shops insurance personally or your just taking the owners word about his coverage.

I am curious how this turns out, I had some minor stuff stolen from a car while at a shop years ago but never did anything about it, value around $100 so I didn't think it was worth the effort at the time.

I really hope this works out for you.

 

[roadrunnerman]

It's nice to think that some here assume it was your fault because you didn't hide the items in your trunk when you don't basically don't have one with your car when the shop was 180 miles away. What were you supposed to do, get a motel across the street and keep an eye on the shop. I'm guessing you left the keys with them so they could move the car if need be. Having the shop owner leave something else for somebody to steal might be a good idea, but nobody knows if the original thief will be the one to come back. He probably knows what's laying around the shop area anyways. Like you said, why take the items that they did and leave an expensive stereo system behind. Have your lawyer get a copy of the police report to see if there was actually a call that came in to PD about a noise (breaking glass). I'm with you on this one and hope you can recoup some if not all, plus a little on your lawyers fee.

 

[Propwash]

If you live in an area where you need to trash your own vehicle so the criminals don't raid it......you need to friggin move! Sounds like a miserable way of life to me. Contrary to popular belief, there are still plenty of decent places with decent folks in this country where such a thought of dumping garbage in your car as a theft deterrent would be a joke, especially here.

Best of luck in court Chris....Short of knocking the owners lights out because he won't man up, seems like letting the law deal with it is about the only viable option

 

[99ss]

Well I sent him an email and asked him to compensate me for half of what was stolen. I'm not trying to be a hardass and think its more than fair of me. The car itself for the most part he did good work BUT: two bolts are missing from the bell housing to engine, the knock sensors were not connected and one bank was running lean which I now have to deal with not to mention the knock sensors not being connected and him bombing up the street in it running lean.. not a good combination. It has a vac leak somewhere on the pass side or a gummed up injector.

SO I politely told him that I had talked to a lawyer and he is 100% responsible for my losses. I gave him an easy out with asking for only half of it. If I have to go to court I will ask for all of it as I have to drive 3 hrs to appear. I am hoping he will come to his senses and just pony of the dough and be done with it. But the worse part is I have to appear just to file the complaint. Then they cant make him pay either. If he refuses I have to file it again in the superipor court and then I can attach anything I want and he is liable for any and all collection expenses. Big hassle, the lunk head should just meet me half way on it. I'm trying to be a good guy about it. Havent heard back from my email.
The saga continues but at least the ball is rolling now and he knows my intentions. He cant deny anything, a police report was filed and checked out by my useless insurance company.

 

[MikeyT]

f8Ck being a good guy! I would ask for all of it and take him to court for it. Enough with this bull crap, the longer you wait the longer it will draw out. I totally agree with being a good person and taking the high road, but that time has passed.

This is a big site. Their must be someone on here who can check this place out, and help 99ss with some of the logistics?
Sorry man, I hate watching people get screwed over.
Mikey