I'm confused. Whether you know someone or not should not have any impact on whether or not the car is considered stolen. You didn't give him permission to use the car, he took the keys without your permission, he's NOT a relative.....he stole the car!

Sounds like an insurance companies way to twist the policy to read the way it benefits them most. Why even have insurance then??

I would call and bark my way to the top of the food chain at the company. have your police report in hand, and if you can, the arrest report for the person who stole it.

If a theif breaks into your house, steals your keys and uses your car to haul off the loot does that mean you LET him?

If a mugger steals your purse and your keys are inside, does that mean you LET HIM?

having a police report shows you took action against the theif, relative, neighbor or stranger. I would argue like there was no tomorrow.

The insurance company apparently talked to my H last night and questioned him about the kid. He talked to them for a while.

After fighting with them all week and working my way up the food chain there, I finally got a call from a supervisor---they're processing my claim as a STOLEN VEHICLE!

So SOMEONE finally saw the absurdity of it all.

The supervisor was apologetic.

My deductible is $100 for this now. I'm still that it happened in the first place--the kid had NO right to steal my car--but that makes it a little less painful for me $$-wise.

I'm still not thrilled that I had to fight tooth and nail over this, but it's a GREAT outcome!



And my son called me. He's back from his honeymoon. They caught a bit of the tropical storm on their cruise but had basically good weather otherwise. I'm happy--they went to the Bahamas and could have really gotten hammered.

Call the kids momma that STOLE your car, tell her that either SHE coughs up $100 bucks or you are taking HER to court.

Call the Kid who stole your car, and tell HIM that he MUST find a way to either pay the $100 bucks in cash or in chores. Make him shovel snow this winter. Haul wood. Rake leaves. something OUTSIDE. dont let him back in your house. even for a potty break.

If I could do that, D, I would. The reason he was with my H and I off and on from when he was 11 was because his mom had a drug problem. She went into rehab when he was that old and could only take one of her kids with her. She asked us to watch him for a year. We did.

His dad was never in the picture. He's never met him.

He kept coming back to live with us for months at a time here and there--6 months, 8 months, 3 months. Whenever his mom got bad. His mom died when he was 17. He went to live with his gram. He's 25 now.

I have no idea where he is right now. Don't know where his gram is either, if she's still alive. I can't get in touch with him, he has no cell phone.

And the sad thing is that the kid's brother is a great kid: he's a great student, works part-time, and is a star football player. But my "kid"?????

Good for you (and H) for sticking to your guns with the &^*&% insurance company! Sure is frustrating when you have to deal with below average people doing below average jobs!

He could have demolished the vehicle. He could have been charged with drunk driving. He could have killed a whole family in another vehicle. The insurance company could have stuck to their guns about you being liable, which would have been really ugly if the damage he caused was worse. You could have been terribly inconvienced and distraught by all the "could haves".

At the end of the day, it was a small price to pay to learn a valuable lesson; he can't be trusted.

I'm glad insurance is going to cover most of this.

Cherie

Thanks, me too Cherie.

And the "what if" part of it is why I went to the police. After the experience my H and I had where there was a kid staying with us years ago who took our car and went, with two of his buddies, all over our city smashing into things and then got into an accident leaving his buddy in the backseat with a fractured skull (and a few day stay in the trauma unit), I won't TAKE chances like that.

Especially when I don't know what this kid hit.

I'm thankful he didn't damage my car worse than it was. And yes, it was a small price to pay to learn he couldn't be trusted. Just not a good lesson--one I'd rather have not had to learn. I never wanted to think that about him.

Hopefully he'll learn something from this, before the consequences of taking these kind of chances are much more serious.

We had two street-racers on our main drag a few weeks back, and when the police had one car pulled over, the other raced off. The guy hit another car and flipped his car into a ravine. He was thrown out (no seatbelt) and survived, but his passenger was killed. No mercy on that "mistake".

Cherie

Tough way to learn a lesson.