I went out on the front porch this morning to grab my paper and greet the new day. All seemed well at first....birds were singing, sun was shining, sirens were wailing, people were screaming at their kids in several languages, dogs were barking......but something was missing. Couldn't quite figure it out for a couple seconds.......oh, yeah......ONE OF MY VEHICLES IS MISSING!!
Great. Just what I needed.
So silly me, I thought I should call 911. The 911 dispatcher gave me a mild tongue-lashing for bothering her with such trivial matters, and transferred me to the PPB non-emergency number. OK, fine. So I wait on hold......and wait.....and wait.....still waiting.....12 minutes and counting......then the line goes dead. Grrrrrrrr.....
Then I realize that whoever bothers to answer is going to need the license plate number and other info that I don't have handy. I just bought the pickup from a guy at work, and I told him to bring me the title whenever he got around to it. But due to an incident involving a scooter and too much tequila, he's been off work for the last 3 weeks, and I haven't seen him. So I give him a call, and by some miracle he's back at work, and he has the title. The current WA plates weren't listed, but I got the VIN from him.
I called the you-might-think-it's important-but-we-don't phone number again, and somebody actually answered. But then I find out that since the truck isn't registered to me yet, I can't report it stolen. Great- some miscreant is joyriding around, probably running over blind nuns and God knows what else, and nobody can stop him because DMV hasn't moved a piece of paper from the "in" basket to the "out" basket. But at least the guy on the phone had a little sympathy and ran the VIN through his computer. Lo and behold, it had already been recovered by the Gresham PD!!
I had visions of bullet holes and bloodstains, or maybe a blind nun's habit stuck under the front bumper, but it wasn't anything dramatic. He said it had been towed as a "traffic hazard" (that pretty well described the truck
before it was stolen) but he couldn't tell me from where. He gave me a list of phone numbers so I could annoy the City of Gresham with my little problem. So I call them, and after going through a couple of barely helpful clerks, I found out that it had been reported blocking an intersection about 4 miles away from my house, apparently where the scumbag left it. It either died there, or the genius thief didn't know or care that the parking brake doesn't work and it rolled there after being parked.
But then I find out that in order to get it back from the impound lot, I have to go to Gresham City Hall and pay a $100 "cash only release fee". And that's in addition to towing and storage fees!! I didn't expect the towing company to work for free, but I didn't expect to get bent over by the city for some paperwork, either.
I called the tow company, got a brief description of the damage (punched-in door lock) and the bill ($129 as of today). I can't make it out there until tomorrow or Fri, so it's gonna run me $250-$300 to get it back, and that's if it runs. If it doesn't, and I have to leave it there until I fix it, it could be more $$$. If the thief knows old Ford pickups, then he probably didn't damage it when he hot-wired it. It ain't hard to do.
Ironically, I was picking up some parts for it last week and I saw "The Club" hanging on the wall at the parts store. I though about getting one, but did the old "Nah, I'll wait 'til later" thing. The truck is a '76, last year for the ignition in the dash, so there's no locking column or any other anti-theft devices. And the hood opens from the outside, so it's double-easy to steal if you know anything about Ford wiring.
**Phew** Sorry about the long rant, but I feel better now.....I think.
1pump
Stolen truck rant (long)
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