GT stolen

Frack that sucks A$$ royally.

I just sent this message out to both the club and chat lists.  Hopefully someone that is a driver sees the car and reports it in. 

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Details are at the below Link.  Please keep an eye out for it, if you see it, please call the Police.  The funny pin striping near the front turn signals is unique and no other Black Fastback GT has these.  So if you see, CALL DA POLICE.

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       I hate to say it, and I know you are already kicking yourself for it, but Fiero's are getting worth enough that Theft insurance is a major concern.   Even if you do get your car back, chances are the damage to the clutch/tires/suspension will at the least cost a fair bit, and thats hoping there is no body damage.

Keep everyone posted and give out a phone number.   That way if anyone see's it they can call you as soon as they call the police.

         Well at least you are getting familier with dropping engines and working on 4spds.  

     Get a call in to Chilliwack Pick-A-Part and ask if they have any steering columbs for Fiero's.   At the least you are going to need a new columb or parts of it, to replace the punched lock.   

I am sure there are a lot of guys in the club that will have assorted parts to help fix up the car.

Well good to hear you found it.... Hopefully its in one piece still.

What a fcuk of a morning.

Before anyone figures I jumped the gun or whatever, please read my entire post.

I live on a corner lot and I park my GT on the side street. I can see the car clearly from the kitchen window. Last night I came home and parked the GT in my usual spot and put the "club" on the steering wheel.

When I get up in the morning, I usually look outside to make sure the car hasn't been messed with. I'm pretty sure I looked early this morning, but I can't swear to it. It's just something that's done automatically. However, I do remember looking out later in the morning about 10 am and NOT seeing the car!

I immediately began to wonder if I had parked the car somewhere else. Was it in the driveway instead? I had to go look. No it wasn't there. What the fcuk!

Now here's where it gets... confusing.

Last Thursday the city had put up signs on my side on the side street indicating that street cleaning would be taking place. No dates were mentioned on the signs. All it said was that no parking was allowed between 7 am and 5 pm during the week. So on Thursday night I complied and parked the GT in my driveway.

On Friday the street cleaner made a run down the street and cleaned all the leaves up from along the curb.

From my experience living in Vancouver for 53 years, I've noticed it often takes several days for the city workers to remove the signs after the street has been cleaned. When the signs remained up over the weekend and all through Monday, I felt there was no problem parking in my usual spot on the side street on Monday evening. After all, the street sweeper had gone down my side of the street on Friday.

So this morning when I realized my car was GONE, the first thing I did was to phone the city to see if there was any chance that they had towed my car because of street cleaning. They told me to look "around the corner" and to check a two block radius around my property to see if my car had been given a "courtesy tow". What kind of a fcuking term is that... a "courtesy tow"??? I said what the hell, a two block radius is 16 freaking blocks to walk around looking for my car!!! I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but look at the "sample" map I've copied below. It's 16 blocks!

I protested that I didn't want to be wasting valuable time walking around and checking 16 city blocks if my car was actually stolen. I needed to be phoning the police sooner rather than later if that was indeed the situation. I said there must be some kind of a record kept of any cars that needed to be towed out of the way for street cleaning. They checked and they said that some cars had been towed the day before, but there was no record of any car being towed for street cleaning today. Great, the car must be stolen.

I phoned the non-emergency police number to report the car stolen. If you've ever phoned THAT number, you know how long it takes for anyone to answer! When I finally got someone, they double-checked with Buster's towing and reported that my car had NOT been towed. I was given a file number, and then I phoned ICBC. I was kind of shocked to find out that my basic insurance does NOT cover theft. If the car was gone for good, I was out whatever it's worth. That was certainly a slap in the face!

One thing that I also had not mentioned earlier was that ALL my tools were in the trunk because I've been working on another Fiero at Clynt's place. By this point I was feeling rather awful.

It took a considerable length of time to phone the city, the police, and ICBC. I finally put on a jacket and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Keeping in mind I was told by the city and the police that my car was NOT towed, I didn't expect to find anything, but I needed to go for a walk nevertheless. I got about a quarter of the way through the 16 blocks, and what did I see... my GT parked on the opposite side of my block!

You know, I guess I felt relieved, but I didn't feel elated. I was so fcuking pissed off that I had been told by both the city and the police that my car had NOT been towed.

I then had to phone the police to cancel the stolen car report. I also phoned the city and I have filed an official complaint. I explained that when street cleaning signs go up and the street is then cleaned by a street sweeper, it's assumed the street cleaning has been done and it's just a matter of time before the signs are taken away. How many people realize that a SECOND cleaning might be done SEVERAL DAYS later???

And if a car needs to be given a fcuking "courtesy tow" to get it out of the way, why isn't there some kind of a fcuking record kept so that people aren't led to believe that their fcuking car has been stolen???!!!

What a freaking waste of time. Not only my own, but everyone else's as well that I had to contact today.

Sorry for my language, but it's been quite a fcuking day.

Patrick wrote: From my experience living in Vancouver for 53 years... ...I was kind of shocked to find out that my basic insurance does NOT cover theft

uhh, yeah.

Well thats good you got it back, without damage.  I think its only an extra $10 a month to have theft added to my insurance.  It a good piece of mind.

     We had a rash of Fiero thefts a few years ago, I think 5 were stolen and recovered, hopefully that rash is over.  However you did have me worried for a bit there.

       Again glad you have it back.

     Sometimes the city works just don't have a clue.  Its not the first time I have heard bad things from them.

P.S. are they going to try and charge you for the tow?

Capt Fiero wrote: So did we break down and get theft ins today?

Heh heh... no, not yet. I was back up at Clynt's place today working on my other Fiero. 

Is "theft" insurance something that can be bought through a private company, or is this part of the ICBC monopoly?

Patrick wrote: Capt Fiero wrote: So did we break down and get theft ins today? Heh heh... no, not yet. I was back up at Clynt's place today working on my other Fiero.  Is "theft" insurance something that can be bought through a private company, or is this part of the ICBC monopoly?

   I believe you can get it privately, however adding it to my policy and adding Autoplan Plus, (I think that was the name)  only came to an extra 10-15 bucks a month.  Its nut just theft, you also get coverage for vandalism, and a few other things.