Had a BAD scare today

jsarche

jsarche

New member
My 4Runner wasn't where I left it this morning when I returned to the parking spot after work today. No glass on the street, but also no SUV. I assumed the worst.

I called the police and while waiting for the officer, tried to make a list of everything in my SUV for when I filed an insurance claim and wondering how much above the replacement cost I'd have to pay to get a new 4Runner. This was at least as depressing as losing the 4Runner itself.

So the officer arrives 40 minutes after the call, fills out the report and -- very thoughtfully -- drove me several miles to judo practice, where I could meet people to drive me home after a couple of hours of working out that kept my stolen T4R off my mind.

After practice, I turn on my cell and my wife had left a message: The cops found my 4Runner, parked around the block from where I'd left it.

Turns out, the police say they had to move my SUV during the day for some reason. I parked legally, didn't get a ticket, but I guess it was in their way. Anyway, no damage, no problems with the 4Runner at all.

Now I just need to know two things: Why the heck did they need to move my SUV? And why the hell didn't they make every effort to contact me (and the 9-10 other people whose cars had to be moved from off the same block)? Couldn't the police have found me with my license plate number?

I was so relieved I couldn't be angry. Just very, very curious. Bottom line: no harm, no foul.
 
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That would have scared the hell out of me, too! Glad it ended well!

The questions you ask are good ones that deserve answers. You may wish to call your police chief's office and calmly ask such questions. My first question, though, would be why the patrol officer who took your report didn't know about the cars in the area being moved. I would also commend that officer for going way beyond the call of duty to give you a ride to where you needed to go.

The best the police could do with your license plate is get your home address and then track down your home phone number. If you weren't home, that wouldn't do you any good. I think it's safe to assume that given whatever the situation was, they didn't have time or manpower to a more thorough investigation of each car's owner to see if they had a cell phone or where they worked. That sort of effort goes into catching criminals, not moving cars.

Why did they move the car? My first guess would be some sort of emergency utility work where they needed more room on the street. Maybe there was a problem with a gas main or a water main. That happens, and there's not much that can be done about it. I suppose there are a few police or fire incidents that might be large enough and/or several hours long that might merit moving parked cars, but most of the time the police and fire departments don't care about parked cars unless they're creating a dangerous situation by limiting access or giving the bad guy a place to hide. More often than not, the police and fire vehicles will just park anywhere and block in the parked cars!

If they have a much sillier reason like street sweeping and didn't think to put up temporary "no parking" signs in advance, then next I'd call the city administrator or city manager and complain, and maybe your alderman as well.
 
The officer who took the report told me she couldn't even get in touch with anybody at the police department's impound lot. It seems that communications were impaired in more than one way on this deal.

I do intend to ask those questions -- but I've also got one for the experts on this forum: How would the police move my car? Do they have some kind of universal key to actually drive it, or would they put it on a flatbed truck for a one-block tow? I might ask them this as well.
 
Wow, that is a scary story. I am glad it has a happy ending. The best scenario is that the police used a flatbed truck to move your 4Runner. I hope that the police were smart enough not to use a tow truck for a 4WD vehicle. There is no such thing as a universal key.
 
Yeah, the main thing I'd be concerned about would be if they used a flat bed tow truck. If not, they could have done some damage.
 
Most likely they used a conventional wheel mount type wrecker. You cant use a flatbed unless you have a key and can put it in neutral to allow the rear wheels to roll, because the park pin would be engaged. They'd have to drag the vehicle's tires. Only way they could do this without much risk of damage, is if they could access your vehicle from behind, drop the flatbed and literally wedge it up under your rear tires, spray the bed with some soapy water, and winch the truck up there, letting the tires slide freely on the steel flatbed with soap as a lubricant. Seen it done, and it works great, as long as the drive wheels can be accessed easily, and the front wheels are not engaged on a 4WD, or it's not an AWD vehicle.

Easiest way would be to just look to make sure you had it in 2HI and the front axle was disengaged, if so, just fork the rear wheels, strap them down, and drive off.

Either way, I'd be UBER PISSED to come out and find my vehicle not where I left it. I'd go ballistic :awais: :bash:
 
I say a flatbed wouldn't be a good idea, if they didn't have keys or be able to get the vehicle in neutral. I saw someone with an illegally parked CTS-V in a liquor store lot and they weren't shopping at the store, so the tow driver just pretty much dragged it on the flatbed. It was half way up and the owner came back to seeing it was about to be hauled away.

I would hope they had a regular tow truck and put dollies under the one axle and lift the other axle off the ground and towed it that way.
 
jsarche said:
My 4Runner wasn't where I left it this morning when I returned to the parking spot after work today. No glass on the street, but also no SUV. I assumed the worst.

I called the police and while waiting for the officer, tried to make a list of everything in my SUV for when I filed an insurance claim and wondering how much above the replacement cost I'd have to pay to get a new 4Runner. This was at least as depressing as losing the 4Runner itself.

So the officer arrives 40 minutes after the call, fills out the report and -- very thoughtfully -- drove me several miles to judo practice, where I could meet people to drive me home after a couple of hours of working out that kept my stolen T4R off my mind.

After practice, I turn on my cell and my wife had left a message: The cops found my 4Runner, parked around the block from where I'd left it.

Turns out, the police say they had to move my SUV during the day for some reason. I parked legally, didn't get a ticket, but I guess it was in their way. Anyway, no damage, no problems with the 4Runner at all.

Now I just need to know two things: Why the heck did they need to move my SUV? And why the hell didn't they make every effort to contact me (and the 9-10 other people whose cars had to be moved from off the same block)? Couldn't the police have found me with my license plate number?

I was so relieved I couldn't be angry. Just very, very curious. Bottom line: no harm, no foul.
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Glad you got your ride back without any obvious damage.

What surprises me is that they took the time to haul the vehicles to a different street and leave them there. Here in NY, they would have hauled them to an impound lot. And, besides the ticket, you would have had to pay for the tow and storage which usually ends up being 2-3 hundred bucks.
 
Good to hear that your 4runner is safe...but, like above, how the hell did they move it??
 
Well, after talking to about six different people in six different offices of my city's police department, I still haven't been able to get an answer to why they moved my truck and all the other vehicles (now they say 12-13 of them) on Monday.

One woman told me -- in a very sure tone of voice -- that the police hired a tow service that used a flatbed truck to move the vehicles. I wanted to go on and ask how they got my 4Runner onto the bed, but by then time I was just too fed up with the whole thing and decided to just let it go.
 
Same $hit happened to my cousin in S.F. He lives in S.F. but doesn't have a garage to park his car so he parks it on the street for days at a time (no meters). Anyways, one day he went to his car to find out that it was no longer there. He called all the local impound yards but no car. He figured it was stolen so he called the cops. After waiting on the phone for what seems to be about an hour, they let him know that it was about 1/4 mile away from the original spot. Turns out George Bush was in town and was staying at a hotel nearby. The cops cleared all the streets of parked cars around that hotel.
 
Jaebster said:
Turns out George Bush was in town and was staying at a hotel nearby. The cops cleared all the streets of parked cars around that hotel.
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Man, I'd be really pissed if my car was towed because of that asshole!
 
jrs2 said:
Man, I'd be really pissed if my car was towed because of that asshole!
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But if it had been towed because of Clinton, you'd have to check the back seat to make sure Slick didn't "use" it :D
 
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