My daughter just lost everything she owns in a car fire. I am happy to share the details of how this happened but for now the questions are these:
–She is on the side of the road on Route 70 in Illinois. She has no ID. Can we get her on a flight with only a picture of her license on her phone? (She has good samaritans ready to help.)
–The car is a total shell on the side of the road. Will any salvage company want it?
–She has only liability insurance since she bought the car used, so that’s a total loss.
–She lost ALL her belongings since she was moving. OMG. But thank goodness she has renters insurance so she can make a claim for her belongings.
Right now I’m frantically Googling but would love any tips about how to handle this. Especially the first question. Is that sort of ID sufficient for domestic flight?
Yes, she will be able to get on a flight. I believe they will ask her a bunch of questions to confirm her identity, so it’s a good idea to leave plenty of time before the flight is scheduled to depart.
In the event you arrive at the airport without valid identification, because it is lost or at home, you may still be allowed to fly. The TSA officer may ask you to complete an identity verification process which includes collecting information such as your name, current address, and other personal information to confirm your identity. If your identity is confirmed, you will be allowed to enter the screening checkpoint. You will be subject to additional screening, to include a patdown and screening of carry-on property.
Thank you! That’s super helpful. LOL on the pat-down and the carry on luggage, though.
The only flight out tonight is on the notorious Spirit Airlines, so it’s a good thing she won’t have luggage to lose!
I vaguely remember reading an article describing the process; it takes longer than normal. So if she usually gets to the airport two hours before the flight, she may want to be there an hour or more earlier. If she leaves her phone on the whole time, it might run down the battery, so she might want to either shut it off as soon as she no longer needs it, or buy a charging cable someplace.
A scrap metal dealer or hulk hauler will haul what’s left of the car. Most wrecking yards won’t want it if there is nothing left to sell. It shouldn’t be left on the side of the highway for very long, the state may have it towed, then you daughter could be held liable for storage charges.
Have her take lots of photos, to document as much as is possible to document. And list everything she remembers that was in the car now, while the memory is fresh. And call her insurance company.
Is this car registered in Illinois? If not this could get even more complicated. You have to convince the state the car is registered in that it no longer exists, or that it belongs to someone else. Selling it to anyone willing to take it is a simple way to do that, junkyards will have no problem dealing with any consequences of that. Just make sure you get a receipt showing that they bought the car, not just a towing receipt.
In general, find a junkyard on your own that will tow the car away in exchange for a reasonable fee and ownership of it’s remains. Don’t let the police start this process for you because you could end up paying storage fees and extra costs with the state. I don’t know anything about the state police in Illinois, maybe they would make it all go away for you, but in any state there’s always the possibility of a bureaucratic nightmare if you leave in their hands.
Happy Mother’s Day. Is this what you imagined having kids would be like so many years ago? Well just wait a little while, when daughter makes it home again you’ll find that feeling you did imagine.
If daughter was in the middle of moving, then her dealings with TSA will be a bit more complicated. Whatever address was on her driver’s license is the one that really matters.
The scrap value of the car largely weighs in if it has a catalytic converter. Last time I sold one (a few years ago) a converter would have pretty much doubled the scrap price.
The car is registered in CO, the state she is leaving to relocate to the East for the summer. That’s why everything she owned was in the car. She also just bought it in February, the title and registration are in her name at her Colorado address. But the title just went up in flames.
I spoke to the tow driver who said he’s been doing this for 40 years. With my daughter in shock and tears beside him, he offered to take the carcass off her hands for a total of $500 and let us mail him the replacement title when we get it. Otherwise we have to pay the tow fee and then $40 a day for storage until we can get him the title. Obviously I’ll get it in writing but this sounds like a great option to me.
Happily the address on her license is in NJ which is where she is coming. The agent with whom I reserved the ticket says she shouldn’t have a problem with this.,
Will you be able to salvage it? A rebuilt salvage title requires repairing the car. Or is it a junk title from the dmv? I would contact insurance just to let them know. I’m assuming law enforcement was on the scene?
Might help to have all the corroboration documents before she leaves the state.
The car is, quite literally, toast. There is nothing salvageable or worth selling. The saving grace is that though she lost everything she owns, everything she owns is just what fit into or on top of a Toyota Rav 4. There is nothing that can’t be replaced as long as she is OK.
Thank you! It is traumatic indeed. My heart breaks for the loss of all her keepsakes, the things that mattered to her enough to bring them with her to Colorado in the first place.
Thank you for the thought, but she’s returning to the East after three years in Denver. She got her MSW at DU and was heading home to NJ for a few days before starting her summer job in NC.
She loved Colorado but was ready to move on. All this means her car had at least as much in it of sentimental value as material worth.
There’s a lot to be thankful for but this is going to hurt for a while.
One of my squadron mates back in USAF had a semi-similar experience changing stations once. As is normal DoD had contracted with regular pro movers to pack up 100% of his stuff & put it in a moving van driving to his new station. He and his shiny new wife drove their cars separately.
They arrived fine but the moving van caught fire out in the middle nowhere in New Mexico. 100% of the his goods were destroyed, plus whatever was also on the van belonging to other people. Oops.
They at least still had driver’s licenses, ID cards, credit cards, etc., plus a couple days of clothing they’d brought in their cars. But that was it.
I’m probably worried about nothing, but just to be absolutely sure: Did you actually talk to her on the phone about this? Not just texts? Because if it was just texting, it sounds like this could be the setup for an impersonation scam.
Sounds rough, especially if it was back in the day before things lived in the cloud. My daughter still has three weeks of school to wrap up and her laptop of course is no more. She’s not spending a moment worried about that, though, because all of it is safe and sound. It is weird to have her several states away with just the clothes on her back. The next few days will be filled with shopping, to say the least.
No, this is absolutely 100% her. We’ve been talking all day. I told her that it’s the best Mother’s Day gift she could have given me because mothers of grown children just want to be needed. Thank you for the thought, though. I appreciate it!
Update: Spirit Airlines came through and delivered darling daughter home safe and sound last night, 30 minutes early even! Security was no problem and everyone was very helpful and understanding. Getting to the airport hours early, daughter busied herself writing an inventory of everything that was lost. Today we spent what seemed like hours on the phone with USAA filling a claim for the property. Now to shop!
Thank you for the help and support. The Dope comes through again! Much appreciated by this worried mom.
Thank you for the thought, though. I appreciate it!