Oh my God! Did they return you in one piece?!?
Here in the UK, car crime is rife, it’s pretty common to have one’s car stolen, particularly if it’s an older car, as they’re easier to get into and start. I’ve seen clips of kids bending the top of the door to get in, then kicking the crap out of the ignition block and starting the car in 10-20 seconds!
Anyway, possible deterrents: car alarm, but be prepared for it to go off a lot for no apparent reason, electronic immobiliser, very effective but quite costly for the decent ones but easiest of all a crook-lock, just a locking bar that fits on your steering wheel. Highly visible, not much hassle, and the kids won’t touch it (although I’ve heard that the pros can have them off in seconds).
When I was in college I parked my car in front of my girlfriends house one night. The next morning when I left to go to school…no car. I walked up and down the block thinking I had parked somewhere else but the car was gone.
My car was totaled when the idiot who stole it ran a red light and crashed into a police car. 2 months later I recieved a summons telling me that I was being sued by the thief for injuries he sustained when he wrecked my car that he had stolen. The case was dropped after my atty threatened to sue him for my lost wages ,pain and suffering ect.
Since you are in apartment, are you sure it wasn’t just towed away by your landlord or reported for some imagined parking violation? Where I live, predatory towing companies rove parking lots of apartment complexes at night looking to tow cars away more or less at random (i.e. irregardless of whether or not you have a parking permit).
A lot of older cars can be started with ANY key for that model. So some punk kid has a base-model saturn and uses his key to steal your car.
ataraxy22, I checked, it was not towed.
I checked with my landlord first to make sure they didn’t give permission to anyone to tow any cars and then I called all the towing companies for all the towns closest to where I live.
Nothing.
Apricot, I’m not sure that key thing applies to my car. Not too long ago I was at a store and there was a Saturn there there looked just like mine. Almost exact duplicate. Mine was parked two spaces away, but I thought that car was mine at first and my key didn’t work to even unlock the door.
I’ve been posting flyers and basically trying to get the word out at this point.
My insurance covers a rental for a whole whopping week, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
A week is not long enough for me to give up. I’m not even sure a few months will do it…
This morning I heard on the news that a stolen car was involved in some kind of gun related crime. Every time I hear this I’ll wonder if it was my car…
Man I feel for you three years ago my truck was stolen right from my driveway, boy I was mad, they later found it 200 miles away only damage was broken window and steering colum, the thing that pissed me off was I had to pay 150 buck to get it out of a lot where a tow truck took it.
My condolences on having your car stolen. It always sucks to have that happen. I assume that you have called the police to report it stolen.
My car was towed a few weeks ago and I called the police since I didn’t know what towing company had taken it. They usually have a record of which towing company will have taken your car.
Hopefully, this will work out for you.
Car wasn’t towed. I’ve been hearing stories that the Saturn SL manual transmission is supposedly hot stuff, but it’s a GM car, they could find the thing anywhere!
Probably easier to steal from the junkyard!
Still no word on my baby. I can only drive around myself looking and telling people about it in the hopes that I’ll stumble over someone or something that will lead me to recovering my car.
Still no word on the car, but I DID find out that the police do basically NOTHING to find out who stole it.
I was stunned that all they do is sit back and wait for the plate or VIN to get run!
To say I’m furious is an understatement.
I found a Web site that others may find useful where you can report your car stolen and volunteers all over the US will keep an eye out for your car.
If you’re still reading this, MY CAR HAS BEEN FOUND!!!
It was found in Bensenville and appears to have no damage.
The battery is dead, but that’s easy to fix.
It doesn’t appear to have been hotwired either. The thief either had a key that just so happened to work in my car, or they had one made.
I’M SO HAPPY!!!
The car will be fumigated, etc. But it will be mine again soon!
Thanks for all the kind words and the ideas on what could have happened.
Thought you might like to know that there was a happy ending.
Yahooo!
Hooray! \o/
Congratulations! It’ll probably take you a while to get over the feeling of violation, but the times I got my car back, I found that cleaning it out myself (even after the bodyshop had it done) helped me feel it was truly mine again.
Thanks!
I don’t have the feeling of violation as expected. Instead, I’m just really paranoid. I keep checking out the window to make SURE my car is still outside!!
I’ve got the car parked where I can see it and I bought the Club for my security until I can afford something better.
Getting my car back has lifted the weight of the world off of my shoulders!!!
When I got back from getting the car released, I grabbed my Ren & Stimpy tape and played the “Happy Happy Joy Joy” song! 
I got the car back in my full possession yesterday and drove it around (mainly cuz I needed to charge the battery) and it felt SOOOOOO good to be driving it again! I was home.
Oh I’m so glad they found it and it’s alright!!!