My friend who lives in the Poets Square neighborhood (Swan/Broadway/5th/Columbus) told me she had her car stolen on Friday.
She said the battery died and the emergency road service came to charge the battery. The guy told her to keep the car running for 30 minutes. The car, which is a later model minivan (Honda, maybe?) was sitting in her driveway.
Thirty minutes later, she went outside and the car was gone.
She thinks the emergency road service guy called one of his buddies to come and get the car.
She’s a busy mom and didn’t think about going inside and getting another set of keys to lock the car. (No, I am not putting down busy moms.)
I don’t know what she told the police, but I’m just wondering if you think this sounds like a scam. This particular neighborhood like most other Tucson infill neighborhoods has a lot of theft.
Don’t you think 30 minutes is excessive to charge a battery?
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2007.
Almost everything related to autos sounds like a scam.
“Don’t you think 30 minutes is excessive to charge a battery?”
It depends. 30 minutes is the rule of thumb (even in Poets Square), assuming the charging system (among other things) is working properly. She probably should have driven the car around for 30 minutes (batteries are recharged while a car is being driven just as they are recharged when the car is stationary)rather than what she actually did, but being busy and all…
In any case, if you get a jumpstart you shouldn’t just leave it at that: take the car to a shop and have the battery and charging system tested. Bring plastic or paper.
Doesn’t sound likely. If the service guy did it, either he had a sudden uncontrollable lust for a late-model minivan or he makes a habit of this, and his employers or the police would surely notice that pretty quick. But a car sitting in the driveway with the engine running is an invitation to joyride.
Even if the road-service guy was somehow involved in the theft, there is no way to prove it. But it doesn’t sound like there’s good reason to suspect him.
Usually when somebody says to keep your car running for 30 minutes, the idea is to drive it somewhere. Pile in the kids, take a sightseeing tour, or whatever. (Possibly that tour should end at Pep Boys where, if needed, you can get a new batter. Occasionally the culprit is the alternator. Both are relatively cheap fixes.)
I am sorry for your friend’s loss, but as Norris said, anybody who leaves a car running unattended is inviting people to steal it. If you trust the general Tucson public not to steal an easily stealable car, then you haven’t been reading the car-theft statistics.
I do hope your friend’s insurance covers the theft. One other thing I recommend is that people with newer cars look into getting tracking devices installed in their cars. It costs a couple hundred bucks, but it’ll knock some money off your insurance and eventually pay for itself (especially if your car is stolen!).
I might have emphasized–there’s a good chance the car was taken for a joyride and will turn up (maybe worse for wear) in a few days. In the circumstances, any random rotten kid could have taken the thing.
Didn’t the T’Weekly just run a story on how unjustified the bashing of tow-truck drivers is?
So your friend left a car running, unattended, for an extended period of time?? Who would do that? You need smarter friends.
On infill: it sucks that they’re filling in parts of Tucson that were traditionally natural desert. Look at the big box piece of shit LA Fitness store — 42,050 sq. ft. — that was put in at 1st and Limberlost. Eyesore! Doesn’t even fit the area! Should have been cut down to a normal size, or put in two or three small-size stores in a complex instead of this paved-over city block!
Look at the size of World Gym Fitness down the street versus this monstrosity, then tell me which fits in to the scenery better.
Places that infill like this should be required to maintain some of the southwestern desert feel so we don’t become — gasp — Californicated.
Tucson LA Fitness, fail.
Maintain our Western roots. We don’t need everything to be gray and tan because merely painting something tan doesn’t cut it for being “Southwestern”.
IPH – Couldn’t agree more. Infill projects need to be planned with great intention. The LA Fitness is a good example. Any other good examples out there?
It is a scam! Tow truck drivers do this ALL THE TIME. And they pay off the Police to suppress it. They tell everyone to run their engine for thirty minutes and then dutifully report the make and model of the car back to a centralized depot of car thieves. They also use hypnotic mind-control to convince their victims that SINCE THE TOW TRUCK DRIVER SAID SO, it is OKAY to leave their car running with the keys in the ignition.
— They also use hypnotic mind-control to convince their victims that SINCE THE TOW TRUCK DRIVER SAID SO, it is OKAY to leave their car running with the keys in the ignition.
this is exactly why it is key to always wear your tin foil hat.
never take it off. might even make a good editorial.
That tow truck driver may have been God or a messenger therefrom. All the above makes Red Star think of the fuss over Stephen Wykstra’s Noseeum Principle, missing fleas in the garage, gratuitous suffering, great intention, and the Evil Genius.
— That tow truck driver may have been God or a messenger therefrom.
bob dobb be praised.
Good Advice: Pull the wool over your own eyes, and leave the keys in the ignition and the engine running.