The part that smells to me is: Car has an exhaust that is very loud and can be heard from a great distance. OP himself states that there is no way car could have been started without him hearing it fire up. Ok, so you are asking us to believe that a casual joy rider, which is what this appears to be based on the fact that: 1) The car was found at all; 2) It was damaged in a way that would indicate a joy ride; that this joy rider KNEW about the loud exhaust system and KNEW they had to move the car a substantial distance from the home before firing it up? Not likely. And how odd is it that a casual joy rider would have even known about the Ferrari in the garage unless maybe it were a neighborhood resident. It sure isn't someone from the other side of town who just "happened" to strike gold and hit a garage that had a Ferrari in it, with the keys in the ignition. A pro, sure, they would have scouted the location and the car and knew that the car had a loud exhaust and that they would have to avoid starting it to be detected. But again, a pro would have known how hard it is to boost a Ferrari without the key/fob and there is no way a pro would have known that the key just happened to be in this particualr car. However, the fact the car was found at all, with the damage the OP states, makes this a non-pro event. A pro would have had it in a container or a chop shop within 20 mins of boosting it and you can bet they would not have damaged the goods. Also, who, pro or joy rider, locks the doors when ditching the car? I mean seriously. You're booking it out of there so fast when you ditch the car, you sure as hell aren't thinking "Oh, make sure to lock the doors." Too much about this scenario stinks IMO, and that's just what it is, one person's opinion, to which I'm entitled, right or wrong.
Regarding someone's earlier post about someone leaving the keys in the car and it's "the owner's fault" and insurance will deny it. Not true, insurance companies unfortunately insure stupidity all day long. A stolen car is a stolen car regardless of how the theft occurs. So long as the veh was taken without permission, it's stolen if the owner reports it as such and anything that car was involved in while stolen is not the responsibility of the owner. But of course if the car is recovered and brought to the owner, any damages will be repaired.
I think everyone was very supportive until it was revealed that the car was left with the keys in it. To us, this is an act that seems impossible to fathom. I don't know anyone personally who does that in a major city for ANY car, let alone a prized possession like our Ferrari's. Heck we have people on this site who won't give the keys to a valet for fear it will be abused in a parking lot. Tony: if you can't understand that, you'll never understand how doubt about the story crept into this thread.
My uncle left the keys in his Mercedes while paying for fuel at a service station, the car was stolen and his insurance company did not cover the theft because they deemed him responsible for making his vehicle susceptible to such an easy theft.
Your uncle has a huge bad-faith suit against the insurance carrier. I've seen it happen. Unless there is some really odd language in their policy and even more odd case-law in that state, I have never seen something like that denied and the insurance carrier getting away with it.
This is starting to sound like that Seinfeld episode where he dumps the car in a bad neighborhood because he can't get the BO smell out of it.
Tony, Have you called your insurance company yet? And did you have the same carrier with the RR and previous 348?
Indeed. I accidentally lock my car all the time with the remote fob when I don't intend to. It is really easy if you bump it or have something else in your pocket. Accidents can happen. The "thief" may not have even intended to lock it.
Before you eat one of your own, I think a little bit of caution would be warranted. Don't presume to know the state of mind of the alleged car thief, don't presume to know the circumstances under which he stole or ditched the car. Everyone here is acting like Sherlock Holmes for the mere sport of it, without realizing the damage you are doing to a member's character. For all you know, the thief was showboating for some girl he picked up when he banged up the car. Got out, had to keep up the appearance that it was his, and locked the car behind him. There are 8 million other variations on this theme that play out every day. I don't know Tony from a can of paint. But many of you do.. 348 brotherhood my ass. I have seen things a lot stranger than a car being stolen right from under the owner's nose. I know this guy appears to have had some misadventures in the recent past, but sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. Maybe this is some half-cocked insurance scam, but if I put as much time and energy into this place as he has, I would have at least expected the benefit of the doubt. Give it a rest.
just following this thread from the perspective of an interested neutral observer, seems to me that if u follow the theory that one of the garage repair guys may have done this, seems quite plausible he saw the car close up in the garage with the doors unlocked and key in ignition. he may even have heard the car driving out or coming back and knew it had a loud exhaust (anyway even the most ignorant thief would know that a ferrari has a very loud exhaust ) as for locking the car after damaging and ditching it, i think it is quite possible that the culprit would think about locking the car to make sure no one can get in to check it out (tho i forget if 348 comes with a separate remote fob to do this) motive ? the garage guy may have been high/inebriated and did this just for the thrill and joyride. on the converse , if this was a scam , why would one risk abandoning the car in such an apparently prominent place and advertise the damage from a week ago and then advertise the fact it was stolen ,on a public forum ? and he broke his garage door to be able to call in the garage guys n blame them? n why not just say he was out when the car was stolen, keys were hanging on a nail in the garage (n car was locked) nothing adds up perfectly either way, so i think u would have to say the jury is still out on this one
Unfortunately its very natural for humans to make judgments - we all do it everyday with everything that we see and do. If we don't talk what we are all thinking the big elephant enters the room, if we do talk about it someone ends up getting hurt. Paradox.
I had a car abandoned in my driveway (off of an alley) once. After checking with all of my neighbors to see if it was their's I called the police and reported it. The operator said that since it's on private property I would have to deal with it. I told her it looked like a stolen car, but she wouldn't do anything, so I told her I was going to push it into the alley and call her back. At that she asked for the tag number; when I gave it to her, she immeadiatly said "we'll be right out". Yeah, it was a stolen car.... Cops don't care too much about stolen cars. Doesn't sound like this one in discussion was stolen...
Maybe they have a witness who saw who ever left the car there and want to clear Tony. Maybe there is an UC car with the witness in it waiting and when Tony went to get the car the witness said, no that's not the guy who left the car here? Just a theory.
I don't leave my keys in my car ever, but in your garage, its not like he was saying Please steal my car. they might have entered the house looking for the keys if they are already in your garage. Its in his garage, someone still had to break in, and since most people have keys in a drawer, its not hard to find keys, and since they took the chance to already home invade, why not open another door in search for the keys. I wouldn't blame a woman for getting raped in their house because they didn't wear underwear and made it easier for the guy doing it. Someone took the actions to do it. The fault lays with them. As far as jumping on this insurance fraud thing, none of us here and remotely enough facts to determine that so you must judge innocent until proven otherwise. Trust me, if it is, it will get dealt with by his insurance company. All the specualtion in this thread isn't doing tony any good, as Im sure his week blows and the one place he can vent all things ferrari is turning against him. On a side note, they might be able to use the cameras that Im sure are all over that place to get an ID on the person leaving the car. even in Iowa, most parkinglots are camera'ed.
Tony, good luck with the car. I hope that it can be fixed easily. Bad luck runs in threes, so hopefully you'll have a run of good luck now. Regarding leaving the keys in the car... I do it as well. (Well, not in the car, but hanging on a hook in the garage.) I'm willing to bet a lot more people here on FChat do the same, but aren't chiming in. These cars aren't real sophisticated, and if someone wants to steal them, they will. Having the keys buried in the backyard or stuffed under a mattress isn't going to stop a thief. Regarding the police not working the car... My office was broken into (near downtown Dallas) with thousands of dollars of computer equipment taken. (We're talking printers, scanners, memory and processors pulled from computers, etc.) I personally called the police to report the crime and they wouldn't even come out to the office. I was told that I could file a report over the phone, but was also told that I wouldn't get any of the equipment back. (The lady/officer on the phone was really discouraging the report.) Since I didn't have insurance on my office I didn't bother and dropped the matter. Again, I hope that the car can be easily and quickly repaired, and you can put this all past you soon.
I received a PM regarding this thread b/c someone's aware of my profession as an auto claim handler. I'm not reading through all of the back and forth non-sense, but here's my POV... The car was stolen. It doesn't matter if he left the keys in the ignition, he did NOT give the person who stole the insured vehicle permission to operate it. Any damage done will be covered by the thief's insurance company. If the thief does not have insurance, the owner's insurance company will cover the damage and it will be helpful if the owner has uninsured motorist insurance on his policy. From there, the insurance company will pursue the thief directly for the cost of repairs be it through a payment plan or litigation if he has assets. The fact that the OP called the police is good because the insurance company can use the report while pursuing the other insurance company or the at fault party in court. As for the exhaust, any IDIOT can assume that a Ferrari is not a quiet car - especially a professional car thief. The fact that the owner is also sleeping ABOVE the garage, since it's a townhouse, would also make any car thief toss that bad boy in neutral and roll it out of the garage. Any additional questions, feel free to ask. I will provide whatever information I can.
Not disagreeing with you, but the problem with that theory is what does he tell her when they leave the car behind and then take a cab/bus home (or whatever means of transportaton they use to leave). In defense of the 348 Brotherhood - most of the doubters are not 348 owners
probably had one too many before already which led to him losing it in the first place n having to pull into mcdonalds for coffee to sober up!
Dallas is a huge, MEAN city, and a "stolen Ferrari (with the keys in it) bumps the Disaster Meter about .0002 points, man.... It would have to reach the Impound Yard, then they check the (out of State) plates, then maybe by the middle of next week......... Houston Auto Theft has about 4 officers, to give you an idea.......
