Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

What legal action can i take If someone was using my car without my consent. I am deployed so i gave the keys to a buddy of mine to start up every once in awhile but she then went back to Texas and left the keys at the apartment, possibly gave the keys to a guy or the guy had access to the apartment and took them to drive my car around. I know this person was driving the car around because we had multiple people still in the States check to see if it was in the parking lot and it was not there but showed up the next day with the keys missing and a cracked windshield. I don't know who this guy is because the person i gave the keys to is not answering. It's currently towed to a different location but he still has my keys and my windshield is cracked. So the question is what legal action could I take against this person if any. When i contacted law enforcement they told me it technically wouldn't be a stole vehicle because i left the keys with someone (even though the person i left the car keys with was not driving the car it was someone else) and i would have to report it stolen in person which was not possible because I'm overseas. It fell under unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and the police said they couldn't do much i have the car back and it's in a different location but I don't have the keys


Asked on 4/30/22, 2:31 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

It sounds very much like you suspect you have an idea who took your keys and used your car without permission instead of that you actually know. But if on the outside chance you do in fact know as you claim, you simply sue them civilly for the damage and the keys - assuming of course, you can prove it. However, you would have to do that in person as well and you would likely spend almost as much to sue as you might recover. Unauthorized use and larceny are the crimes likely committed here and it isn't that law enforcement can't do anything, they just likely don't want to especially if as I suspect you have zero proof of even who the person is that did it let alone any identifying information such as a name and address of residence. So most likely you are just gonna have to chalk this up as an learning experience on making bad choices regarding with whom to entrust your property. Of course, this is if you want to limit you options to your legal ones.

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Answered on 5/01/22, 8:08 am


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