Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Hi

I have a situation that I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO.

On thursday August 17th 2011 at exactly around 11:10AM, my wife was trying to go to the post office returning a box full of cloths she had purchased a couple of days earlier and during that time we had a family friend visiting us.

She (the friend) was also going out to the gas station (2 blocks from my house) and offered to take the package to the post office for my wife.

So my wife said okay and the friend carried the box, grabbed our car key and left.

Hours went by and no news from the friend - We called her several times and no answer, we sent her many messages and no return.

Today August 22nd and 5 days have gone by- NO FRIEND - NO CAR - SHE HAS VANISHED with the car and $600 worth of cloths.

We finally decided to call the police after talking to the friend mother who said we should call the cops as her daughter is on drugs and obviously we DID NOT KNOW otherwise we wouldn't have done that.

She is a family friend through my best friend who happens to be her boyfriend.

This has brought a souer taste between my friend and I and I DO NOT LIKE IT because he feels he is responsible for it because he was the one that asked that she stays with us for couple of days until her appartment is ready to move in.

We called the police, and the cop told us that there was nothing they could do and that we needed to find the vehicle ourselves.

I do not know what to do and this is crazy ...

AMERICA IS BIG, Where do you find a car in such a big country on my own? HOW?

This is unfair because yes the car was given as borrowed I supposed but why would the police not help because at this point we have expectations that she is out of states (her mom said she could be in california and we live in Seattle)

I asked the cop so if I see her down the road driving what do I do?

He said to get my car.

What do we do?

Please help.


Asked on 8/22/11, 9:40 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathan Baner Baner & Baner

Answer: cops are lazy and sometimes stupid. Okay actually most police officers are pretty intelligent, overworked, underpaid, nice, and cooperative. The ones you dealt with are also probably in the latter category.

Here is the thing about auto theft - it happens a lot. You report it to your insurance company (even if you don't have stolen vehicle coverage). You report the vehicle as stolen and tell the cops to report it as stolen such that if she ever tries to register it, or the VIN gets ran, etc then it gets recognized as stolen.

You can attempt to hire a private investigator to track the car down. If you go this route, I'd give them either a budget or a bounty (spend up to $400 (budget) or you can get half the value of the recovered goods based on their recovered condition (bounty)).

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Answered on 8/26/11, 10:48 am


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