My Dad's horrible father's day surprise

Well it sounds like the land lords a switched on mother****er.
I think Jello Biafra said it best " lets lynch the land lord".
Good luck, I hope it doesn't cost your family to much to get this **** fixed

 

Name the paint shop

 

Name the paint shop! This is seriously ****ed up. With all this **** going on, cars being ****ed up and stolen I think I have found a use for all that SF training. Professional vehicle and debt recovery, with the motto.... Whatever it takes ....or.... They'll never find the body.
First recovery free................... for the fun of it!

 

go after the landlord and the new owener. Ask the police how to file on both.

 

My thoughts as well. You better hope you get one of the responsible parties to own up to it in front of authorities, or it may be shakey. That really ****s though. To bad you didn't catch them in the act, and have a baseball bat handy.

 

Your insurance company should cover it, as long as they don't think you tried to insure it after you found it F-ed up.

They have attourneys, and ways to 'motivate' the police that you as a private citiczen do not. I would be surprised if the police had shown up if you did call them, they wouldn't (show up) here, unless you told them you had the s*** at gunpoint, then you would get the ride.

That's a screwed pooch all the way around though, bummer to hear it.

 

The police will not do anything to make anyone produce a video. The police only investigate crimes in conjunction with the DA's Office. The District Attorney's Office could get the video if you tell them about it and they decide a crime has taken place. However, usually they are too busy with serious matters. An attorney will want to know the amount of your damages. How damaged is the car? Post the photos. Also, before going through your insurance, find out if the shop had insurance. If the landlord did it, go through his insurance carrier. If the damage to the car is less than $7,500.00 you can take the shop owner and the landlord to small claims. That way, you avoid attorney fees and Court procedures (like procedural and evidentiary issues). Who has the video? If it is the landlord, it may be too late. If you want an attorney, I may be able to refer someone. PM me if you want.

 

I'm not a lawyer, but I think you need the advice of one. Find one that'll talk to you for free to consider your options.

In my experience with LAPD(theft, auto breakins, multiple car collision caused by a junkie, kid getting run over) it's tough to get them to show up for anything . My experience with theft and LAPD detectives was that they were not very motivated to do much detecting.

IMHO based on my experience, I'd suggest contacting insurance and letting them handle it from there. CSI ain't gonna come out and dust for prints, and nobody besides you and insurance gives a damn what happened.

This ****s, but this kinda **** happens. That's why you bought insurance. Use it.

 

prepaidlegal.com sign up and get an attorney.

 

With that user name I would listen to this guy. I suspect he knows CA law

 

If there WAS a video tape,do you really think it still exists ?

 

I wonder if the landlord thought the car belonged to the guy who went to jail and (or just didn't care) he was just "cleaning the place up" before showing it to new renters.

If new renters don't know anything about it (and will testify to same) then you've pretty well nailed the landlord for either doing it or directing somone to do it.

Now it's time for a lawyer/insurance company to "do it" to him!

Be careful about the insurance policy -- was there a "waiting period" before coverage? Not that I would imply that insurance companies are anything but fine upstanding corporate citizens (who happen to naturally be covered with slickest lubricant known to man)

 

id go charles bronson on the landlord and the new painter. im sure they had your name on file in the office. they could have called you.

 

if the painter went to jail , I doubt the landlord had the phone number ,

there would be lots of phone numbers around but only the painter would know which was which ,
This is the problem with LAPD , they just are too few cops for the size of the city , so they will not even come out to make reports most of the time ,
and the insurance company will probably want a police report,

thats also why the "crime rate " is down , if you do not make a police report its not considered a crime

Good Luck , hopefully you can find a car guy at LAPD that will help

Beaulieu

 

Damn. I "get" how you all would be in shock, BUT, I damn well would have not touched ANYTHING and would've been snapping pictures 'til the cops got there.

Hope it all works out for y'all, and sorry to "armchair quarterback" on you, but man....

 

Man that ****s! I hope everything works out for you guys...

 

I say you tell the new owner to fix it, Let him know that you are verry known in the automotive ind. and you will do your best to make sure he gets no business if it means parking a junker outside with a big banner telling what went down...

 

Don't let this go. Keep us upto date.

 

Any news

 

i'd be finding me a gas can and some matches to burn the mother ****ers place down!!!!!!!

 

Only news as of now is that our insurance is going to cover the car, an adjuster already came out and looked at the car so we should get it rollin soon. We also have filed a police report, and definetly plan to press charges. Apparently the owner and landlord have both admitted some guilt in removing things from the shop.

 

Don't even get your heart rate up. Just turn it over to your insurance company and get your settlement. Your ins. company will then subrogate the claim to get their money back........Mike

 

Glad to see this. You were smart to insure your car even if it isnot on the road.

 

Glad to hear your insurance is going to (or at least appears they are) pay out on this. That makes it very simple, no longer your problem (once the check clears). Also good to hear the Owner / new tennent are at least partially fessing up to a serious case of the 'dums'.

 

Just got back from Arizona last night and got an update. My dad got a check from the insurance company. The guy that is doing the repairs is going to be doing them here at my house. They are filming an episode of "The Closer" on my street the first part of this week so my street is closed off. So late this week when the filming is over we are gonna get back to the car and get it repaired. Hopefully it won't be too long before we are in primer.

 

Now, that was a GREAT Father's Day present even if it was a little late!

I hope that everybody has insurance on their car even when it's under repair.

 

good to hear this is finally working out and your dads on the road soon..

 

I'm just sorry that You had to go through all of this ****....For every one shop that does a good job, there are 10 that are screwing folks coming and going...It makes it that much harder to make it in this industry.

 

Dude, yeah... PLEEEEAA***SEEE tell us you took LOTS of pictures of EVERYTHING?????? I hope I hope I hope.....
The city of Long Beach screwed me once cause I didnt take pics.
-GothY-

 

Thought i would give a little update on the car. After a month of working on the car it seems that this whole situation may have been a blessing in disguise. When the **** hit the fan our painter was preparing to prime the car, but after getting it back and fixing the damage we found that the car was nowhere near ready for primer. Many of the panels did not fit right and would have looked like dog **** if they had gotten painted and ***embled. We have been working on the car 5 days a week for the past month and are now almost ready to start sqiurting some primer. I guess sometimes this stuff happens for a reason, cuz even though it looked real bad we will get a nicer car in the end.