Ever left a car to be towed or stolen?

A friend of mine left his jeep truck in the airport parking lot with the keys in it for weeks. Nobody ever took it....

I had a 76 cutlass that I was selling, I took a 50% deposit and never heard from the the guy. That happened 4 times before it finally sold. Heck of a way to get your selling price,eh?

 

What street, I'll go look for it!

 

When our family was living in Nurnberg Germany from 1960-1963 my Dad bought a 1951 Pontiac Station Wagon with a straight 8 engine and automatic transmission. When we got orders to return to the States he tried to sell the old car but had no takers at $50 (he had paid $250 3 years earlier) so we left it, with keys in the switch and registration/paperwok signed on the seat, on Fronmullerstrasse across from the W.O. Darby Kaserne near our apartment building.
During correspondence with a friend still there we found out the car had sat there for another YEAR and was slowly dismantled staring with the wheels and tires, radiator, battery, seats, and so forth until it was finally towed away as an empty hulk.
A running, driving FREE CAR!

 

Once in an unfortunate chain of events I managed to catch the "bean bag" on the back of a mini bike. Ball fell out and took 15 stitches and $3000 to tuck back in. The next evening I left the bike parked outside of my shop. the following day it was gone. I always wondered if anyone else had any romatic experiences with it.

 

In 97 I moved back to Calif from Texas. I lost the water pump in my dodge van, In N.M. managed to make it just this side of the border of Ca. It got hot enough to blow a hole in the radiator. I pulled into a Mc Donalds. Called a rental car agency for a car to get home. Came back a week later and un loaded the van. It fired right up and still ran good. I left the keys in it with the title signed off. I had just put brand new 255/60s on it for the trip. Some one got a deal.

 

Bought an old VW from my land lord and could not get a title - He kept telling me he would take care of it - well, this went on for about six months - still no title, so I told him to give me my money back and he can have the car - said he could not do that, cause he spent the money - I told him to take it off the rent - said he could not do that either. - then he gave me a 30 day notice the next day - - me and some buddies took the VW all apart - took it in through the sliding glass doors - re-assembeled it completely in the bed room side ways and glued the sliding glass doors shut and moved.

 

I bought a T5 trans from a guy. He didn't want to pull the trans himself told me I could have it if I pulled it myself. The engine was seized and the truck was BEAT! I picked up the truck at his locked storage yard, loaded it into my enclosed trailer. Took it to our shop, pulled the trans, and was very respectable with his truck. Within a few hours I'd called him back to arrange meeting up and returning his truck to his property. He didn't answer the phone.

I called a few times through the week still with his truck in my trailer. I started seeing where it was going but my trailer usually sits empty anyways. I was giving the benefit of the doubt to him. He did live South of the border after all. Called weekly leaving messages. Even talked to him a couple times to arrange meeting up and dropping it off. A few months pass. STILL in my trailer! I finally needed to use my trailer for my own use. Drove to where our shop is on a busy freeway frontage road and unloaded it. Called him and told him where it was and that I would give him daily reports as to if it was still there or not. It lasted for nearly a week before finally being towed. I then get a call back from him. He wanted me to take responsibility for the tow/impound fees! I returned his call as promtly as he'd returned mine.......

 

During my first marriage I had a fork carrier neck break off on a stretched honda 450 twin on the Hollywood freeway. I slid it out OK, dragged the (still connected by the cables) pieces to the side of the road near a ramp and walked to a near by friends place after leaving a note saying simply "Take it, please".

Borrowed another friend's p/u and went back two weeks later, just in case, and the damn thing was still there. Went ahead and picked it up rather than have the cops eventually look me up.

To my own surprise, I later rebuilt it and rode it for another few years.

 

I usually just call the local junkyard to pick up my junkers for free, but an old honda got a special sendoff...I bought it for $200 and 2 weeks later it was acting up every 20 miles, couldn't figure it out, so I drove it towards my buddy's house (about 25 miles away)...it died about 3 miles away, so I took the lugnuts off, shoved the lugnut wrench through the windshield, broke the driver's door (they only open so far, who knew?) Left the keys in it and walked to my buddy's place...that poor tow truck driver tried to hook it up and the left front wheel came off...sent for the roll-off and they dragged it up while the other wheels fell off...one of my friends left his '80's Dodge Diplomat on the side of the Interstate when it died on him, just walked away...there was an S-10 Blazer in a ditch by my uncle's place for a few weeks until he had it picked up, we're guessing it was a drunk driver or a teenager or something...

 

Sounds like it croaked in Blythe then 120 degrees in the shade during the summer, lol. Was there a greyhound station out back of the Mc D's?-Weeks

 

I had a 84 monte carlo that I left in a parking lot with the title taped to the inside of the windshield. Cops came by 2 weeks later and asked me to remove the car. I brought it home and my son said he wanted to fix it up. about 2 weeks later someone stole it out of my driveway. A week later I found it across town. It had the bench seat replaced with buckets and a new stereo installed and the steel wheels had been replaced with Cragars. I parked behind it and called the cops. They showed up and knocked on couple nearby doors and no one knew anything so they had me take it home. My son got into some legal trouble so I decided to sell the car. I sold it on ebay to a kid from my town for $500. He looked nervous when he showed up. Handed me the cash and took the title, said he be back later that day. He showed up in a buddies car and he drove it away followed by his friend. I drove threw the neighborhood where I had found it before and it was parked in the same place!!!

 

Where I live on Queensland's Gold Coast we have 2 universities and a college that specializes in teaching English to non-English speaking students. We get about 10,000 students a year, and some of them buy cheap cars to run around in while they're here, then just leave thm on the side of the road when it's time to go home if they can't sell them. The council picks them up, or what's left of them sometimes, and sells them at public auction. Hardly anyone attends the auction apart from the scrappies, so you can pick most vehicles up for $25 more than scrap value. They hold an auction every 6 weeks or so, here's the list of 80 odd cars from last Wednesday...

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/attachment/impounded_vehicles.pdf

Lots of small cars obviously, but the Statesman and the 'Farilain' would probably be V8's, and maybe some of the Fairmonts as well. Aussie rodders use all sorts of bits on their cars, regardless of their origin, so there's a whole bunch of donor parts available from this source.

I think the only car I dumped in my time was a 1950's small window VW I blew the engine up in, I just didn't have the money to fix it. It ended up in the local landfill in about 1970, on top of a couple of 50's Ford Customlines as a matter of fact.

Cheers, Glen.

 

A few years ago I was at my friends paint shop one day hanging out. My friend asked me if I wanted a free truck. Apparently their friend was moving back to NY from TX and the 78 Ford truck they were driving overheated so they left it on the side of the highway. They told my friend he could have the truck, and the title was in the glovebox along with a $20 bill.

I went to see if it was true and it was, so I jumped started it an it ran fine. It never ran hot, but the floor shifter was out of whack and had nails where cotter pins should be So I assumed they left it there when they couldn't switch through the gears. I found reverse, and moved it to the access road off the side of the highway and had a flatbed wrecker haul it to my brothers land. I plucked the motor & trans, fixed the shifter and installed it on my 54 Ford. It had another bed flipped upside down and strapped to the bed, acting like a camper shell. It had a good working RCA TV in it, that I still use today. The truck still sits there on the property and we've been talking about yanking the 9" rear and leaving the truck on some county road somewhere. Anyone want a free truck, minus the engine/trans/rear?

 

When I lived in Texas I bought a lot of cars cheap for parts and then towed the left overs to an old gents house over on the other side of town where he either scrapped them out or sold parts off them. The only stipulation was that they had to have a title.
When I bought the 61 Impala 4 door that I took the engine and trans out of for my T bucket my buddy decided that the 61 was so much better than the 59 rust bucket that his wife was driving that he drove the 59 out one Saturday morning and we pulled the engine and trans and rolled it out of the way and stuffed them in the 61. About 8 hrs later his wife drove home in the 61 with a big grin on her face. The 59 got the one way trip across town.
One of my running buddies is always buying parts cars and trucks and then dragging the hulk (with title) down to a friends wrecking yard and leaving it so he can pick it up with the fork lift later. A few years ago we towed a so so mid 70's Chev pickup down there minus engine/trans and a few other pieces. A month or so late he saw it running down the road and when he asked the wrecking yard owner if he sold it the guy said that he had never seen it. Someone followed us down there and dragged it off and put it back together.
One of my friends used to dive for search and rescue. Someone spotted a car in a local gravel pit and called the sheriff and when he went out and dived and checked it he ended up finding something like 15 stolen cars in the bottom of the gravel pit. The story goes that the kid who lived across the road would steal them in the town 20 miles away and drive them home and then brick the gas pedel and run them off into the pond and steal another one the next time he needed a ride home.
When I was a kid there always seemed to be an abandoned car on the side of the road somewhere in a three mile stretch of my house. After they sat there for a day or two they often donated batteries, tools and other pieces to my cause. One even provided me with a new driveshaft for the car I was driving at the time. I was a skinny kid then, I couldn't slip under that car with a half inch wrench in my hand now for love nor money.

 

I bought a '69 ford pick'em-up truck just for the 390 and brake booster. Sold the grill, bumpers, windows and steering wheel and made all my money back. Pushed the rest on the street and let it get towed. Did the same with a montecarlo. My uncle just wanted the tires and exaust manifold. Put four donuts on it and pushed down the same street. In fact, I've probably abandoned more cars on that street than most people have owned.

 

I wish I could leave my Saturn Vue Hybrid somewhere and have it get "confiscated". I hate that thing, and don't know why I allowed it to be purchased. I've got more horsepower coming out of my a** after a Mexican dinner.

My personal cars were on an upswing....1st: 94 Ford Ranger 6cyl 2nd: 97 Jeep Cherokee in-line 6 3rd: 2k4 Dodge Ram Hemi 4th: 2k3 GMC Yukon 4x4.......then.....the Saturn happened. Of course that happened after I got married....I lost my b**ls when that transpired.

 

When I worked at the Fire Dept we used to get out almost every day when it was nice to "study our territory" this consisted usually of running side streets and alley's looking for old tin. Once we found an old Pontiac 4dr. that has a 389 auto in it. Talked to the guy that was living there and he said that we could have it if we would get it out of his yard. Called the local wrecker service and they towed it to the station. The next week we stripped off everything that was of possible value and rolled it across the street into a no parking zone. Then called the Police and told them that we needed a car pulled that had parked in the fire lane...

 

Back in the early 80's I pulled a 327 out of 66 Chevy Impala also pulled some interior parts and then the city came and picked it up.

I also bought a 62 Falcon for $400 bucks around christmas time from a Police impound lot that had been in storage from a clean up at Point Mugu and Port Huenme Ca. Navy bases. Lot owner needed an airplane ticket to see his ex-wife (what a waste)
I gave the body to my Brother who is making a gasser out of it, like the one I used to have. I pulled the little 289/C4 that runs extremlly healthy that's going into my 36 Fruck. I also pulled the 8 3/4 Mopar Posi rearend that has been shortened that's also in my Fruck.

 

iv never adandoned a car but there are always ditched cars down my street. they usually look like joyriders got to them, bent wheels, twisted suspension etc. got some cherry hubcaps of a 4 runner to replace my chipped ones on my truck.

 

Recently had beers with a guy who claimed to have "thrown away" an OT tin-can car that didn't have a title. Parted it out and literally cut the rest in pieces, and put some in the rollaway every week for month after month.

Having thrown away whole mangled unibody clips, etc in similar fashion. I've always wondered how often cars are literally thrown away.

 

Awhile ago me and a buddy cut up a really rusty ragtop bug so he could have the roof clip. The rest of the body and pan we hacked up and bootlegged into dumpsters around north Atlanta. That roof is still sitting in his backyard, ten years later.

About a year ago (when scrap cars were bringing like $14 a hundred) I hauled off a station wagon shell that had two other complete car bodies sawzall'ed up and crammed inside.

Got about $600 for it all, but dividing that by how many hours it took I really don't think it was worth the effort.

 

When I was an art student 'without the capital letter A', having gotten tired of walking around Memphis, where I was going to school, I scraped up some cash and went looking for something cheap to drive that would be easy on gas. I'd already trashed my fair share of Fords, Chevys and Oldsmobiles, and a Plymouth or two. And that was how I ran across the blue, tudor Morris Minor at a car lot in Tupelo, Mississippi, near where my old man called home and I found the rest of the money I needed. Parents, when you're young, are the best friends you can have if you need a little extra cash. Trust me. Being a parent, now, I know. But, what a car! The Morris Minor was a slug compared to the '55 Chevy I'd had, and had about as much sex appeal as the bass player for Frank Zappa's band, but ran like a sewing machine and would keep up with traffic, sort of. Floor shift and drum brakes and bucket seats. Yeah, I know, I had no idea what I had, but hindsight being what it is, I drove it like a bat our of hell. And, having a wandering mind, started taking road trips in the bugger. Little Rock, Nashville, and then during Christmas break a buddy of mine and I took the little blue meany on an outing to Chicago, figuring to see the sights. Both of us overindulged beer and harder booze and I drove that puppy around Old Town looking for a little leg, as it was called then, and saw the sights, and after visiting a few friends and the museum, and my Uncle who ran a trash collection service before he was bought out by some guys who told him to either sell it or they'd buy it from his heirs, true story, we beat it back to Memphis and to classes. Anyway, to get back to the story, during Spring Break we drove to New Orleans and repeated some of our modus operandi in the French Quarter, and honest to goodness my buddy went stark raving mad in the YMCA after ingesting some amphetimenes and stood stark naked on the window ledge tossing buning pages of the Gideon Bible out the window and proclaiming his emancipation from common sense. Our trip back to Memphis was pretty glum. Even the little blue car was feeling bad, and started smoking, and after I dropped by buddy off at his pad, I drove past Christian Brothers College and heard a banging sound like a bunch of gremlins inside the engine hammering to get out. As I pulled up to the red light at Union, they managed their getaway and the engine stopped. In a flah, I hopped out and lpopped the hood. There was a biggass hole in the side of the engine where the gremlins had escaped. No help for that. I grabbed my ditty bag and took a screw driver and ran around to the back of the car and pulled off the license plate. I was blur, managed to saunter off like I was a stranger to the whole scene before the red light changed. Moments later, after the light turned green, I could hear horns blowing. I didn't look back.

 

It was 1971, I was in the Air Force, stationed at March AFB, right outside of Riverside, CA, and my parents were in West Hollywood. One day, while I was driving to see them, the 1952 Jaguar XK-120 Roadster I had threw a rod in Rowland Heights, CA (I think I was on Highway 60 at the time, IIRC) and disgusted, I left the signed title on the driver's seat, weighted down with a bottle of Coors, and thumbed the rest of the way to Hollywood, never saw the car again....ooops.

 

I had a 71 O/T Vw bus that I needed lotsa parts from. The 69 that my Dad bought new was wanting help. $100 fer the donor and I was busy for a few weekends.
I had it stripped to parade rest and filled with all the detrious from the yard. I mean FILLED,leaves, doggie by-product,dirt,boards,junk, you know the drill. Early in the morning we decide to go over signals which the (ex) wife promptly forgets. I gotta go down a hill and make a right on a fairly busy street. All goes well till I start moving. I have only the parking brake and only one at that cause I needed the good drum.
It went surprisingly fast for no motor and no brakes. made the right ok and barely missed the other cars. Finally I gotta stop this thing cause I dont want to be walking to far. I try to rub the curb cause the brake just aint doin it. The wheel grabbed and the damn thing tipped over!! Now I'm wearin it too. Extra effort to get out and it was gone when I got home from work.

 

Back in my military days I blew the engines or trans out of 3-4 over the years and left them sitting with the keys. Stuck out my thumb and never looked back!

 

I left a ford ranger on the side of the road on fire.

 

That is CLASSIC.

 

ive never been able to leave one..always needed the dam car too bad to abandon it..no matter how much a POS it was.

But my cousin left one on the side of 94..and a year later he got tracked down for the police impound yard for fees..it wasnt good at all

 

I was guilty of it when I was younger.

While it seems that abandoning a vehicle takes care of the problems for you, if it doesn't get stolen it ends up costing the town or county you live in a sh!t load of cash. The towing equip and labor costs, the contract towing costs, the costs of the bull-pen/storage lot, staffing the lot, running the DMV paperwork, getting the city attorney to review the vehicles/timeline and sign off on the sale, running the salvage auction, etc.... it all adds up in a hurry.

Our local abandoned vehicle registration surcharge currently set at $5 and the salvage proceeds covers about 2/3 of the total costs (when scrap was up). So its just one of the many services your local gov provides that ends up being a money looser.

Now that you are bitching about why I even care, as an accountant I prepare some of the budget figures for our local county/municipality and I get to see just how big a money pit this service is.... every year.

s.

 

Talking to the local sanitary collector, who rents dumpsters, said he had someone literally park a car in one. $350 for a dumpster just to get rid of a car? hmm