Well, figured I'd get a different perspective on the issue at hand, just for curiosity's sake.

I just got back from Washington with a new car to replace the blown up Tiburon (valvetrain took a dump, pistons damaged...). I fall back into the groove of things, (school, work, AZ sun, etc. etc...)

One day I leave the keys in the ignition to the new car I just got. It was parked in my garage, dumb mistake, they were in the off position. When I get to the car the next morning the battery is dead (the accessories in the cigarette lighters burnt the battery overnight, a Valentine One and a Cell Phone Charger...)

So I start to consider calling my flight instructor and telling him I can't make it to school today. But I decide to borrow my roomates cars. He has always allowed me to borrow it for small trips (ever since the tiburon has been undriveable). Except thsi time he is out of town. So I find the key, not accompanied by any others, in his room and take his car to flight line. Get back home and do my thing.

Two days later the car is gone (from the community parking area around my house, not from inside the garage). So is my bike (bicycle, yea it was $10.00 from Goodwill got me around town while the tiburon's engine went crazy...)

I start to think, who the f*** would steal his car? I live in a small town, you don't steal a car and get away with it unless you drive to another city. They COULDN'T have driven to another city because the fuel line was clogged in his car. The gas tank was literally a gas can sitting in the passenger seat with a line running to the filter/engine. The farthest they could have gotten would be 40-50 miles (It was a 2 gallon tank, full).

I drive aroudn town all day with a swapped battery in MY car looking for my roomate's car. I call him and leave him messages to tell him it's gone. I figure why not try the towing company but by the time I could even call them he had called me back and informed me he had reported it stolen and the police had already picked it up off the side of the road not 5 miles from my house. It was totalled, broken windows and such. But the ignition was intact, no hot wiring, no screwdrivers, nothing.

So the police did an investigation and found the car totalled, no ignition damage and I am the only one with a key. I am their main suspect and am supposed to be getting a call from them two days ago but never have. My roomate believe I stole it and crashed it and left it on the side of the road because that's what the police told him. I keep telling him, yea I used the car once but I didn't crash it. He tried accusing me of being drunk and driving it while crashing (because I said I was hungover the morning/afternoon I noticed it was gone). He thinks I'm not telling him so I don't get a DUI. Lemme tell you, being a pilot in training I don't even dare spray breath freshener in my mouth and drive, in fear of getting a neglegent driving or DUI and losing ANY CHANCE of becoming a pilot....

I think I f***ed up and pulled the same mistake I did in the blazer (leaving the keys in the igniton in his car whiel it was parked). The doors don't lock at all so it could have been easily stolen if the keys were left in the car. I think this is the case because I have searched my house and flipped it upside down looking for that damn key with no luck. He used to leave it in the car all the time when he was here, and I thought we lived in a pretty nice neighborhood (retirement community), so I don't even lock my house most of the time..

So yea, maybe I am responsible for leaving the key in the car at the wrong place and at the wrong time, but I am not guilty of what the police are trying to say and make my roomate believe (that I STOLE the car, crashed it, and am denying it, which = FELONY!!!).

What do you guys think. Am I being resonable? Is my roomate?
I just dodged a false misdemeanor claim *Read the SEARS Debacle Thread in Gripes* and now a possible FELONY charge? Jeez....

 

Man,you are just not having luck with the authorities.

Your being reasonable and your roommate isnt. The police dont know what happened..they are only guessing..and your roommate is stupid to believe their so called "guess"

You know you didnt do anything wrong..but you have to get proof somehow. I mean show that you went to flight class and couldnt possibly drink for that. If your asked to give your story..say what you wrote in here.

Itd be bs if they charged you.

 

dang, well just tell your roommate the truth and offer to replace his car if the issurance won't. Thats the best you can do. Dang, wasn't this guy a friend? (you owned the porsche together right?)

 

I'd slap you around the ears if you borrowed my car then left the key in the ignition - just beckonning any would be thief to take it for a joy ride... I would tell you that you are stupid & forgetful but I wouldn't accuse you of being a low-life thief.

Offer to pay his insurance excess... that's if it was even insured.

 

Holy sh!t. My roommates just left me with a 1200 dollar bill from throwing away all the cable equipment with my name on the account. I have 1200 bux in collections now, but nothing like this. Poor dude. Skateboard out to my place and I'll guzzle some beer with ya! Good luck man.

 

Pat... how much was the car worth? Tell your friend that you'd tell him the truth even if you totalled it. When does he come back into town? How well do you know him?

Chris.... beat some ass. if they destroyed the equipment, beat some azz and get the money back for it

 

um, tell him you think you left the key in the ignition like a dumbass. if he knows you well, he will believe it. especially since you were using that car because you made the same mistake to make yours inoperable.

you owe him whatever damage is done to the car though.

 

you'd have to have good evidence that it wasn't you or else they're gonig to fvck you over. that sucks though mang.

 

^^ Eh, innocent until proven guilty. They need to prove he did it, not the other way around.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I'd slap you around the ears if you borrowed my car then left the key in the ignition - just beckonning any would be thief to take it for a joy ride... I would tell you that you are stupid & forgetful but I wouldn't accuse you of being a low-life thief.

Offer to pay his insurance excess... that's if it was even insured.</div>

I'd slap me aroudn too. But you have to understand. It was an accident. The owner, my roomate, of the vehicle even left the key on the seat every night and sometimes didn't drive it for weeks with the key on the seat, doors unlocked and parked outside our house. No one touched it. Someone could have just as easily done what happened now, ...then. And it would be HIS fault. I just have bad timing =(

He does not have insurance on the car, his name was not even on the title, it was an open title.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Holy sh!t. My roommates just left me with a 1200 dollar bill from throwing away all the cable equipment with my name on the account. I have 1200 bux in collections now, but nothing like this. Poor dude. Skateboard out to my place and I'll guzzle some beer with ya! Good luck man.</div>

I'll hold you to this minus the skateboarding 600 miles part...



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Pat... how much was the car worth? Tell your friend that you'd tell him the truth even if you totalled it. When does he come back into town? How well do you know him?</div>
I think he bought the car for $1,700. But if you saw it on the side of the road you'd think it was worth $200 or even less... or probably think it was just abandoned...

I don't know when he gets back, probably just before school starts in August. I know him sorta well. We met in Arizona through a mutual interest in cars. He used to live in Washington like me and we are in the same degree program. We both were homeless at the same time (literally, LOL) and decdided to get a place together. I did all the leg work...



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>um, tell him you think you left the key in the ignition like a dumbass. if he knows you well, he will believe it. especially since you were using that car because you made the same mistake to make yours inoperable.

you owe him whatever damage is done to the car though.</div>
If I had money, I'd love to buy him some honda civic or corolla or something. something that would never break and needs repairs or modifications and wouldn't cause either of us to come home sweaty, bloody, and covered in black grease. The kid showers in that orange gritty stuff and dish soap....
not joking....

I'm willing to help him find another car. I don't think he's up for fixing the car in it's current state as he said it was totalled. I haven't seen any pictures or anything I just know it's totalled, the windows were broken, and the ignition was intact. shrug.gif