A Tale of Two Car Thefts (Final Chapter)

I left off the story at the point where I was, yet again, staring at an empty parking stall. After having my prized Jeep Cherokee stolen, trashed & then crashed, and enduring over 2 months of (faulty) repair work…I had gotten it back for 3 whole days before it was stolen again.

We knew the drill this time with the police and insurance etc. and that all went smoothly. We could not imagine who stole it, because the original car thief (D.H.) had gotten a 3 month sentence and should have still been behind bars.

But no, D.H. was out, having served the minimum required 2/3′s of his sentence. They had let him out of jail and our car disappeared within a couple of days of his release. Seemed mighty suspicious to me, but the police said they followed up with him and he claimed innocence. But I wasn’t buying it – it was too coincidental.

Within a few days we got the expected phone call from the police – they had found our stolen car way out in the countryside…in a ditch, rolled onto its roof.

This time, the insurance company had to agree it was a total write off and pay me out. When they tried to undervalue the car in calculating the cheque, I was able to oh-so-smugly remind them that they had previously emphasized my Jeep had been thoroughly repaired to “like new” condition after the first theft/crash, and they had insisted the car had not suffered any significant depreciation. I made them eat those words when they now tried to tell me the car actually wasn’t worth much since it had been stolen and damaged previously! Jerks. If there’s anything I hate, it’s being treated like I am stupid.

Fingerprint evidence inside the vehicle led the police to arrest a young man whom I will call S.T. (for “second thief”). S.T.’s story was that he and friends had met up with D.H. at a party one night and D.H. was bragging about “his” Jeep Cherokee that he’d ripped off. He took some of the kids from the party out for a joy ride that night, and S.T. noted that D.H. started the car simply by jamming scissors in the ignition (apparently this is true of all older Jeeps – you can start them with a screwdriver or anything that can be jammed into the steering column and turn the ignition).

S.T. later slipped away from the party and stole my stolen Jeep away from D.H.! He went joy riding with friends and they lost control, flipped my Jeep into the ditch and ran off. I can only imagine the look on D.H.’s face when he went outside to where he left my Jeep…and it was gone! I wonder if he had the smarts to even appreciate the irony that someone had stolen his stolen car.

So S.T. got caught and was taking the total rap, which didn’t seem right to me. The police and Crown Prosecutor’s office didn’t seem interested in nailing D.H. as well, even though they acknowledged he had stolen the car twice, and that S.T. had taken it from D.H.’s possession and was willing to testify to that fact.

I started going to court in an effort to get justice. What a game that is! S.T. had a legal aid lawyer and their strategy is to get the case delayed and delayed and delayed, which increases the chances of the file getting tossed around the prosecutor’s office and people just losing track of the details of the case. Each time I showed up at court (only to see the case put off) I noticed S.T. had the same legal aid lawyer, but the prosecutor was different every time and, in each case, had just been given the file minutes before court and didn’t know the case at all. The prosecutors were unaware and uninterested that there was an opportunity to nail a serious, habitual car thief (i.e., D.H. – we found out he’d stolen dozens of cars in his career) as part of this case.

S.T. was willing to take his lumps, but he was also willing to help me get D.H. brought to justice. His legal aid lawyer let S.T. talk to me one time outside of the courtroom and he apologized to me and asked how he could help. I said “Just tell the court the truth, S.T., just tell the truth.” He said he would and I believed him. He didn’t seem to be a bad kid – at least not hard core like D.H.

Another court date came up and I was leaving nothing to chance. I got to the courthouse early and camped out waiting for a prosecutor to show up. My plan was to “button hole” the prosecutor and quickly lay out the situation regarding D.H. and the fact this was an opportunity to have S.T. testify against him and get D.H. arrested and tried for the second theft.

Five minutes before court was to start, a harried-looking male lawyer rushed in and I grabbed him. Sure enough, he’d been given the file minutes before and basically knew nothing about the case. I explained who I was, what my interest was, and what I thought could and should happen in this matter. His eyes lit up. He asked if I’d be willing to testify if he could get the court’s permission to put me on the stand. Of course I said yes!

He disappeared for a few minutes and came back and said I would be called to testify related to something called “similar fact evidence.” This meant the factual evidence from the first car theft could be used via my testimony to implicate and bring D.H. into the second theft case with S.T.

It was the best feeling getting on the stand and running circles around that legal aid lawyer. I am nothing if not articulate, and I am clear and concise (basically a dream witness, frankly!). I could tell the judge sincerely appreciated my testimony and, better yet, the two court bailiffs (who must see and hear it all) were openly smiling at me and surreptitiously giving me thumbs-up signals while I was on the stand!

It worked, D.H. got arrested and convicted for the second theft of my car and got sent away for a longer stint. We bought a different car – didn’t want to continue to tempt him with a Jeep – parked in a new spot, AND bought a steering wheel immobilizer.

Our good pal Dr. B., who was instrumental in the recovery of our stolen Jeep the first time around, incorporated this story into his university sociology (criminality/deviance) lectures that he’s been teaching in the 15 years since it happened. It’s actually become somewhat famous, mostly because of the way Dr. B. tells it – he’s the type of professor who keeps his students spellbound.

The full extent of the story’s fame and Dr. B.’s lectures came clear recently when one of his students approached him midway through a term, and asked “When will you be telling the car theft story, Dr. B? I signed up for this course with you because my friends said it was great and I shouldn’t miss it.” Dr. B. said the lad looked positively crestfallen when he had to tell him it was not part of the curriculum or lectures for this particular course – this student had signed up for the wrong course offering. I can only hope that the kid liked the class with Dr. B. so much that he would have signed up to take the course that does include the stolen Jeep saga.

Having our unpleasant experience used to educate and entertain university sociology students has been the best possible legacy. Heck, we’re almost at the point of being able to laugh about it ourselves…but not quite.

Todo bien. (It’s all good.)

other blog entries from »