to be furious that I have to pay £150 to recover my stolen car

[therighttoshoes]

My car was stolen earlier this week and found the next day, I had lost a set of keys which I thought was hiding somewhere in the house, turns out I must have dropped them on my drive or left them in the door as my car was reported blocking someones drive and locked.

The car was found less than a mile from my house, rather than call me and give me the opportunity to recover the car myself (I would have got a lift there and been there in minutes) They got a recovery company 6 miles away to come and take the car to their lock up and I now have to pay them £150 before they release the car to me.

AIBU to be more mad at this than anything else?? obviously I have had to get my house lock changed and will need to get my car locks changed too, which in total will cost over £500... I accept this, but to have to pay the police to get MY own car back is just completely taking the piss!!

I would not be at all surprised if the police received some kind of referral fee for each car the towing company recovers. I'm sure there were stories in the press a year or two ago about forces who were encouraged to increase their budgets by being creative in this way.

It's incredible how many people gain from a crime, all at the expense of the victim. I've been burgled 3 times - the burglar won by getting free stuff, the local retailers won because I had to replace my stuff, the insurance company is still winning because my premium is an eye-watering £1000 a year. I've paid for my stolen items several times over through the premium increases. I can't change insurance companies because I'm "too high a risk", so I can't shop around. I don't even live in the cursed house any more, but apparently it's me that's the risk, not the address. And the government have done ok out of the VAT for the replaced items and the big chunk of insurance premium tax on my ever increasing policies. It's only the victim that loses out. If I was burgled again, I honestly wouldn't report it. It's cheaper just to replace the items and move on

If the car is not driveable, it costs £30 for a local pick up from our recovery company and even it was a hundred miles away it probably wouldn't be as much as the release fee. The police should give the victim a few hours to remove it, it is a scam.

In general I don't think you're unreasonable to expect them to have called you first if they could unless you gave other instructions (like asking for it to be recovered). But there may have been any number of issues that meant that wasn't so practical at the time. So assuming that whoever attended did their job properly (which doesn't involve jumping through hoops to cut your personal expenses), I don't think tax payers in general should be paying to cover the clear up of crime against you. We don't cover the expenses to individuals of burglaries or criminal damage, why should we cover the expenses involved in car theft?

However, when I was in the police back in the 90s tow firms were not actually able to enforce the fees unless someone had agreed to recovery in advance. Requests for fees were always made to seem official and most people paid. But if you went down and demanded your car back they couldn't refuse to give it to you. They had no right to keep your property and no contract with you to make you pay them. Not sure if things have changed now, but it may be worth checking if you haven't already paid.

When the police got the call about a car blocking a drive, had your car already been reported stolen? ie did they know it was a stolen car rather than someone parking grossly inconsiderately?

It's odd that the car thief locked the car, isn't it? Do you sleepwalk? ;-) Or, rather, do you have teenaged children?

Anyway, it all sounds like a nightmare but you have to take it on the chin: Who else would you have pay the £150? The taxpayer? In the end, you dropped your keys, someone picked them up and stole your car. Be glad that you have the car back undamaged and your house is unburgled and try not to lose your keys again.

EmmelineGoulden That's very interesting information, thank you for that.

I do think the police can be very intimidating. I don't want to go into details, but a couple of years ago I was on the receiving end of a lot of pressure from them to drop a claim I had against someone involved in a minor assault against me. They made it very uncomfortable.

I guess I'm concerned about how they'd react in reality if you tried to challenge them. Because you can't exactly call the police can you

'We don't cover the expenses to individuals of burglaries or criminal damage, why should we cover the expenses involved in car theft?'

Really? I thought the police were paid for in general by the taxpayer.

Our car was stolen a few years back. It was missing for 5 weeks and recovered over 150 miles away. Not only did we have to go and retrieve it ourselves, but we also had to pay over £1k for its livery while the police had it to take fingerprints and evidence from. The insurance wouldn't pay up for it so it was up to us.

As per fucking usual, it's the VICTIMS of crime who pay in the end.

The exact same thing happened to me, they insisted that I paid £160 or something before they released my car, that had been stolen and found by them. Naturally they didn't tell me, just towed away.

I contacted my ward councillor who was very angry on my behalf and rang the chef constable. Within the hour he (the chief constable) rang me, groveling and apologetic. He told that the police have no right to charge a person to have their car released from the pound and that it was outrageous that front line staff were doing this.

Within the next few days the money was returned to me, and the same guy rang a fortnight later to make sure all was well and apologise again.

He told me that it wasn't legal, I believe him.