Random car outside my house, what can I do?

[RandomCar]

This is a bit of a weird on. I live very rurally, everyone knows eachother and everyone’s business. Last week a car was parked outside my house. Not a usual thing but it’s street parking so not illegal. Except it’s badly parked, we get a lot of tractors etc driving past and they’re struggling to get past. I’ve been shouted at a couple of times by drivers thinking it’s mine. I’ve spoken to neighbours and it’s not their car and they didn’t see it arrive. The problem is, we live in the middle of nowhere. You sometimes get walkers but there’s no public transport, and even taxis are run by a local who isn’t online, word of mouth only.
so now I’m wondering if the car has been stolen and dumped here? It’s a very nice, new bmw. Is there a way of checking if it’s been stolen? I don’t want to call the police because it’s wasting their time, but the mystery of it is bugging me :)
any suggestions of what I can do? It straight infront of my house, hasn’t been moved in over a week and no one has been in it. I wfh and it’s straight outside my front room so I’d have noticed.

The only way to determine if it’s been stolen is to report it to the police. Do not touch the vehicle or attempt to open the doors or the boot……you might smudge any potential finger prints or evidence as it might have been used for criminal purposes.

We had a similar thing happen, again badly parked blocking a layby and just when our neighbours had months of works needed so their tradesmen had an awful time as a result. The council and police weren't interested until even when it had been there 5 months as it was insured and taxed. It turned out to belong to an angry man who lived 2 miles away when someone put it on Facebook and he simply said he had every right to park there ! It was frustrating as legally he was ok but caused daily inconvenience to our neighbours especially .

I contacted police and council when a car was dumped near me and parked badly, had 4 tyres slashed and exhaust falling off, leaking petrol so thought stolen/joy ride/ fire risk. Council put a sticker on it to say aware but said they couldn’t do anything to remove it for 2 weeks incase the owner came back. Police ran the plates but as hadn’t been reported stolen weren’t interested beyond that, so worth reporting it so they can do that and incase someone is in trouble who’s left it there?

def report it to the police as suspicious.

Around here expensive cars get stolen, then left somewhere for a week to see if they have a tracker and someone claims it, if not, the thieves come back and move it on.

It being a brand new car left there, and no-one else locally knowing who's it is, would make me suspect its been nicked and left.

My in-laws ignored a parked car outside their house all over the Christmas and New Year periods, before finally reporting it. It had been stolen.
If they had reported it sooner the owner might have enjoyed their Christmas after all.

Ooh I love a mystery thread. Please keep us update OP! 😁

We had similar, car parked opposite our house. None of the neighbours knew anything about it. It didn’t move for over two weeks. I called the police non emergency number and they were very dismissive. 30 mins later two police cars arrived and the car was towed away. Never found out what the issue was presumably stolen and maybe used in crime?

phone 101

Probably a stolen car phone the police station.

I find it quite odd that someone would wait a week before reporting a car that's been abandoned right outside their house and that is actually causing an obstruction too.

I'm all for myob to a point but in this case I'd have giving it 2 days max before ringing 101 or the council to report a highways obstruction.

Well maybe find out later there was a body slumped in the driver's seat but no-one thought to look..

I reported some fly tipped carpet to the council and it was gone within the week so maybe if your council have a place to report abandoned vehicles it might be worth doing.

It's perfectly reasonable to call the police for this.

101 is there especially for non-emergency calls, i.e. important but not urgent; and a shiny BMW obstructing tractors is exactly that. Go ahead and call them.

wow this exploded while I was sorting the kids! Boring update, I called 101 who said it’s not registered as stolen or missing but they’d try and contact the owner

for those suggesting local Facebook page- I did. I got a lot of jokes, a few people discussing how annoying it is, but no answers.

You should absolutely call the police non emergency line and explain the situation. Someone could need help.

The op's just posted right before yours that she has indeed rang 101.

Any developments OP?
Is it taxed and insured?

I would ring the police ,tell them the reg snd explain the mystery It could be a missing person ? Let them run it through the system just incase

You did the right thing calling 101. They these calls a lot, it may be a walker in trouble or something of that nature. They will contact the registered keeper and ask them to move it.

Of course report to 101!

Last time there was an abandoned car by us (also rural) it belonged to Hare coursers who'd been caught and arrested about a mile away from their car - that was an old banger though - can't imagine them driving round in a nice BMW

Torch it, make sure you have a mask on and plastic bags over shoes, leave no evidence. It should get towed not long after👹

Report it.

I’m not rural but live in a village. A random nice car, Range Rover, was parked outside my house for a week. Finally a breakdown truck came along to pick it up, so this could be a possibility.

I hope the owner hasn’t been walking and got into difficulties, I assumed it was a stolen car.