The “Runaway Volvo” Story
I’m too lazy to type it up again, so I’ll just post excerpts from e-mails. Here’s what I wrote up Saturday night:
Amy and I were getting ready to go to the hockey game tonight. I went to her house around 3:30 this afternoon and parked my car in her driveway. We came in, got tickets, and got ready. When we left the house, I said “where’s my car?”. Amy and her mom said, “Are you kidding?” I just said “No” and pointed to the place in the driveway where I had parked my car no more than 30 minutes earlier. It was just gone. Stolen out of Amy’s driveway, in the middle of the day, with people outside playing with their kids and minding their own business. Since everyone was minding their own business, nobody noticed.
While Amy and her mom went to ask neighbors and look around the neighborhood, I called the police and reported my stolen car. Within 5 minutes, a Red Bank police officer pulled up and started the routine. He was being polite and professional about everything, but it seemed because it was more part of his job description than anything. Then, Amy’s mom mentioned that we were just about to head to Nashville for the hockey game. At that point, the officer suddenly took greater interest and asked if we were hockey fans. It turns out, I’ve actually watched and played a couple of games of inline hockey with the officer. He also knows a couple of my good friends who have played in the Chattanooga Inline Hockey League in the past. At that point, he seemed to take it a little more personally. We did the formalities of info on the car and my information and asked me to come down to the police station to sign the affidavit and give them any more information that I could. I told them about the contents of the car and any identifying marks (like the G33K on the back) and wrapped up there. At the station, the office informed me that since it was such a new car and the key is a unique computer-chip, it was probably headed straight for a chop-shop and not to get my hopes up about getting it back.
I came back to Amy’s and called my insurance rep and also filed a claim with the insurance company. I wrapped everything up, called family, etc etc etc.
I was fairly torn up about the whole thing until Amy and her mom asked what kind of new car I would be getting. That put a whole new positive spin on the whole ordeal and I think I can cope with that.
And then Sunday:
Well, I have my car and my phone back. It looks like the emergency brake didn’t hold it on the hill in Amy’s driveway and it took a ride about a hundred yards down the hill and into the woods behind Amy’s house. We’ve had a pretty dramatic day getting it pulled back out of the woods.
And, finally, some supplemental stuff to fill in the gaps:
I’m sure everyone is wondering how we found the darn thing. We woke up at Amy’s house on Sunday and started getting ready to go to the Susan Komen Race for the Cure. While getting dressed, Amy looked out her bedroom window and saw something red gleaming from the woods. She immediately turned around and said “I think I found your car.” We rushed out the front door and down to the bottom of her driveway. It didn’t look like anything had gone into the woods. All the weeds were still grown up like nothing happened. After going a few feet back into the woods, there was a clear path approximately the same width as a 2005 Volvo S40. The path went straight down the woods (down a slope) for about 100 feet or so and then took a slight turn to the right. From there, it kept going about another 100 feet where it sat, stopped by the brush from a fallen tree. It was this fallen tree that made the Volvo visible from outside the woods in the first place. When the tree fell, it left an opening in the canopy for the overhead noon sunlight to hit the roof of the car. It was that sunlight that caught Amy’s eye and announced the location of the missing vehicle. The tree also had quite a bit of brush from the branches that cushioned the Volvo’s descent further down the hill and deeper into the woods. It stopped there in relatively good condition. Once we had found it, we had to figure out how to get it out.
I first called the Red Bank Police Department to inform them that we had found the missing vehicle. An officer came by and laughed in amusement and left after a few minutes to close the case. I called AAA and informed the answering agent of a “unique towing situation”. She sent a rollback tow truck to Amy’s house. The driver arrived and surveyed the situation. It turns out that A) he didn’t have enough line in his winch to get it out, and B) AAA didn’t cover recovering a vehicle that far from a roadway. Doh! However, they did recommend another towing service and called them for me. That at least saved me another 10-minute call of explaining the situation to someone else and repeating Amy’s address another 3 times (”no, ‘D’ as in ‘Dog’!”). Meanwhile, some of Amy’s neighbors came out and began to clear away the brush. It turns out that the car had stopped about 20 feet from a driveway at the foot of the hill. However, the brush from the fallen tree was thick and stood in the way. After cutting several limbs, everyone lost hope. It could take days to clear the path with a chainsaw and hedge clippers. Instead, we awaited the arrival of the second towing company for any insight.
When someone from the second towing company arrived, he decided that it was probably best to bring the car back the way it came. It would probably be faster and easier that way. While we waited for the winch truck to get there, we proceeded to clear as much of the path as we could to minimize further damages to the car. The truck arrived, and after about an hour of work, they were able to pull the Volvo free of the woods and park it safely at the top of Amy’s driveway where the slope wasn’t nearly as steep. I paid the $150 bill and left everything there for the day. I called my insurance claim rep and left a voicemail informing them that the car had been found and reclaimed. That was it for Sunday’s excitement.
When Monday rolled around, I received a call from my insurance claim rep and gave her the whole story starting from the brake work done by Volvo on Wednesday to leaving the car at the top of Amy’s driveway with blocks in front of all four tires. She asked all her questions, made all her notes, and informed me that a damage assessor would be by later that day or on Tuesday to give an estimate of the damages. Most of the work day went by and I never heard from anyone. When I left late in the afternoon to go pick up the police report, I decided to stop by Amy’s house to see if they had stopped by and assessed the damage. Apparently, I had pulled up just after the rep had made her first pass around the car. Good timing! She had me do another walk-around with her to confirm whether or not some scratches were there beforehand. I honestly informed her that the only prior scratches were those around the wheels from scraping curbs and a small set on the hood from rocks coming from the road. After about 30-45 minutes, she had entered everything into the computer and we did one last inspection of the car. The estimated damages totaled up to just under $3,400. I thanked her and we went on our way. I got back to work, faxed in the Volvo brake-work bill, the tow bill, and the police report to my insurance claim rep and called it a day.
This morning (Tuesday), I woke up and called Prebul Auto Group to get the ball rolling on getting my car in the shop. I explained the situation and they had a rollback come and pick up the Volvo from Amy’s driveway shortly after lunch. That’s basically where it stands at the moment. I’m awaiting another call from my insurance claim rep sometime tomorrow. I will also be getting a rental car in the morning. From there, we’ll see what happens.
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