My Stolen 2023 was Recovered.... now what?

Yes, I'm an idiot and the one night I leave my keys in the car is the night my neighborhood gets hit by a group of thieves. They stole my 2023 Tundra SR5 and unfortunately it showed up two days later.

They trashed the interior like you wouldn't believe. They tore out the dash cam and everything behind the rear view mirror. Pulled up the dashboard above the radio, I'm guessing to access the Toyota GPS device or something. They put a huge Dewalt wet saw in the back seat! Tearing up the seats and my middle console.

Insurance will cover everything and I'm just trying to max out what they'll cover. If anyone has experience with this and advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm looking for a ballpark figure for the dash, and GPS damages if anyone knows. The truck is paid for so I'm likely going to fix it mechanically and sell it with the cosmetic damage pocketing the difference to only offset my loss on selling a 9 month old truck.

 

Sorry for your dilemma. How much you asking for the AC condenser?

Edit: not joking

 

They left you an AC in the truck?! Was the AC on the truck so bad?
Sorry.... but yea, sorry that it happened, hope you get the most out of it and am able to move on to something better.

 

Your best bet is to go to the parts counter and get part numbers along with replacement costs. I'd try to milk it and talk to an upholstery shop and ask about labor of recovering all seats, headliner and interior components. Stealership prices will probably be king though to replace most interior components with labor costs.

 

I understand wanting to sell it with the cosmetic damage. I'm in law enforcement and what I tell all our victims of car theft is when the vehicle is recovered take it to a professional detailer. Tell the shop it was involved in a theft and you would like the interior gone over with a fine tooth comb. They will likely be able to safely locate any narcotic devices and remove them from your vehicle so that you, or the next owner, won't get poked by a wayward syringe or something. So I would factor a full interior detail in to the insurance cost as well, ya know, for safety purposes.

 

The stuff that was left in the vehicle, if not yours, is likely also stolen property. I can’t believe they returned it to you like that.

 

Sorry to hear this. I never have to take my key out of my pocket for this vehicle. Maybe fix it up for cheap and keep driving it. Why sell?

 

Usually your policy only covers things that are bolted down to your vehicle in an oem location...any loose property in the truck would fall under your homeowners policy. So probably not the best to claim a bunch of property loss (but double check your policy).

Best thing to do is take it to the best shop you can and have them really go over it with a fine tooth comb. Have them (if they will) wash the outside and inside to look for scratches and scuffs on the exterior and interior.

 

Don't forget you now have a truck with a branded title. The title will now show it's a "recovered stolen vehicle." Even if the recovered stolen vehicle were in showroom condition, the branded title will significantly lower the value of the vehicle. Your insurance company should compensate you for that.

If that happened to me, I'd be pushing the insurance company to declare it a total loss.

I hope the law enforcement agency that did the vehicle recovery processed all the items inside, which were not yours, for evidence. Latent prints, touch DNA, etc.

 

Sorry for your luck! Most ons co want receipts so get what you can and hope you can get it back to normal. Hate people like that and serve no purpose to be on this earth!

 

Great way to promote insurance fraud, chief.

OP never do this. Filing a phony claim can get you investigated, and your policy rescinded if they find out you lied, then you get nothing at all, not even for the legit damage.

 

Thanks for all the responses. The pics are what it looked like when I picked it up from impound. I had to hound the police to let me know where to take all the stolen goods. The AC unit was still on it's pallet!

For entertainment value, here's a list of items found:

1. stolen credit cards
2. 2 smartphones
3. one acid washed check with a new payee via a dymo label maker!
4. Stolen mail from 3 different zip codes
5. a meth pipe
6. two prostitute outfits
7. DeWalt saw
8. AC unit
9. a bicycle
10. random tools (nothing worth keeping)

This all happened in less than 48 hours before it was found. Unreal. I did turn over everything to the police and didn't want any of the bad juju associated with it.

I knew it would get dinged on Carfax but I didn't know I'll now have a branded title. Hopefully that's not the case in Texas but that would be huge and give me a significant diminished value claim.

 

Did you make a police report? If so, turn all that stuff into them.

Next, like someone mentioned, professional detailed. If it smells like smoke, replace the cabin former and buy an ozone generator on Amazon and run it in the truck after the detail.


Carfax reports when a car gets stolen unfortunately. Personally, I would let the insurance company buy the truck for loss of value

 

I would not trust that truck now as far as I could throw it! Just saying,, crack pipe and what ever else is in there, I second the fact that they gave it to you like that?? WOW! Best of luck to ya? How did they get it in the first place? Never mind I read it! Man o man you can not do that!!!!

I’d be asking to total it!

 

a bicycle lol

 

So now somebody is pulling a brand new AC unit and a gently used tile saw from the dumpster.

 

This is quite the curious list that creates more questions. It's like the beginning of The Hangover, you just want to know how all this came to be. I can't believe someone would try to rewrite a check with a label maker.

 

Not necessary a label maker, but mine check did get forged and cashed by someone else (over $7K)....

 

Methhead thieves have no sense of reality.

 

The probably sniffed that gold paint. They painted the backseat! WOW! sniff paint,, paint,,, sniff paint,,,,, paint!!!! .

hope you get it worked out and you come out in good shape!

 

Make sure they replace everything so that it’s like new. Make sure it has a full mechanical inspection. Also a top tier biohazard detail. Really argue for all of that. Meth heads drive the shit out of stolens so ask for the oil to be changed and inspected as well

 

^^^^^ everything that was just stated!

 

A friend of mine had his vehicle stolen in Texas a few years back. The insurance company insisted on him getting it 100% inspected inside, outside, mechanically, and even replaced his tires, since they couldn't tell if they had been burned out or not. The diminished value claim should definitely go through your insurance if you have comprehensive. Not sure why others say it wouldn't.

Sorry to hear this, and I know it's got to suck.

 

Would this be a bad time to post my test drive impressions of a 2023 Tundra SR5 that I borrowed a few nights ago?

 

It really would. But feel free to tell us more about the Dewalt wetsaw. Is it too heavy to carry on a bicycle?

 

Not my experience in the business. The only time the Title is branded "Recovered Stolen Vehicle," is when the insurance company pays out a total loss on the vehicle, and the vehicle is recovered at a time thereafter. The insurance company has to title the vehicle in their name since they own title to the vehicle after paying out the loss for it. When the vehicle is recovered prior to payout, the title remains in the status it was in prior to the theft.

Carfax and Experian auto history are a totally different thing. Also, someone mentioned diminished value. Most insurance companies in the fine print have a disclaimer which states you cannot file a claim for this with your insurer. They will allow you to file with someone else's insured who caused your damage.

Again from my experience in this arena.

Randy

 

So no shit there I was… just a few nights ago… at least I think it was a few nights ago. Sometimes it’s all just a blur, you know, when you’re hitting the vitamin M extra hard like last week, or this week, or shit man I don’t remember when I last slept.

Anyway I’m riding around in the dark on this bike that I um, was given, looking for things people abandoned in their garages, work sites, and driveways and stuff. I needed to make some quick cash to buy more vitamin M. So anyway I spot this sweet DeWalt saw and table stand thing, and thought it would be worth some money but it’s freakin’ heavy and won’t balance right on the bike. No problem I just light up some nose torque in the old pipe and grab that sucker up, and pedal on down the street dragging in.

Then I got to feeling itchy and thought a bug or something was under my skin. So I stopped in a driveway to look in the rear view mirror of this sweet ass Tundra. I couldn’t find that damn bug but popped some sores and looked in to see if there was any loose change because I need more vitamin M. Imagine my surprise when the door was unlocked! So I hopped in and started looking around. The keys were inside! I guess the owner wanted me to borrow it. Sweet!

So I tossed my bike and new saw in the bed and back seat respectively, fired up another hit of vitamin M, and peeled on out of there! Man that truck was quick! It does burnouts really good too.

After awhile I got really hot and decided I needed air conditioning, but didn’t know if this truck had it. So I stopped off and yeeted a new air conditioner into the bed to hook up later. Who leaves a perfectly good AC unit laying around?

Then I decided to get some trim from some ladies I know. We had so much fun in there playing does this part of the truck fit inside those silly bitches forgot their clothes!

After that I took a bunch of vitamin M and pretty much blacked out for a couple of days. Not sure what happened to that sweet ride and my stuff.

Oh well, vitamin M giveth, and taketh away.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go borrow some catalytic converters.

 

You're hijacking my thready but damn you're funny so it's alright. ;-)