- "Do you want this giant knife that they clearly used
to break into the car?" and the police were like
"Throw it away"
Everything just went into the trash can.
(upbeat music)
- Hi I'm Becky and my car horror story happened to me.
I just moved out of an exes house, we had just broken up.
I was just about to start a new job,
so all these big changes were happening.
I woke up to go to my first day at this job
and I went out into the street.
There was this very wide street with like palm trees
and bushy trees lining the road,
and then I was like, why is there a forest in the street?
And I started walking closer and closer to it
and I was huh, oh it's a fallen tree, but it's huge
and I was like that's really close to my car.
I realized it was very close to my car
and that it was upon my car.
And nobody else's car in the whole street, just mine.
And this tree was one of those, you would draw this tree
or you would paint this tree, this is worth your time,
it's huge, nice thick trunk.
Any other situation I'd have loved this tree,
I love a good tree.
But straight across smashing the roof
and the windshield down.
It was so dramatic, the first thought I had,
was just like, this is really embarrassing.
I happen to be that one person,
just plodding towards the scene.
Even all the neighbors were out
and they were all just like, "Oh my God.
"What a catastrophe" and then there's me just like,
"It's mine"
Everyone's trying to help, but I'm like
"what are you gonna do?"
I couldn't even have it evaluated by the insurance
because it was covered by a tree.
So I had to like call the city to come and bring people in
to like remove the tree and they're like,
sawing and all these huge trucks everywhere,
and there's me embarrassed and the neighbors
trying to help, but they're all like,
"Oh yeah the soil's loose around here"
They're all trying to amp me up to sue the city.
And they were like, "Yeah, yeah trees always fall down
"around here and they don't water them properly"
So I was just getting really mad, cause I believed them.
I tried to contact the city about it
and they just couldn't care.
They were like "How are we to be in control
"of the trees?"
and I was like "Because they're yours.
"You planted them."
"We just can't promise that."
"What if it fell on the children's hospital?
"You'd care then"
But they didn't care about my car.
So I had literally just bought this car.
I had spent months researching the car I wanted to buy
when I could afford one.
They evaluated it.
It wasn't salvageable, so that's sad.
I kind of felt like something okay would come out of it.
When I figured out how to get a replacement
through my insurance, I actually got more money
than the car was worth and I ended up getting
a little bit of a nicer car out of the whole thing.
And it meant that I had a clean break spiritually
because the car had nothing to do with my ex.
Then I got new apartment, new job,
which they allowed me to come back in,
because they understood my car was under a tree.
You know it was hard to fake that.
- Hi, I'm Erin and I'm gonna tell you
my worst car horror story.
I came down to go to work and I park in a gated garage
underneath my apartment building
at a tandem space with my roommate.
And so I walked downstairs to get in my car
and head onto work, and my roommates car
is the most forward parking space in our tandem spot,
but mine's missing.
Initially I was really freaked out.
I wasn't sure where it went.
I thought maybe she moved it to the street or something.
I went ahead and called her and I was like
"Hey did you see my car last night?"
And she was like "Yeah"
"You didn't move it or anything this morning, did you?"
And she's like, "No"
"Okay then I'm pretty sure it got stolen"
so I was like, did they break into my roommates car,
move her car, then break into my car, take my car,
and then move hers back?
Nothing made sense.
But we ended up figuring out that my spare key
was in her cup holder and then somehow got my car out
of it's spot and out the door.
First things first, I call the police.
The police are super doubtful.
They're like "That doesn't happen"
I'm just saying it doesn't happen, I'm confused.
File a report, whatever, everyone thinks
that my roommate stole it.
Next step I call insurance.
Insurance is also like, that's not how cars get stolen.
And I was like, "I understand, I'm also very confused"
Finally I go to my building manager
and I'm like "Hey this happened, can you pull footage?
"How they would steal my car in this position."
Everything like that.
Eventually my building manager calls me,
and he lets me know that one of the security guards
who patrols our area in our building,
saw a tow truck come into our garage
and he suggested I was repoed.
And I was just like "There's no way in hell.
"You need to still pull the footage.
"I need to see what actually happened"
He finally sends me the footage,
and it's two girls who somehow get into the garage
either they have a code to get in,
or they had a clicker, I'm not sure.
And they walk literally directly to me in my remits car.
And what we end up seeing is that,
there wasn't a car parked in the space next to us.
So they were able to turn and get my car out
through the spot next to it, and just drive out.
I go out about six or seven days without a car.
I'm just kind of waiting for the 30 days to pass
so I can get a brand new car.
I was like there's no way, that they're tracking this down.
This thing is so gone.
In the morning, I finally get a call from a police officer
six or seven days later.
"This is a police officer.
"I'm just wondering if you were able to find your car yet?"
And I was like, "No I haven't"
He's like, "Okay we found it.
"It was at a park, so just down the street"
and he was like, "We've been sitting on it,
"trying to see if anyone's gonna come back and get it"
I drive over and the cop is just sitting there,
and he hands me gloves and says,
"Go ahead and search the vehicle, to make sure,
"there's no drugs"
I was a little thrown off, I was like,
"Why don't you do this?
"But okay" so me and my boyfriend
are looking through the car, kind of pulling out everything
and what we find is a bunch of fast food bags.
Three pairs of fake eyelashes in the dashboard.
Used condoms in the cup holder.
A giant kitchen knife, hidden in the side.
There's like ponchos, they stole everything out of the
back of the car and they were like, eight phones
connected to the blue tooth.
We're pulling all this stuff out of the car
and showing the police officer.
I'm like, "Do you want this giant knife that clearly used,
"to break into the car?"
and the police are like "Throw it away"
"These used condoms?"
He's like, "Throw it away"
Finally, I'm like "There's weed on the back seats"
He's like "Brush it off"
Everything just went into the trash can.
They're just like "Case closed.
"You're all good, give this to insurance.
"They should cover whatever it is that's missing"
So I'm not sure exactly what happened,
but I think they just had a really great week in my car
and just partied in there and then gave it back.
It could of been some illegal behavior
but for a while it's like speculation
someone in the building was behind it,
or like the security team was behind it.
I've decided to just let it go.
It was for sure an inside job in some way.
If it was my neighbor who stole my car,
I'm watching you.
- My name's Kaylin and today I'm gonna tell you about
one of my worst car horror stories ever.
And I take this one normal, very specific route
that's very traffic heavy
and as I was driving down the road,
my car started smoking, and I was like what the (beeping)
is going on?
And so I call my dad, and I'm like "Dad the car is on fire.
"What do I do?"
and I see that like my temperature gauge or whatever
is all the way up the top.
I got out of the car and I was like,
should I open the hood?
So luckily my dad called me,
"Don't you dare fucking open that"
He said, "Just give it a second"
before I try to open anything up.
So then I tried to move my car even more to the side
and I was able to pull off to a side street.
I did not have any water on me,
'cause you're suppose to have water or coolant
in your trunk and I'm the basically middle point
of being a mile or two away from any gas station.
So I think I drove five minutes and then stopped again
'cause it started smoking and then another five minutes
and then almost got to the gas station, stopped again
and it started smoking and then drove another five minutes,
finally made it to the gas station
and put coolant in there and then it took
two hours from this point for it to cool down enough
for me to drive it again.
There's actually a dealership nearby.
It was about two miles away and it was a 15,
20 minute drive with the traffic.
So I was inching my way there, literally like a caterpillar.
It was like an hour long break inbetween
every time that I stopped.
So this whole process was at least five to six hours.
And basically the dealership was already closed
so I essentially just had to leave my car
in front of the dealership,
and hope that it didn't get towed there.
I called them and let them know,
that that was my car out front
and I needed it to be looked at because it was overheating.
I do remember they said, that I essentially melted
the piece that connects the engine to the coolant.
I basically did the same thing again, the next day
where I drove the car for five minutes,
took a break until I made it home but it was still
a three hour process, once again.
Got the car home and just like dropped it off there
because it was just dead to me.
I think I was car-less for about a week.
But my dad dropped off one of his cars
and I have one parking spot in my garage.
And I live in a very residential neighborhood in LA
so I never have issues with street parking.
There's no signs posted in my neighborhood.
Okay well I'll just move the dead one to the street
so I can use my parking spot.
That will be much more convenient for me.
But apparently there's a law that states
that you can't leave you car street parked
in the same spot for more than 72 hours.
I didn't check on the car for a full week.
I get a call from the Glendale Police department
and they informed me that my car had been towed
and impounded.
So I was stuck in Arizona for a week
and my car was essentially collecting dust and dollars
in the impound lot.
Yeah it's gonna be about a thousand dollars
to get your car out of the same pound lot
and I was like, "Are you (beeping) me?"
How much more money is this car gonna take away from me?
It's not even a nice car.
Like I don't even need it.
Can you guys just keep it?
Can you guys destroy it or something?
And they told me that if I did that,
then it was like basically plummeting my credit score,
so that wasn't an option.
So I ended up spending around, probably like a thousand
two hundred dollars just to get my dead car
out of an impound lot.
It was a great experience.
(upbeat music)