Car was stolen, but we got the thief!!!

[grandamgtdriver]

First off...don't mean to rain on your parade Rob (Videoman) with your car thief story...but this one is crazy:

I had to share this story with you because it is unbelievable. I was out with a client last night for a beer after work. Parked my car right near the Pony Corral downtown in a metered spot on Kennedy half a block south of St. Mary at around 4:30pm. We got out at 7:30pm, and my client and I were walking to my car because I was giving him a ride home...my car was gone! We went into his work building across the street to stay warm and called my buddy to pick us up. While we were waiting, I called Dr. Hook to see if they towed my car...they didn't, and they have the city contract, so it wouldn't be anyone else. I called the non-emergency police line, and they forwarded me to another hotline, but it was busy and I couldn't get through.

45 mins later, my buddy shows up and gives my client a ride home near Dillon O'Connors, west Portage. On the way home we are keeping an eye out for my car...damn, there are a lot of newer Grand Ams out there! We pretty much give up on seeing it. We're about 5mins away from my home on Osborne going south near the transit building when my fuckin car drives by going the other way!!!! We're in a Ford F150 4x4, so my buddy fishtails into a 180, we jump up onto a snowbank right infront of the Legion, go through the snow bank back onto the road and gun it. At this point we are screaming and the adrenaline is flowing. I get on the phone with the non-emergency police line and tell them what's happening and keep her on the phone as we're following my car north on Osborne. She tells me not to brake any laws...yeah, like that's going to happen! As we're following my car, we're weaving in and out of traffic, the punk kept going through red lights and so we were doing the same to keep up and dodging cars along the way. This fucker didn't know how to drive my car...he kept nailing the gas and swerving everywhere. I'm suprised he didn't hit anything/anyone. He comes a foot away from swerving into the wall on the Salter bridge. We pull up to a red light near Burrows Ave on Salter, and we are a car length behind in the other lane, so I get out of the car with the intention to kill this punk (there's only one in the car), but the light turns green and he guns it! At this point I figure we're busted, but we caught up to him again! He turns right (east) on Mountain Ave, then right again on the first street (Aikens), and the right again onto College Ave and parks my car just before the back lane right before Salter. We're sitting in the truck about half a block away behind him.

The punk gets out of my car, fiddles through it a bit, and starts walking north down the back lane behind Salter with bags in his hand. I'm yelling at my buddy to pull up...I'm literally shaking at this point, the adrenaline is pumping, and I start walking really fast behind him with the intention to jump him and kill him, and start getting close to him when I realize he has a bat. My plan to jump/kill him wasn't going to happen . I don't know how I thought this up but right away I yell out to him and say "Hey buddy, you got a smoke?". He turns around and says yeah. I say "Unless you got something better than a smoke?". He's like "What you want...wanna buy some pot?. I say "sure, what you got?". He says "How much you lookin for". I say "I dunno, my buddy over there in the red truck wants it, I'll have to go ask him." So I start walking to the truck that is now near the entrance to the back lane and the idiot starts following me. As we approach the truck, my buddy starts pulling away! I yell out "No, no!!! hold up!" (he thought the punk was trying to kill me). I get him to stop and he rolls down his window and I ask him how much pot he wants. His face is clueless. At this point I look down the street at my car and see the cop car right beside it with the two cops walking towards us. I point to the punk and yell out "THAT'S THE GUY....THAT'S THE GUY THAT STOLE MY CAR!!!!". The punks bolts it and the cops chase after him. About 10 mins later, they walk back to us with the punk handcuffed. Apparently, he ran into a house and they surrounded it and eventually got him to come out.

The cops put him in their cruiser and tell me to wait 5 mins. They call me over eventually, and ask me to look through my car to see if there's anything that belongs to me before they impound it for investigation. I look through my car, and my steering column is toast, my cd's are gone, my shovel is gone, my gym clothes are gone, my sub box is gone, and who knows what else they did. I did manage to save my fleece though! (sarcasm) My trunk and back seat were full of bags of stuff...I'm assuming xmas presents that they stole from other cars at malls. I'm assuming the punk was on his way home from St. Vital mall after stealing stuff from cars when we spotted him on Osborne. So the cops tell me what's going to happen to my car and tell me to keep trying to call the hotline to file my report.

I give up trying to reach the hotline at this point because the line has been busy for over 3 hours. I convince my buddy to go to the King's Head for a beer. As we're walking into the King's Head, the cop calls me and asks if I got through to the hotline. I say no and he asks me to come downtown. Well, lucky me, the cop shop is a block from the King's Head where he's at, so I walk over, spend half an hour filing a report, and finally get a beer at 11pm.

Now the fun stuff starts with Autopac...sigh....

Exhausted,

Anders.

[Videoman]

Seems we both have a good sence of revenge and catching the bad guys. Autopac rates wont be going up this year, nobody's gonna get away with our wheels. Good job Anders! After hearing about the increase in car thefts, I got an immobilizer. but after hearing this , I think I'll wanna carry a gun!:D

PS: when you give your statement at autopac, read over the statement 10 timesover and try to make sure that all the loose ends are accounted for. BTW Tell me more about it tonight at pharoahs. :beer:

[Azrael]

Asking the guy for weed at the last moment there was a stroke of genius. Chances are good he got busted for possesion too if he was willing to sell it.

Hopefully the other stuff that was stolen will get returned to the right people.

Eventhough all the car-theif catching is cool I have to admit you guys are edging on a dangerous line. Most of these guys are armed with one thing or another and don't care about wrecking your car in a getaway.

[grandamgtdriver]

I agree with the danger part...and looking back I'm glad nothing bad happened. You just aren't thinking straight when this is happening. The adrenaline is pumping, your hands are shaking...quite the rush. I just wanted to kill the punk...turns out he was 31 years old. Hope he gets lots of time in jail...

[RussGAGT]

yeah, if my adrenaline was raging like that, i totally would not have thought to ask for a smoke, but its cool that you kept your cool enough to distract his punk ass...props

[Videoman]

Famous or infamous!

Glad to see both of you guys cracking down on crime. :D

[grandamgtdriver]

thanks! i was trying to scan that today at work but the send to email function wasn't working :(

[99blackSE]

wow lol I didn't think you would end up making the news anders. Niiiice!

[Videoman]

Originally posted by grandamgtdriver
thanks! i was trying to scan that today at work but the send to email function wasn't working :(

Np, Hopefully with these two takedowns theives will start leaving our cars alone. ( or fear the consequences ) Better buy Ryan a beer, for helping you with the chase.

[Jagey]

wow, that's the craziest story I have heard all year of something happening to someone I know. Congratulations Anders, just in time to win the Jag Crazy Story Award of 2005!

[Videoman]

A little piece of advice ,as I am having a bit of a waiting game autopac wise. You may have to do some footwork on finding out info on the offender. The reason I say this is that autopac has togo through the usual procedures as to access to information. The main waiting game is that the records department for the police is backlogged about 2 months. I went to 3 diffrent police departments and was able to findout alot of the neccesary info that autopac needed. They otherwise would have to wait the 2 plus months. Odds are that you will be paying your deductable right away if you go for the repairs. If you wait for the offender to be prosecuted then they may be able to recover the funds from the offender. Over time you may get a check back from autopac for your deductable. I know this kinda sounds weird but if you can provide added information for autopac you may be able to speed things up a bit. Personally, I think these obvious criminals have too many rights and are many times able to get minor slaps on the wrist. This is why I say, help those who want to go after them.

[grandamgtdriver]

My deductible was waived right away. For any attempted theft, or theft, you do not pay the deductible.

[Videoman]

My bad, I guess it's just me that's gotta play the legal waiting game. :(

[jamz]

Wow .. that is crazy! Made the paper and all! I had fun reading it and happy to hear when low lifes like that get caught.

[itsjustmewarren]

hey, I havent been on in awhile, thats one crazy story, I know your friend Ryan too, I worked with him at Pointe West!