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antwanp
Lovably Pompous
Premium Member
join:2002-05-14
Cedar Hill, TX

antwanp

Premium Member

Abandoned Car...

I have a problem and have run out of ideas...

Sometime (about 8 or 9 months ago) someone left a late model Ford Taurus parked on my street halfway between my neighbors's and our property line. This car is obviously abandoned, as it hasn't moved in that time period. I've asked all the neighbors around me and none of them drive (or would ever buy one) the Taurus. The car itself doesn't look like it's in bad shape (body wise).

I've called my HOA and they refuse to do anything because it's not a "junk" car and because of the age and model of it, conforms with community standards as to what can be parked on the street. I've called Cedar Hill Village Police (non-emergency of course) and they came and checked it out. It was never reported stolen and it's technically parked legally, so they told me that there wasn't anything that they could do about it.

I'm tired of looking at and driving by this damn Taurus every morning for almost a year! What else can I do? I don't want to keep hassling the police or HOA if there's nothing they can do b/c I'm not that type of person, but it's still annoying.

(Cedar Hill is in Dallas County, Texas if that helps out at all...)

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
-Antwan L.

dcurrey
Premium Member
join:2004-06-29
Mason, OH

1 recommendation

dcurrey

Premium Member

Strange the police can't do anything. Here a car can sit parked on street for no more than 3 days. If you call them they will come out and chalk the tires to see if its moved. I assume the would remove the car at owners expense.

Maybe they can act once the tags are expired.

LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI

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The police would have been able to see who it is registered to, assuming it has valid plates. They didn't even offer to try and call the person, after you explained it had been there for 9 months?

LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA

1 recommendation

LazMan to antwanp

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to antwanp
Flatten the tires, then report it as abandoned?

Seriously, though - most municpalities have parking laws, that limit the amount of time a vehicle can be parked before it has to be moved... Check with your local bylaw officer, would be my suggestion...

Frankg0
join:2005-03-09
Loudoun, VA

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I would escalate with the police. Same situation in front of my parents house a few years back. The cops tagged it and waited 2 weeks and then towed and impounded it.

Msradell
Premium Member
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY

1 recommendation

Msradell to antwanp

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to antwanp
Just torch it! That will get some attention.

Ken
MVM
join:2003-06-16
Markle, IN

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The best thing you can do is wait until nobody is looking and then push the car so it's blocking half the road. Then the police will tow it.

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

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to antwanp
I'm surprised your state/city doesn't have any laws on abandoned vehicles. Here in Louisiana, a vehicle that has been left on the side of the roadway will get a bright yellow sticker. Two weeks later if that same vehicle with sticker is still there it gets towed off.
exocet_cm

1 recommendation

exocet_cm to antwanp

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to antwanp
I did ya one better and found the law for ya:
»www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/
quote:
Sec. 545.305. REMOVAL OF UNLAWFULLY STOPPED VEHICLE. (a) A peace officer listed under Article 2.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, or a license and weight inspector of the department may remove or require the operator or a person in charge of a vehicle to move a vehicle from a highway if the vehicle:

(1) is unattended on a bridge, viaduct, or causeway or in a tube or tunnel and the vehicle is obstructing traffic;

(2) is unlawfully parked and blocking the entrance to a private driveway;

(3) has been reported as stolen;

(4) is identified as having been stolen in a warrant issued on the filing of a complaint;

(5) is unattended and the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the vehicle has been abandoned for longer than 48 hours;

(6) is disabled so that normal operation is impossible or impractical and the owner or person in charge of the vehicle is:

(A) incapacitated and unable to provide for the vehicle's removal or custody; or

(B) not in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle;

(7) is disabled so that normal operation is impossible or impractical and the owner or person in charge of the vehicle does not designate a particular towing or storage company;

(8) is operated by a person an officer arrests for an alleged offense and the officer is required by law to take the person into custody; or

(9) is, in the opinion of the officer, a hazard, interferes with a normal function of a governmental agency, or because of a catastrophe, emergency, or unusual circumstance is imperiled.

(b) An officer acting under Subsection (a) may require that the vehicle be taken to:

(1) the nearest garage or other place of safety;

(2) a garage designated or maintained by the governmental agency that employs the officer; or

(3) a position off the paved or main traveled part of the highway.

(c) A law enforcement agency other than the department that removes an abandoned vehicle in an unincorporated area shall notify the sheriff.

(d) The owner of a vehicle that is removed or stored under this section is liable for all reasonable towing and storage fees incurred.

(e) In this section:

(1) "Towing company" means an individual, corporation, partnership, or other association engaged in the business of towing vehicles on a highway for compensation or with the expectation of compensation for the towing or storage of the vehicles and includes the owner, operator, employee, or agent of a towing company.

(2) "Storage company" means an individual, corporation, partnership, or other association engaged in the business of storing or repairing vehicles for compensation or with the expectation of compensation for the storage or repair of vehicles and includes the owner, operator, employee, or agent of a storage company.
Not sure if it would apply to the street that you are referencing...
Bobcat79
Premium Member
join:2001-02-04

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Call your mayor or other elected official.

Do you know if the registration is still valid?

We had an abandoned car with a dead christmas tree shoved in the front seat (really). The neighborhood association took about 3 months to have it towed.
sailor
Premium Member
join:2003-10-21
Long Island

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said by antwanp:

I've called Cedar Hill Village Police (non-emergency of course) and they came and checked it out. It was never reported stolen and it's technically parked legally, so they told me that there wasn't anything that they could do about it.

When the cops came to check it out did they open and look in the trunk?
Hellrazor
Bah Humbug
join:2002-02-02
Abyss, PA

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Tie a white or yellow bag on the mirror and report it as broken down
Bobcat79
Premium Member
join:2001-02-04

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Call one of those 'donate your car' places. Do they check if you're the registered owner before they haul it away?

aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Lynnwood, WA

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Here, such vehicles get towed within a few days if reported to the police.

You could advertise it in craigslist...

jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

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If one of the tires were flat, the HOA would consider it disabled and would have it towed.
Babaganooosh
join:2008-03-18
Belmar, NJ

4 recommendations

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Call the dept of homeland security and report is as a suspicious vehicle. Say some Arab guy left it there.

Jtmo
Premium Member
join:2001-05-20
Novato, CA

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If it on an HOA road, and not violating rules, there is nothing the cops can do on a private street.

Go to your monthly HOA meeting, sometimes the management company is not as responsive as the HOA board who are your neighbors.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

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Call the police back and have a copy of the statute that exocet_cm See Profile found for you taped to the windows.

I also wouldn't hesitate to remove the license plates from it. I wouldn't keep the plates and hopefully a window is cracked that would let me drop the plates in...

If it doesn't get towed then, you've got the lazy and incompetent police.

wilbilt
Pronto Resurrected
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join:2004-01-11
Oroville, CA

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Someone parked a Ford Granada between my parent's house and the neighbors' place many years ago. At the time, it was a nearly-new car.

When the neighbors were preparing to move, the subject came up and the neighbors had assumed the car belonged to my parents and they assumed the opposite. The car had been sitting there for 4 or 5 years at that point. The police eventually determined (after another year or so) that it had been stolen and towed it away.

I think your problem car would generate more attention if it were torched or had missing parts, broken windows, etc...

Not that I would ever advocate civil disobedience.

rawgerz
The hell was that?
Premium Member
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA

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Call a few scrap yards or look in the phone book for towing services, I think. One guy I talked to offered $100 for a car for scrap, he even said that he was surprised so many abandon them not knowing they could get some money out of a car for scrap instead of just dumping.
18172841 (banned)
join:2001-10-06
Lagrangeville, NY

18172841 (banned)

Member

said by rawgerz:

Call a few scrap yards or look in the phone book for towing services, I think. One guy I talked to offered $100 for a car for scrap, he even said that he was surprised so many abandon them not knowing they could get some money out of a car for scrap instead of just dumping.
No, they will not take it with out a title, if they do, they are majorly screwed... and odds are will try to pin it on you if the owner comes around looking and they find out XXX crushed it. At least as it goes in NY... but I am pretty sure it is not THAT simple... no paperwork needed to take ownership of a car...

Some darn "kids" could always break a window at night or something... I'm sure you could get it towed then, if not drop some roadkill in it...

pcdebb
birdbrain
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join:2000-12-03
Brandon, FL

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i'm surprised the popo didn't investigate. what if the owner of the car is dead in the trunk? certainly they can't report the car stolen

rawgerz
The hell was that?
Premium Member
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA

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There is some kind of procedure they and/or the police go through to get around a title. I think it involves towing, holding it for 30 days while written notification is sent to the title holder, and if they do not claim it, they forfeit their rights to ownership.

Either way the scrap guy makes money and it's towed off.

Toadman
Hypnotoad
join:2001-11-28
Mystery

1 recommendation

Toadman

Member

Remove the plates and then call the cops, it has to be considered abandoned then. I wouldn't flatten the tires, since that is considered vandalism.

techjoe
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Lombard, IL

1 recommendation

techjoe to antwanp

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to antwanp
report a bad smell and flies around the trunk...maybe they'll dig into it a bit more then.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
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join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

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I would echo the comments to somehow escalate it with the cops. Around here, a car like that will get a sticker slapped on the window after a week or so, and a week after that, it'll be towed.

MEDIAN2k3
Your Ad Here
Premium Member
join:2002-12-04
Howard Beach, NY

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If you want to go this route it is completely up to you.

Here in NY we have FOIL, Freedom Of Information Law/Act

This allows any individual the right to check vins, plates, driving records and stuff.

If your state is the same then take a trip down to the DMV with said Plate and VIN number.

Find the owners info, seek out said owner, ask for it to be removed.

If that doesnt work, call a tow truck, tow it on to your property then file a LIEN against said vehicle and bam you own it in 3 months time.
peterboro (banned)
Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON

peterboro (banned)

Member

Same here in Ontario you get a sellers package from the plate and it gives the RO name. Or if some gas was to spill out of a 5 gallon can under the car and you called the MOE anon they would have a kinipshit and all hell would break lose as you peek out the curtains.
PX Eliezer704
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join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

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Remains of father, grandfather lost when car towed
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2010
MADISON, Wis.

Shawn Leslie parked his car behind a Wausau diner with two very special items inside: the remains of his father and grandfather.

When he went to retrieve his 1994 Mercury Cougar, it and the remains were gone. The car had been towed and crushed and everything inside, including the remains, had been thrown away.

Leslie, 39, said Friday that he feels violated and is considering legal action.

"My father is passed on and he's been violated and my family's been violated," he said. "Whether it was an accident or not about the ashes, it was still done. It was a sacrilege against my ancestors, my family."

Leslie said he had permission from the owner of the parking lot to leave his 1994 Mercury Cougar in the alley while he was out of town driving a truck for a living. He kept the ashes in there, he said, because he felt they were better off there than in his apartment or his truck.

He declined to say how long he had the ashes. He said he had one-fifth of his grandfather's ashes and all of his father's. Leslie's father died in April 2008.

"I just put it in the car for safekeeping," Leslie said. "It was locked, in a parking lot. A safe haven."

The property's manager Ray Burris said the owner didn't give Leslie permission to park his car there.

"He thought it was his own private parking lot," Burris said. "He shouldn't have had it sitting there on private property for so long."

Burris called the Wausau police March 25, after the car had been sitting there for between six and nine months, he said.

Police told him they would try to locate the car's owner and to call again if the car wasn't gone by the end of the month.

Instead of calling police back so the car could be properly ticketed for towing, Burris called the towing company on his own, Wausau's Deputy Police Chief Bryan Hilts said. Leslie's vehicle was destroyed one day after it was towed, according to the police report.

The towing company should not have removed the vehicle because it had not been ticketed as abandoned by a law enforcement agency, Hilts said. The towing company may be issued a citation for that, Hilts said, but it's mostly a civil dispute between Leslie, Burris and the towing company.

A person who answered the phone at Hilltop Auto Wrecking, which towed the car, declined to comment Friday.

State law requires the registered owner must be notified by certified mail before a vehicle is sold or destroyed and have at least 20 days to claim the vehicle, said Tom Howells of the Wisconsin Towing Association.

Leslie reported the car missing May 14. Five days later, police told him it had been crushed and the remains, which were in a box in the car, had been thrown away.
bkjohnson
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join:2002-05-22
Birmingham, AL

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My HOA probably would want me to buy new tires for it and paint it.