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Stolen Car Recovered With 11,000 More Miles -- and Lyft Stickers (sfgate.com)
The San Francisco Bay Area has more car thefts than any region in America, according to SFGate.com. A National Insurance Crime Bureau report found that between 2012 and 2014, there were an average of 30,000 car thefts a year just in the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Hayward. But one theft took a strange turn. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Cierra and Josh Barton purchased a new Honda HR-V at the beginning of summer. It was stolen while parked in front of their Livermore apartment complex at the end of August. Four months later, Hayward police called the Bartons to say they had recovered the vehicle... What they found, to their surprise, was a car in relatively good shape -- a few dents, a rattling hood. But in the back and front windows were Lyft stickers, Cierra Barton said.
The odometer had spiked from 2,000 miles to more than 13,000. And in the back seat, Cierra said she found a pillow, a jacket and a stuffed animal. "It wasn't burned out, it wasn't gutted, but it appeared to be have been used as a Lyft," she said. That, Cierra added, was even worse than she imagined. "Not only did someone steal our car, they made money off it!"
Lyft says that "Given the information provided, we are unable to match this vehicle to any Lyft accounts in the area," adding they "stand ready to assist law enforcement in any investigation."
The odometer had spiked from 2,000 miles to more than 13,000. And in the back seat, Cierra said she found a pillow, a jacket and a stuffed animal. "It wasn't burned out, it wasn't gutted, but it appeared to be have been used as a Lyft," she said. That, Cierra added, was even worse than she imagined. "Not only did someone steal our car, they made money off it!"
Lyft says that "Given the information provided, we are unable to match this vehicle to any Lyft accounts in the area," adding they "stand ready to assist law enforcement in any investigation."
Lyft driving is profitable only if you steal cars.
Just like Bitcoin mining is profitable only if you steal electricity.
Captcha: coinage
It was a self driving car, and it got bored...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"Not only did someone steal our car, they made money off it!"
Is it not usually understood that is why they are stealing your car? For some sort of profit. Oh sure the occasional joy ride here and there but most of the time chopped into little pieces or sold of in another country. Using it for a taxi is a new twist.
No offense, but that theory makes even less sense that âoeStar Wars: The Last Jedi.â
Plot twist: the Lyft stickers are plants by Uber as part of a campaign to discredit Lyft.
Nahh- they probably registered a different possibly identical car and then used this one to do the driving. The cops should probably look at other vehicles registered that are the same or similar as this model/color in the area. However it may not resolve the issue if the driver was smart and drove it in a different area and then ditched in another. This could seriously increase the number of people you have to investigate if there are lots of people with this mode/color car driving for Lyft. Of course you maybe able to narrow it down based on who has recently stopped driving for Lyft or whom has switched vehicles whom had this model/color car.
Stick shift.
Under these circumstances, would the guy have to steal the same model, make and color? Then we can narrow down the suspects list.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
And in the back seat, Cierra said she found a pillow, a jacket and a stuffed animal. "It wasn't burned out, it wasn't gutted, but it appeared to be have been used as a Lyft," she said.
Definitely the behavior and accoutrements of an irresponsible joyrider.
That, Cierra added, was even worse than she imagined. "Not only did someone steal our car, they made money off it!"
Those monsters! Probably some affluenza-infected trust fund kid who slept in the back of the car with their only item of comfort from their horrible parents ... ok, I'm losing the narrative here.
Seriously, someone who has to drive for Lyft to make money and sleep in the back of their car with a stuffed animal for comfort, and it's the *making money* part that's even worse than she imagined? I'm ready to put in for this thief's gofundme to buy their own HR-V (which runs around ~20k, apparently).
10k miles on a new car, and not a single oil change. What a way to ruin an engine during the critical break-in period (pun not intended) yeah, the car is forever fucked
If it had synthetic oil, then the car is probably ok. Some synthetic oil can take you 15k miles before needing a change.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I am not the least bit surprised that the liberal cesspit of SF has the highest car theft.
There are several reasons why the SF Bay Area is number 1:
1. Lots of nice cars.
2. Close enough to Mexico. In Tijuana there are no checks in the southbound direction. You can just drive across.
3. Strong police unions, and thus no way to motivate or replace the apathetic and inept police. By the time they type up the report, the car is in Mexico.
4. No political pressure to fix the problem. Local politics tend to fixate on other issues, such as whether the city's health care plan should cover sex change operations for transgender public employees,
Close enough to Mexico.
You really need to take a good look at a map. Eight hours of driving south will only get you to LA, several hours north of the border. If you want to steal cars to sell in Mexico, do it in Beverly Hills, or Palm Springs.
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"Not only did someone steal our car, they made money off it!"
What happens with stolen goods normally, for $200, Alex?
10k miles on a new car, and not a single oil change. What a way to ruin an engine during the critical break-in period (pun not intended) yeah, the car is forever fucked
Actually, many car companies, one of them Honda, have a specially formulated "break-in" oil put in at the factory. Buyers are told to make sure to drive on this oil for its entire life (until they get down to like 3-5% "useful life" per their maintenance minder iirc). Honda's oil is a synthetic blend.
My 2004 Accord lists 10,000 miles as the normal oil change interval for maintenance per the owner's manual, even after break-in.
The idea cars need their oil changed every 3000 miles has not been valid in quite awhile, but continues to be pushed by quick-lube businesses.
The insurance company probably already paid the claim after four months. In that case they'd typically allow the original owner to buy it back (unlikely since they probably bought some other car by now) and, failing that, the insurance company would now own the car with a salvage title. It'll likely go to auction and might end up at a low end used car lot or parted out. Not too different from the fate of your average stolen car after all.
Changing the oil every 5 minutes seems to be a purely American thing. It'd only happen at an annual service in the UK for most cars.