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My S60 was stolen last night. I recovered it this morning thanks to the app

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Glad you got your car back - and unscathed, even, despite the reekage.

After walking over to within sight of the car, my first call would be to Tesla to ask that the logs be retained specifically to determine where the car was and when. My second call would be to the police to get a report filed and to give them the opportunity to acquire prints or other evidence. I might reverse the order of those calls depending upon the neighborhood.

Now, nothing much may result, but at the point and time of recovery, you have no idea whether the car was used in the commission of multiple murders or other mayhem overnight or just a simple joyride - or both. Good call to have the security video handy.

See, in LA and in other fine bastions of humanity, it's happened that someone helps themselves to a given car, and depending upon the state of inter-gang relations at the time, uses it to shoot two or three other upstanding members of the community. Friends of those now-expired upstanding members now know only to look for (in this case), you guessed it, your Tesla. And things go rapidly downhill from there.

If people took car theft more seriously (125 years ago, I believe you could still get hanged for horse theft - and go figure, there wasn't much horse theft), there'd be less associated crime.

Harrumph.

/goml
 
Where I used to live, probably would have got the car, driven it back home, opened up an air freshener and called it a day. Those police would have, in confusion, just as likely arrested me for stealing my own car as found the actual thief. This happened to a friend of mine.

Lucky to live somewhere with a professional police force now. Glad you got your car back.
 
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LOML left her key in our 2014 S60 last night when running an errand. We keep the car in our driveway, and when I woke up this morning and walked outside to bring the trash out, I saw the car was gone. I pulled up the app, saw that it was parked ~1/2 mile away with ~70 miles less charge on the battery than it should have had. Rather than call the cops and wait (maybe not a good decision...), I got on my bike and rode over to where the car was. Sure enough it was parked on the side of the street with nary a scratch on it. I threw the bike in the trunk, hopped in, and drove back home. The car wreaks of pot and the last 30 miles averaged ~460 w-h/mi...

The thief/joy rider still has one key so we called Tesla and their excellent service department is reprogramming the car/keys right now. I'm also filling a police report just to have everything on record. But I'm very happy to have the car back with no apparent damage, and I'll never buy another car that doesn't have a phone app with a locator...
You mean, the car reeks of pot.
Check it out. There may be some in there that you can resell to recoup your expenses.:D
 
You are indeed lucky. You should have called the police and have the police get the car for you.
I a similar situation (not involving an automobile), the guy was angry and threatened to shoot me for "tracking" him.
He saw it as an invassion of privacy!!!
 
Yes lucky. Helps that the Tesla is quiet. You were able to drive off without anyone knowing (as they were able to drive off without you knowing). If it was an ICE, they may have heard you start up and as you drive off, came out guns a blazing...

In retrospect maybe call police, tell police where car is (they'll be impressed and respond more quickly since you made their life easier), and put car in Valet mode. It'll will make your prosecution of the perps easier too. It is grand theft auto.

I know it's more satisfying to get your car back, etc... Except that these guys stole it from your house. Hopefully they're just mellow pot-heads who went on a joy-ride, and nothing more than that.

YouTube "stolen Model S" when you have a chance. Similar scenario years ago in San Diego (I think), except the owner went right to the police, they tracked the Tesla with the App and had to use spike strips (I think) to apprehend the perps. The perps were loading the Tesla with something in an apartment complex... more stolen goods?
 
You mean, the car reeks of pot.
Check it out. There may be some in there that you can resell to recoup your expenses.:D

I just LOVE that we have so many "English teachers" on the internet forums to correct our grammar and spelling errors. It's just oh so helpful as there's just no way i would ever have understood that the OP made a typo and completely not understood the meaning of his post! Thank you SO MUCH!
 
LOML left her key in our 2014 S60 last night when running an errand. We keep the car in our driveway, and when I woke up this morning and walked outside to bring the trash out, I saw the car was gone. I pulled up the app, saw that it was parked ~1/2 mile away with ~70 miles less charge on the battery than it should have had. Rather than call the cops and wait (maybe not a good decision...), I got on my bike and rode over to where the car was. Sure enough it was parked on the side of the street with nary a scratch on it. I threw the bike in the trunk, hopped in, and drove back home. The car wreaks of pot and the last 30 miles averaged ~460 w-h/mi...

The thief/joy rider still has one key so we called Tesla and their excellent service department is reprogramming the car/keys right now. I'm also filling a police report just to have everything on record. But I'm very happy to have the car back with no apparent damage, and I'll never buy another car that doesn't have a phone app with a locator...
the problem now is that the thief knows where they stole the Model S which means they know where you live. They may come back for "revenge"
 
Glad you got your car back and no damage was done.

I don't leave the smart keys in any of my vehicles even when parked in out locked garage.

Doesn't leaving the key in the car drain the key battery because it's constantly taking to the car?
 
I don't leave the smart keys in any of my vehicles even when parked in out locked garage.
Doesn't leaving the key in the car drain the key battery because it's constantly taking to the car?

The car is in a standby mode all the time awaiting a key fob to show up for auto present to work. There are other systems that are always on even when the car is in a sleep state leading to a steady "vampire" drain. I'm not sure how much more "awake" having the key present makes the car. The 12v battery will just boost up from the main pack if the voyage gets low.
 
Eh, I would have done the same things as the OP - not told the police and gone to get the car myself. I probably would have called a friend to help in case there was an incident, but whatever. IMHO, people are way too quick to involve the police in what is usually a really minor teenage joyride. Yeah, evidence is destroyed, but so what? It isn't as if they are arch criminals or anything. Obviously if the car had been parked outside of a crack den, then I may have called for help!
Agreed. Obviously some teenagers had an awesome time and at least had the respect not to vandalize the car. We've all done stupid things in our younger years, and most of us have been lucky enough to get away with it into our serene and productive adulthood.
 
Eh, I would have done the same things as the OP - not told the police and gone to get the car myself. I probably would have called a friend to help in case there was an incident, but whatever. IMHO, people are way too quick to involve the police in what is usually a really minor teenage joyride. Yeah, evidence is destroyed, but so what? It isn't as if they are arch criminals or anything. Obviously if the car had been parked outside of a crack den, then I may have called for help!

Agreed. Obviously some teenagers had an awesome time and at least had the respect not to vandalize the car. We've all done stupid things in our younger years, and most of us have been lucky enough to get away with it into our serene and productive adulthood.

Too many assumptions in both these posts.

It's a funny thing about car theft at least hereabouts in Los Angeles County. Rarely are the cars recovered in one unadulterated piece.

The only way to have less car theft is to make it more painful for the thieves than for the owners.

Every car theft can raise your insurance rates, folks. Might be time to take it just a wee bit more seriously.

Maybe if I lived in Mayberry, RFD, I'd feel differently. Except when I did live in Mayberry, RFD, we didn't have a car theft problem. It was generally understood that if you were caught on someone else's property, you'd best know how to run faster than a 12-gauge.

So having seen both ends of this, I can only conclude that the overly-permissive/excuse-making contingent must live in suburbia. Where everybody gets a trophy and there aren't any letter grades so as not to negatively impact Junior's self-esteem.

Or they might just not like relying upon local law enforcement to do their job. Of course, if local law enforcement doesn't get called in the first place, then how can they?

If you see something, say something. Make the call.