Social Question

emorris24's avatar

Can I press charges against someone for driving my car and totaling it without my permission?

Asked by emorris24 (101points) August 25th, 2019

I have a guy I thought was my friend who I was in jail with. After I got violated he helped me by asking his mom to get my car out of the inpound after I was wrongfully arrested. She paid for the inpound bill and put tires, brakes on it and changed the oil and transmission fluid. But I was informed this morning that they have been driving it knowing it didn’t have insurance, expecting me to pay for the insurance so they can run it over hells half acres, knowing I told them I do not want it to leave there garage and they totaled it without reporting the accident and I’m pretty sure he was intoxicated when he wreck it. I have message transcripts that confirm everything except the intoxication theory.

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26 Answers

SQUEEKY2's avatar

Yeah, you report it was stolen.
But without insurance I don’t think you have much of a chance at getting it replaced or restored.

zenvelo's avatar

Sorry, but them getting it out of the impound and getting it in running condition is tacit approval for them to drive it.. you gave them the okay, if you had insurance like you are supposed to, everything would be alright.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

You got violated?

emorris24's avatar

Not if there doing me a favor I didn’t give them permission I can prove I didn’t give them permission and I know ur supposed to have insurance but I’m in a facility they just payed to get it out of the impound as a favor pretty sure the tacit rule don’t apply in this situation. I barely have enough money to survive at the treatment facility let alone pay $150 a month for some random person to drive my car. Plus that’s not taken Into account the fact that they totaled it wrecklessly driving it while intoxicated. Shouldn’t run ur mouth and be ignorant when u have no clue what the hell the circumstances were

MrGrimm888's avatar

We live. We learn…

Zaku's avatar

What would you like to have happen.

Pressing charges could get them in legal trouble, if that’s what you want.

Filing a civil suit for damages might get you a judgment saying they’re supposed to compensate you for the damages. Then if your suit is successful, you need to figure out how to actually collect the award.

I don’t know what the rest of your relationship with them is like, but you might want to consider what you want most, and what course of action seems most likely to get what results. It might be more likely they will pay for your damages if they are concerned about legal action you haven’t yet taken, than it would be after you actually take that action. Just a thought.

MrGrimm888's avatar

You could lie. Tell them to pay x amount of dollars, or you will press charges. It worked for a friend of mine, in a slightly different situation.
His “friend” broke into his house and stole a bunch of stuff. He had enough evidence to charge him with larceny. But he told him he had enough to get him on grand larceny. The guys mother heard about it, and wrote him a check for his estimated loses, to avoid the more serious charge…

I’m not a fan of such strategies, ethically, but it worked…

Darth_Algar's avatar

If they took the car without your permission, whether it was in impound or not (and that must be the most lax impound lot on Earth), then it’s auto theft, plain and simple. File charges.

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emorris24's avatar

It’s a difficult situation I’m gonna talk to a lawyer

gondwanalon's avatar

Sounds like the fool with your car is a real loser. Sign the ownership papers over to the guy who has your car. File a receipt of the transaction to the DMV saying that the SOB paid you $50K for the car. He’ll have to pay around $5K in order to register the car.

Then try to get your shit together.

Darth_Algar's avatar

What’s complicated about it? He took your car without your consent. That’s theft.

emorris24's avatar

I’m not going to get into it but the basics is this guy said he was trying to help me. I have mental health issues which led me to be away from home for them to be using the car without permission. It doesn’t have any insurance because my payee wouldn’t let me get bare minimum coverage because of where I’m at. I’m in a place that helps you with ur living skills. Im going to be having a talk with my po to tell him I need to get the hell out of here. I’ve recently been diagnosed with a severe thyroid problem so it shouldn’t be a issue.

Darth_Algar's avatar

It doesn’t matter if he said he was trying to “help” you. If he took your car without permission then that is theft.

MrGrimm888's avatar

It sounds like there was a sort of “verbal agreement,” with the OP and the other parties involved with getting the car out of impound, and making minor repairs. The case may be difficult to pursue in a court battle. That’s assuming that the other party even shows up to court, or bothers to pay any money awarded to the OP. Which would be opening a new set of problems.

The OP, may have to just “charge it to the game” (learn from this costly mistake, with knowledge being the only realistic benefit.)

zenvelo's avatar

@MrGrimm888 That was my thinking about “tacit approval” but that pissed the OP off at me.

MrGrimm888's avatar

^Ah. Yeah. I guess I just articulated it differently… We may be correct though…

emorris24's avatar

@zenvelo, I wasn’t pissed at u there’s just a lot more factors that are relevant to the case then I am able to discuss. If I post it on here I’d need a couple hours to make sure I get it right but I don’t have the time or mental capacity to do so I wasn’t thinking when I posted this. My father is going to PSP tomorrow and see if there is anything we can do. Besides I found out today that they dumped it somewhere so my dad’s gonna try to report it stolen

MrGrimm888's avatar

^Good luck, with everything. Sorry about your run of bad luck.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@emorris24 ” Besides I found out today that they dumped it somewhere so my dad’s gonna try to report it stolen”

That’s something you need to do yourself. Unless the title is in your dad’s name he can’t report it stolen.

emorris24's avatar

He can on my behalf since I’m unable. I’m pretty sure they destroyed all my paperwork which binds me. I’m away from home right now and it’s gonna be awhile b4 I’ll be allowed to come home legally so by the time I get home it’ll be too late. I don’t think he’s going to report it stolen I think he’s just going to tell the PSP to be on the lookout for it and if any more crimes are committed involving the vehicle that it’s not who the car is registered to. Legally neither of us can mention the details in depth of the situation because of HIPPA law.

Darth_Algar's avatar

Well unless you report it as stolen then you’re still legally liable for anything that happens with it. And the bit about HIPPA laws doesn’t even make sense in this context.

emorris24's avatar

I’m not at home and because of the kind of place I reside at for protection of health information I can’t say anything about where I’m at but a police report will be filed by Monday. Unfortunately I very well be fucked in the whole situation because they dumped the car and eliminated any evidence that could link them to the car. I’m not going to be liable for anything due to where I am and the fact I’ve been here for almost 7 months.

jca2's avatar

HIPAA law concerns the provider’s limits on giving out your information, @emorris24. It puts no limits on what you can or can’t tell others about yourself.

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