How to report abandoned car in Los Angeles.

After writing about Officer Gina Chovan above, it reminds me of when I saw Chief Bratton speak a couple of months ago. I must say he was impressive and attractive, and his intensity was….sexy. But does he realize what goes on down below? We are the people. The other day I was upset to see a stolen, stripped car on our extremely nice street, a black Acura sitting on its painful brake pads, no wheels. Scattered all around were shiny bolts or whatever holds the tires on. (I was mad at myself, too, because I think I heard a loud noise around 5 AM, but I thought it was just the paper boy braking too hard.)

Poor Acura

How to report a stolen stripped car in Los Angeles

I called the local Los Feliz police station. Busy. 2 times. Called 1 800 ASK LAPD. Nice guy answered right away, but he wouldn’t report without the license plate, and he said if it wasn’t stolen, it was up to Department of Transportation, and they insisted on a 72 hour wait. I asked him why the police don’t take fingerprints from stolen vehicles. Mine was stolen a few years ago, and it was devastating and shocking that the police took such a comme ci, comme ca, attitude about such an important part of everyone’s life. I was hoping things had changed since then. Nope, too much paperwork, and he couldn’t even be bothered to report the car with no wheels, just told me I could call DOT. (My favorite story of what Amy did when her pink Rambler was stolen here. Now there’s a good example for the police to follow!)

Can you see the shiny bolts next to the brake pads?

Called the Dept. of Transportation and they said they’d get to it by Monday (5 days.) I felt so bad for the person/family who had no car, nor any idea where it was, or even if it was in Mexico. So I called LAPD again, dispatch, w/ the license plate this time. You have to hear the recording in English, then for the hearing impaired, which is so shrill you have to hold the phone away, then in Spanish. But this time it wasn’t just once, it was over and over and over, every 30 seconds, with a dial tone in between each recording. It’s so insulting for callers on hold, as if we are all morons with very short term memory. (Memento is an amazing film in which time runs backwards!) Eventually, the dispatch person picked up and said I still needed to wait 72 hours, to give someone a chance to move it. I said once again, “IT DOESN’T HAVE ANY WHEELS. No one will be moving it anywhere.” Finally she looked up the license plate. I asked her, Was it stolen? “We can’t let you know any details of a possible investigation, ma’am.” Oh, ok, keep your stupid secrets.

A tow truck picked up the car at midnight. No one took fingerprints. And some disgusting low-class thieves and auto-part stores and tire stores and tow truck businesses (hey, they spread the spoils) are still in business. Gross!