zboot
01-24-2009, 07:02 PM
I've got a post on 318ti.org but I figured I should probably post here as well.
Note: Car has been located
Wednesday morning I arrived at school and parked my car around 9:00am. I wasn't parked next to a meter, but I wasn't blocking anything and I thought worst case, I'd get a ticket. I'm in school all day till about 8pm. I get out, walk to where I parked my car and it's gone. I'm thinking the school probably towed it (there's construction going on in that area - again, it didn't seem like I was impeding anything, but I though perhaps somehow I was).
I call the school on Thursday, and they tell me that not only have they not towed any cars recently, but they only tow cars from inside of school lots. . .and after leaving tickets on the cars over a couple days. Since I was parked on the street, they said likely my car was towed by the city.
So I call the city of Pittsburgh pound. They look up my car, and say they haven't towed it. Not only that, but they don't even have any BMWs in the lot. Given that all four wheels have bmw badges, plus I've got the hood and trunk emblem, I have a hard time believing that someone could have misfiled my car as a make other than a bmw.
So, that leaves one conclusion. I'm still having a hard time believing it because I typically lock my car when I walk away. If I forget to do so, I usually realize it before I'm more than several feet away and just hit the lock button on the alarm until it chirps. Plus all my spare keys are distributed among friends in case I accidentally lock my primary key in the car. And my primary key, which is in my possession, is the only one with a chip that matches the 328 DME in the car.
As far as I can figure, to otherwise steal my car would require a lot of work - opening the hood, swapping DMEs and EWSs, breaking the steering lock and all this would happen in broad daylight on a busy street (I was parked next to the engineering building and a teacher's college - that street always has people walking up and down).
But yet, my car is clearly not where I parked it. Even more strange, Friday I went by again to look (in case my mind was somehow addled Wednesday night) and I saw the same SUV I parked in front of on Wednesday roughly in the same spot. Anyway, I've filed a police report and gone through filing a claim with my insurance company. I guess now it's just wait and hope it turns up soon in one piece.
Pics of the car are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kamakula/NewWheels
Note: Car has been located
Wednesday morning I arrived at school and parked my car around 9:00am. I wasn't parked next to a meter, but I wasn't blocking anything and I thought worst case, I'd get a ticket. I'm in school all day till about 8pm. I get out, walk to where I parked my car and it's gone. I'm thinking the school probably towed it (there's construction going on in that area - again, it didn't seem like I was impeding anything, but I though perhaps somehow I was).
I call the school on Thursday, and they tell me that not only have they not towed any cars recently, but they only tow cars from inside of school lots. . .and after leaving tickets on the cars over a couple days. Since I was parked on the street, they said likely my car was towed by the city.
So I call the city of Pittsburgh pound. They look up my car, and say they haven't towed it. Not only that, but they don't even have any BMWs in the lot. Given that all four wheels have bmw badges, plus I've got the hood and trunk emblem, I have a hard time believing that someone could have misfiled my car as a make other than a bmw.
So, that leaves one conclusion. I'm still having a hard time believing it because I typically lock my car when I walk away. If I forget to do so, I usually realize it before I'm more than several feet away and just hit the lock button on the alarm until it chirps. Plus all my spare keys are distributed among friends in case I accidentally lock my primary key in the car. And my primary key, which is in my possession, is the only one with a chip that matches the 328 DME in the car.
As far as I can figure, to otherwise steal my car would require a lot of work - opening the hood, swapping DMEs and EWSs, breaking the steering lock and all this would happen in broad daylight on a busy street (I was parked next to the engineering building and a teacher's college - that street always has people walking up and down).
But yet, my car is clearly not where I parked it. Even more strange, Friday I went by again to look (in case my mind was somehow addled Wednesday night) and I saw the same SUV I parked in front of on Wednesday roughly in the same spot. Anyway, I've filed a police report and gone through filing a claim with my insurance company. I guess now it's just wait and hope it turns up soon in one piece.
Pics of the car are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kamakula/NewWheels