It’s bad enough having your car stolen, but to have a city recover and then sell it, keeping the money for itself is just horrible. Yet that’s exactly what a Missouri woman is facing after her vehicle was stolen while parked in St. Louis, with the city reportedly trying to duck all responsibility while keeping the cash.
Man throws a soda can at the people stealing his car, then gets hit by the driver.
This shocking story was originally covered by Fox 2, a local news station, and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. Sure, we’ve seen stories of authorities seizing a car based on flimsy evidence it was stolen and we’ve seen plenty of stories of people’s stolen cars racking up huge storage lot fees after a city recovers them, but never before have we seen a city mistakenly sell someone’s stolen ride and keep the money after the error was discovered.
The victim, Rachel Addison, parked her 2006 Pontiac G6 in St. Louis just a week after purchasing it. Sadly, she hadn’t obtained insurance for the vehicle. This is why we counsel everyone to insure a newly acquired car the minute you get it or you’re taking a huge risk, especially these days.
A month after it was stolen, the Pontiac was recovered and transported to the city impound lot. But Addison never got a phone call, so she thought her vehicle was long gone. Still, she kept calling the city tow lot just in case, and that’s how she learned the car she owned not only had been recovered but was sold.
Someone from city hall told Fox 2 that a city employee has received “corrective action” for the “mistake.” But St. Louis won’t pay any money to Addison, who claims a tow lot employee told her she was lucky she didn’t owe the city money for having her vehicle stored there.
The real icing on the cake is that Addison bought the Pontiac for $3,000 and the city sold it for a measly $650. Now she’s left fighting to get even that. Plus, she gets to find another car and pay for it without that money.
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