[masraum]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Honestly. That's the way to do it. Pick em up. Extort the cash from the owner IF they ever find it. If the owner never finds it, they file for the title.

If the police come calling, state it was a simple clerical error. But the police won't say anything because it's a civil matter and for the courts.

Gone are the days of some chucklehead rubbing wires together.

I doubt most folks are actually "hot wiring" many vehicles, but I suspect a surprising number of cars are still being stolen by having their steering locks and keyswitches broken.

Vaguely related note, a college roommate drove his '87 TA (this was '89) down from NJ to FL for college, and while he and his mother were in in a hotel before he even got to college his car was stolen with all of his clothes, stereo, CDs, etc... inside.

He got it back a few weeks later because the thieves tried to sell the car to an undercover cop for $500. They'd broken the keyswitch and broke a metal linkage in the steering column for the steering lock. The dealer quoted $275 to fix it. I had tools, he asked me if I could fix it. I told him "I can take it apart. I can't guaranty that I can put it back together." (since it was a relatively complicated steering column, tilt, telescopic, multiple stalks including lights, wipers, cruise, etc..., I wasn't sure what specialized tools might be required. I now know that there's a spring/plate that requires a tool that you can get for $5-10.) I let them borrow my tools and he and our neighbor got it apart. They got stuck, and after I got them over the hump, they had the column COMPLETELY apart (even pulled the heavy rod out of the steering box so there was nothing but a hole in the firewall).

We tried to get that plate/spring back on without the tool, but could not. He was able to drive the car to the dealer (there was 1/2" of slop in the steering column since the spring wasn't installed). It ended up costing him $500 instead of $275.