Lola's Carnapping!

Tuesday evening was sure eventful for us. Chuck got home around 5:30 p.m. and we sat on the couch for a little bit discussing if we should really run into town to get some groceries, or if we should just stay home. Well we decided to run into town. We went to the grocery store for some chow, Bed Bath and Beyond to look at a dehydrator, and to the book store...well because I am an addict for books. Then we headed home. We were only gone from about 6:30-8:30 p.m.. When we pulled onto our street Chuck stopped in the middle of the road and just stared ahead, and then kept looking behind him and then in front of the car. I didn't understand what he was doing and didn't understand why he didn't pull forward those few feet and into our driveway. I asked him and he pointed and said "I parked the Yukon right there!" he was pointing to in front of our house where there was now an empty spot. My mouth just fell open. We got out of the car, and I asked him if he was sure he hadn't parked somewhere else. He ran down the road a little and then said "I am sure I parked there!" I immediately called the Police Non-Emergency line and we reported our beloved Lola carnapped!

I called the insurance and reported the carnapping, and an officer showed up really quickly! We called our Lowjack service and the guy I talked to spoke horrible English. That is such a pet peeve of mine. I spelled out the city where we live so many times, and he still couldn't get it. He even called me back short while later because he still couldn't get it. He wasn't even in the U.S.!!! Thank goodness he passed it onto someone who was in the U.S. eventually, and we got everything activated.

The officer was really awesome and helpful. I was very pleased with how quickly she got things going. She said she would go to her car and activate the Lowjack from there. So we reported the carnapping at 8:30 p.m. At 9:30 p.m. a CHP helicopter got the first ping from our lowjack and followed it out to a ritzy gated community in Alamo called Blackhawk for a few hours. It was hard for the helicopter, because they would get a ping from the car, and then lose it again. Then it pinged again saying it was on the move, and they followed it to the Danville / San Ramoan area. We got a call at the crack of dawn stating they had located the car and it seemed in running condition, and that we had to come get it or pay the $500 tow charge. (ouch)

So we peeled ourselves out of bed and headed out into the night to find out lost Lola. We got pretty lost trying to find the police. The directions that they gave us where crap. But we eventually found her.

The officers that were there, had her doors and hatch open. We were in a nice looking neighborhood, and were surprised that this is where they were. The officer's were pretty sure that they knew who did it, but they had no evidence besides that the police dog went from our car to the back of these people's garage. But apparently one of the family member's is in prison, another in Jail, and the little brother is a hooligan, and the sister works and a really scuzzy bar in town. And the mom (who they all live with) was getting evicted from this nice condo complex. The officers thought they had stolen our car to move their mother!! They even found a car seat in the back of our car.

Luckily we were able to bring Lola home. Apparently they had a universal key that was able to unlock and start our car!!! so that means no broken windows and such. But I felt so violated that someone did that to us. I mean we have been parking in front of our house for about 2 years now, and we live in a pretty safe neighborhood I thought. Now I am afraid my car Bells will get carnapped, or our home will get broken into!! ;0/ Thanks for reading about our little California adventure!!

XoXo-Andrea Carla