Man Loses Car He Just Parked


Michael Otero parked his new red truck in front of a convenience store in Laguna Beach, California and went inside for only a few minutes. When he returned, the truck was gone! Since he had left the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, Otero assumed it had been stolen. Police watched the surveillance video and found out what really happened. You can, too.

Link - via bannedinhollywood

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by dcapps.


Yeah, I think it might serve people well to spend at least a little time living in a city where it's a no brainer to lock your car (and turn off the ignition and take keys, obviously). I lock my car even if I'm just going around to the other side to fill up with gas.

Anything can happen. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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There is a reason you should take your keys with you. It forces you to put the vehicle in park to remove them.

I say you should be given a $50 ticket for leaving the keys of your vehicle in your car if you park in a parking spot without anyone in the vehicle and you are not around it.
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What an idiot. I mean the truck starts reversing while the guy is still freakin getting out of it and he still didn't think anything was wrong? Geeze.... He better be glad that no one got hurt.
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In Arlington, TX (and many other cities, I'm sure) it is illegal to leave your keys in the ignition when you leave your car unattended. That way, when your car gets stolen, YOU get a fine for your stupidity and the cops *might* find your car.

I knew a guy when I was in college who was a kleptomaniac. Let's call him "Fred". He was in a parking lot one day and saw a guy get out of his fancy new car with the engine running. The dumbass goes into a dry-cleaning shop and watches while Fred jumps into the car and drives it off. Of course Fred does get arrested for auto theft but the dumbass who left the engine running got a $500 fine.
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If you've ever had a car actually stolen from a parking lot it's like you can't really understand what happened to it. "I left it here, I think, now...it's...gone!"
I HATE when that happens!
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If you follow the link, it says that the parking brake was on when the truck was found. It's being checked by a mechanic. It's also a manual transmission, so it's not that he didn't put the truck in park. Leaving the keys had nothing to do with it, although he's certainly foolish to have done that.
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So he leaves an automatic in reverse with the keys in and the doors unlocked and the engine running?

SO it drove away?

I am not that familiar with the useless and lazy world of Aurtomatics but the capacity for it to drive away on it's own is bizarre.
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My next-door neighbor once pulled into her driveway and got out of her Suburban to unlock her gate. She left the vehicle running and with her 2 year old in the truck...out of his car seat. He knocked the shifter into reverse and the truck did some sort of bizarre half-loop (the steering wheel was juuust right): out her driveway, into the street, and then u-turned into MY driveway and backed into the side of my awesome truck that I loved SO much and totaled it.

And we live on a street that used to have semis and heavy equipment running up and down it all the time, not to mention the people in regular cars who often speed. I was sad to see my truck so hurt, but geesh it could have been MUCH worse.
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Polx and Josh, it looks like it was probably a manual trans equipped little Ranger and he didn't set the E-brake, just left it in neutral.
The parking spot was on a slight grade, so the truck started rolling back on it's own with the help of gravity.
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I should have read the article first. Like Lara said, he left the parking brake on, and claims he left the trans in 1st, but that would have killed the engine when he let his foot off the clutch. Sounds like his e-brake is improperly adjusted, or if it has rear drum brakes, then they are pretty worn and the self-adjusters haven't kept up with the wear.
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I had a friend who owned a manual trans car and would leave it it first and be fine except once it did not go so well. He parked, got out and the car was on just a slight enough incline that it rolled away across the street....into the lot of a car dealership. Then his car, sans driver, hit another car on the lot. The police got a good chuckle out of trying to fill out an accident report involving two cars and no drivers.
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i don't get it.. if the truck is just kinda rolling away, shouldn't it roll straight? it went straight then fully turned.. so it's stolen??
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tt:- If he left the wheel turned it'll roll in a curve, of course. And what's more, the castoring of the wheels won't work going backwards - in fact they'll swing more towards the side they're already facing.
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