Loaning your car to a friend, co-worker, or neighbor in urgent temporary need of a vehicle can help build personal friendships or alliances, or just seem like the right thing to do. But sometimes, generosity backfires.
The people you trusted with your car might not return it as agreed, or when you ask. Reporting a car stolen when borrowed is straightforward, but does work better if you take a few specific actions.
Since you gave the car to the other person to use, establishing proof they’re refusing to return the borrowed vehicle is typically the first thing you need to do
Keeping a car past the agreed time for borrowing, using the vehicle for purposes you didn’t approve of, or refusing to return it when you ask are all red flags the car borrower isn’t acting in good faith.
If I let someone borrow my car and they don’t bring it back, answering the question of can the police help me get my car back starts with figuring out if it has really been stolen.
The car borrower might have innocent reasons not to get your vehicle back to you on time.
For example, driving a relative with a medical emergency to a doctor, having roads temporarily blocked by a blizzard, or being left without a vehicle because repairs to their car are taking longer than expected could all be valid reasons for the delay.
But you’re not obliged to take every “sob story” at face value, either. Giving some leeway doesn’t mean you have to be gullible. Asking for proof is reasonable if the delay is longer than a few hours.
Borrowing a car becomes theft when the borrower:
People who loan cars from acquaintances have been known to sell the borrowed car, then tell the owner and the police it was stolen.
Genuine theft of a borrowed car is possible, but you should always follow up with the police immediately to make sure the theft actually was reported as claimed. Don’t take the borrower’s word for it that they reported the theft to the authorities.
Some people or sources may advise you to attempt getting your car back without involving the law. If you have an extra key, going to the borrower’s house might enable you to find your vehicle, unlock it, get in, and drive away.
Since you presumably still have the car’s title, you can prove you’re retrieving your own property if necessary. You should inform the borrower by text or phone once you’re safely away so they don’t report the vehicle stolen if they didn’t see you retrieve it.
This may work if you drive to the perpetrator’s house and find your vehicle conveniently parked at the curb, unoccupied. Putting yourself physically close to the borrower or thief is extremely dangerous, however.
The person is already treating you in a semi-hostile way by keeping your property after you asked for it back. An attack on you isn’t out of the question, and if the individual is large, strong, armed, or has the advantage of surprise, they might injure you or even kill you.
Don’t forget that if you get involved in a physical confrontation, this could put you on the wrong side of the law even if you win. If the “borrower” physically attacks you when you show up, and you injure them defending yourself, you’ll have to prove self-defense.
Since you also loaned the car to them, to begin with, you don’t have any proof of theft at this point. Venturing onto their property, especially if you enter a closed structure like a garage, might not only expose you to attack but is probably the crime of trespassing.
In my opinion, letting the police handle the situation is the best and safest approach. If you do physically travel to the borrower’s home or workplace in an effort to get your car, keep contact with the person to a minimum.
Leave immediately if the retrieval isn’t straightforward, easy, and doesn’t involve trespassing. Remember that your “friend” also has a set of your keys, meaning you should probably have the locks and ignition changed immediately and obtain new keys to prevent future theft.
Since you voluntarily loaned your car out, to begin with, you need to prove the borrower is refusing to return it once you decide to involve law enforcement.
The police will intervene in an actual theft but not in an argument with no proof a crime has been committed. Intent is key to showing borrowing has turned into a theft.
A good way to establish proof is for you to make a written agreement with the borrower at the start. An exchange of texts or emails in which you layout how long they can keep the vehicle and what they can use it for is one way to do this.
You could even write up or print out an informal contract and have the borrower sign this (with copies for each). These kinds of agreements also go a long way toward preventing honest misunderstandings. However, even if you don’t have an agreement and your vehicle’s already AWOL, it’s likely the police can help you get your car back.
Text or email the borrower to build an electronic “paper trail.” Identify the specific car by make, model, and license plate number. Ask clearly for your car to be returned immediately.
Sending another message a few hours later or the next morning, if the car isn’t returned by then, establishes more firmly that the car borrowing has turned into a theft.
Call the police and, when they send an officer to talk to you, present the evidence, including any “borrow car agreement,” texts, and emails.
Start with the statement that your car has been stolen and that you want to register a criminal complaint to get your property back. Only then should you explain that the theft is a borrowing gone wrong and present your supporting evidence.
It’s likely the police will view the incident as theft and take action to retrieve your property if you have the proof described above. There’s a chance though that the evidence won’t convince them and they’ll still choose to view the car as still borrowed since you handed it over voluntarily.
If this happens, gathering more evidence and returning in a day or two may prod them into action. Try to get your case heard by officials higher up the chain of command if lower-level personnel won’t help.
Alternately, you can take the problem to small claims court. This is, unfortunately, a potentially expensive option, making it most useful for newer, more valuable cars rather than three-hundred-dollar wrecks.
You will need to have a lawyer draft and send a demand letter to the borrower, calling on them to return the vehicle. When they fail to do so, the letter then provides grounds for filing a civil lawsuit in small claims court.
As soon as you’ve reported your car stolen to law enforcement and received a police report from them, you should contact your insurance company and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Provide full information about the vehicle and the situation.
This will help prevent you from being held responsible for any damage caused using the vehicle while it’s being driven by the larcenous borrower. It will also provide the basis for a claim if your vehicle is damaged or destroyed while in the borrower’s possession, or if it’s simply gone beyond retrieval.
You must continue to pay all insurance and car payments while the car is out of your hands. The theft doesn’t suspend your obligations toward the dealership you bought the car from or the insurance company giving you coverage for it.
You should also call the DMV and tell them the car has been stolen. The exact procedure, and the forms you may need to file, vary from state to state.
The DMV will enter your car’s data in a stolen vehicle database. If the thief tries to sell the vehicle through normal channels, or if it has already been sold and the buyer tries to register it, the database entry will pinpoint the event for law enforcement.
Yes, provided you make some effort to establish that it was actually stolen. This typically takes the form of written proof like emails or texts, demanding the car’s return, which did not result in its return within a reasonable time.
If you rent a car, then let a friend borrow it, and the friend refuses to return the car or simply disappears with it, you should immediately retain the services of a lawyer and attempt to file a stolen vehicle report with the police.
In some cases where you let a friend borrow a car you rented and he or she steals it, the police will not accept a theft report from you since you are not the car’s owner. They may tell you the rental company will need to file the report.
The rental company may not file a stolen vehicle report immediately, instead of continuing to charge you for the rental, plus penalties for overstaying the rental period.
The rental company may file a stolen vehicle report naming you as the thief, once you stop paying. If you have no ironclad proof you loaned the car out to someone else who stole it, you may be charged with the crime.
Whoever has the keys makes no difference to being able to report a car stolen. A car that was stolen by a borrower typically comes with the keys, since you allowed them to take it in the first place. The important factor is establishing that they refuse to return it.
Whoever the specific individual is who stole your car makes no difference, legally speaking, to filing a stolen car report, provided you’re the vehicle’s sole owner. If you own the vehicle jointly, however, theft charges are likely to become impossible, since neither of you has a stronger claim as the car’s owner.
Even if the title is one person’s name, but the other person has made some of the payments on the car using their own money, it’s likely this will make them an “equitable co-owner” in legal terms.
So if your girlfriend or boyfriend has their name on the title, or made one or more payments on the vehicle using their own money at some point, it may be necessary to engage a lawyer and launch a civil lawsuit to receive damages if they take the vehicle and decamp with it.
While most times when you let a friend or colleague borrow a car from you will see the vehicle returned uneventfully, theft of borrowed cars isn’t as rare as you might think.
Taking the initiative upfront to agree in writing how long the borrower can keep your car and what they can use it for makes it much easier to convince the police it has been stolen when it’s not returned.
Asking for its return several times in writing and failing to get it back is enough to get most police departments to investigate.
Once a policeman has taken your statement and given you a police report with an incident number on it, you should tell your insurance company and area DMV about the theft. Having set the law in motion, you then hopefully won’t have too long a wait before your property is returned to you.
