chiurw

I have been a member of this forum for about 5 years now and enjoyed learning about the SL55s, and enjoyed sharing DIY tidbits. I am saddened to say that my SL55 was stolen from my garage and was wrecked while the punk kid was joyriding in it. Here is a picture of my SL55 in the police impound lot.

eugeneC55

Wow, that's so sad!
You seem to be handling it rather well giving the circumstances, I hope it all works out for you in the end.

kustom2k1

What did they do to get the car started? Did they use your keys?

WHTEVO

Sorry to hear that, hopefully they caught the kid.

Aaron

WBE55

The Worst !!! , Im curious to know also , How did he start it ?

danlnyc

yea, how did the kid steal your car? I always thought these cars are nearly unstealable

biker349

yes, how did he steal it and what extra safeguards can we install to help prevent theft and break ins?

Das Geld 2

I'm sorry to hear that.

How did that scum steal your car from your garage?

abiazis

Sorry to hear your bad news.......at least they didn't t-bone it on a pole, maybe the damage can be repaired............

Rick SL55

you better give a good explanation regarding your keys.
Insurance will investigate prior to give you money.

tc1728

I keep my keys in the garage with my cars, maybe OP did also. TC

blueSL

Car looks totalled to me, I doubt it can be repaired for less than the car would then be worth. Just think what it's done to the crash structure, suspension, wheels, tyres, steering and all the rest. Even the window is open which will be soaking the interior in the rain.

As for TC keeping his keys in the garage, I assume they are locked in a cabinet or something?!?!

shardul

iTrader: (1)

man that sucks!

C280 Sport

Very sorry to hear that a$$ holes these days no respect for anyone or their proporty. I hope everything works out well in the end. That pic was very sad to see. I have to ask how on earth did they get the car started? Also was it during when you were home? Glad you are ok because it could of been worse!

mkhurley

Sorry to hear that....I hate thieves....

Said it was taken from his Garage, that is considered part of your home, location of the keys is not relevant once they are in your home.

A "friend" of my oldest son saw me put away the keys to a 72' Camaro I had while they were doing some work on another friends car in my garage. A week later we were in town having dinner and came home to find my Camaro gone from the garage, when I called to file a report they said they just had a Camaro involved in an accident down the road from me. Drove down and sure enough, it was mine, took out a utility pole, he was still in it when the cops arrived. I explained it was mine and after a short guarded stay in the hospital he went to jail, then court and back to jail with a year sentence, think he served 6 months of it, pretty sure my son beat the crap out of him when he got out also, but he won't confirm or deny that. Hagerty Ins covered it 100% of our agreed upon value. Ins agent told me it didn't matter if I'd of left the keys in it or on my nightstand once he broke-in, the garage is considered secured....as long as it's locked of course. Oh and a garage door closed with a garage door opener/closer, is considered locked.

xpl0sive

technically you could leave your car parked in a mall parking lot with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, if it gets stolen, it will still be covered by insurance. There's no requirement on your insurance policy for having the car locked or having the keys put away somewhere. you could just play stupid and say you forgot to lock it. Fortunately for most people out there, insurance still covers stupidity.

chiurw

Yes, my car was stolen from my garage. The juveniles came into my house through a back window which they had to pry open. Then they proceeded to take items from my house. My keys were hanging on a hook in the utility room that leads to the garage.

I cannot convey my anger in a message but have been going through ups and downs with this incident. Yes, the insurance is covering it and my hope is that it is totaled. I couldn't get close to the car because the detectives are still investigating but just looking at the damage done to the front and the fact that the detectives had to pry the trunk open to get the stolen contents from my house out, leads me to believe that it will cost a lot more to repair than what it's worth. Insurance companies total cars out if the repairs exceed 50 to 60% of the blue book value of the car. In my mind, I am treating it like I sold the car to someone else and got the blue book value for it. Otherwise, I will be sick to my stomach thinking about what happened.

Thanks to all for your kind words and hope that this never happens to anyone. I definitely learned my lesson and will not leave spare keys hanging in the utility room.

rsr911

So sorry to hear about your SL.
I know I would be equally mad and sick if this happened to me.

hyperion667

this makes me sick just reading the story!

sorry to read this......I really hope you get some sort
of serious resolve....
and the punk who ripped you off is hopefully in a coma, then in a
wheelchair....

good luck man

zneB-sedecreM

That's ****ed up! I would run over that scumbag, make his *** look roadkill with his guts and innards spilled all over the place. To total it on top of stealing, that's just insult on top of injury

55slamg

Hopefully your insurance claim will be enough to replace it. Wonder what the cost would be to purchase the wreck? Still lots of parts that could be striped and sold to other DIY SL owners.

AKnight55

Sorry to hear this.. Hope it all works out in the end

chiurw

The car hasn't been released from the police impound yet so the insurance has not had the opportunity to assess the damage, but I did tell the insurance that I would prefer that they total it out. Just felt violated from all angles so even if the insurance company fixed it, I would not feel right about it.

I did call Mercedes USA about the theft and wondered if these cars came with something equivalent to GMs Onstar and Mercedes cars do. It is part of MBrace, which I failed to upgrade my car to. You guys may want to consider this.

I also found a Renntech SL600 at the Scottsdale Maserati dealership. Carfax shows it was involved in an accident but seems to be ok. Are there "known" defects with the V12 cars, other than the ABS which I have experienced numerous times?

http://www.scottsdalemaserati.com/de...d-8965973.html

RaFFi ///AMG

Where are you located?

phemerlein

TC - best of luck putting this whole thing behind you. It's an enormous invasion of privacy and you're right about possibly getting the car back. Speaking from experience - it will never be right and will always kind of feel dirty. Get rid of it - start w/ another one.

Anyway - Best of luck!!