My car was stolen off campus in Oct 04 and was abandoned on private property and that person had my car towed. By the time the police notified me of its whereabouts, the accumulation of holding fees was so high that I couldn't afford to get it out and I lost my car to the towing company. The towing company sent it to collections and it is now on my credit report for $3300.

Am I responsible for that debt even though I was the victim or do I have a case to dispute it in an attempt to get it off my credit report? Do I have a legal leg to stand on? (California)

Was your car insurance company not involved at the time? Id go back to the insurance company you had at that time.

Was the thief apprehended? I think you could sue that person for damages, too.

And you can always dispute any item on your credit reports.

I'm not sure of this, but you should not be responsible for storage fees prior to notification. You may be responsible for the initial towing fee, but that should be covered by your theft insurance.

Its may be too late now though (since this is almost 4 years ago). You can try disputing the entry to the credit bureaus..

Thanks ScottGem & rockinmommy for your responses.

I hate that I let all this time go by since the theft. My thinking at the time was that my car was such a bucket anyway (paid $900 for it) that it wasn't worth pursuing. I had the minimal coverage on it required by law. I don't even think I had coverage for theft so I just considered it an all around unfortunate loss.

I handled it wrong at the time, and made it worse by letting so much time go by. Little did I know how it'd come back to bite me! :mad:

The person was never apprehended so I can't go that route, but I think I will still check with the insurance company just to see if they have any input even though it's 4 years after the fact. There's got to be some kind of "notcie of non-responsibility" that I could file or SOMEthing...

No matter what, I will definitely make a statement on my creit reports. If nothing else, that statement explaining my side will make me look less irresponsible to lenders as I look into buying a house. But still I wonder if this collection agency (on behalf of the towing company) has legal grounds to come after me with a judgement for this debt.

Thanks for all the advice you guys. I'm going to try every single thing you suggested. :)

Thanks ScottGem & rockinmommy for your responses.

I hate that I let all this time go by since the theft. My thinking at the time was that my car was such a bucket anyway (paid $900 for it) that it wasn't worth pursuing. I had the minimal coverage on it required by law. I don't even think I had coverage for theft so I just considered it an all around unfortunate loss.

I handled it wrong at the time, and made it worse by letting so much time go by. Little did I know how it'd come back to bite me! :mad:

The person was never apprehended so I can't go that route, but I think I will still check with the insurance company just to see if they have any input even though it's 4 years after the fact. There's gotta be some kind of "notcie of non-responsibility" that I could file or SOMEthing...

No matter what, I will definitely make a statement on my creit reports. If nothing else, that statement explaining my side will make me look less irresponsible to lenders as I look into buying a house. But still I wonder if this collection agency (on behalf of the towing company) has legal grounds to come after me with a judgement for this debt.

Thanks for all the advice you guys. I'm going to try every single thing you suggested. :)


Did you report this to your insurance company at the time? If so, why didn't they take care of it - ?

At any rate - yes, the collection agency (representing the tow company and the storage facility) can sue you for payment. You would then have to go to Court with your records - when it was reported stolen, when they notified you) and the Court would determine whether they get a Judgment against you.

For example, if they called you on Monday and said they had the car and you didn't get back to them until the following Monday concerning whether you would be picking it up, you owe them for storage for that week.

If they called you Monday and you said, no thanks, gave them the title, then it's their own expense.

I've seen Courts offset the storage costs with whatever the car sold for.