My love and joy stolen! Moving on and some questions about LEZ...

I owned a 1996 300 TDI Defender aka Dylan. Dylan wasn't a perfect vehicle but I still fell in love with him, he had his nuances that I had always meant to address and over time I was slowly getting there, the handbrake would loosed over time, the speedo gear was worn and he had some incontinence of all his bodily fluids.

But he had his shining moments, the engine would start on the button every time. He drew a lot of attention in a work car park full of Jags and BMWs, he had a fierce roar to his 20 year old engine and he would happily munch up miles.

I woke up on the 1st September 2016, wiping the sleep from my eyes I shuffled through the morning post reaching a card adorned with "Sorry you were out", an apologetic statement you expect to see from Royal Mail. But this wasn't a note left by Royal Mail rather Thames Valley Police. I continued to read...

"A vehicle registered to this address was involved in an incident last night"

My pulse began to race and I couldn't bring myself to look outside. I dialled the number provided and quoted the reference number.

"Can you describe your vehicle to us?"
"Yeah, a grey Land Rover Defender"
"When did you last see your vehicle?"
"Last night around 19:30 when I returned from work"
"Are you aware that your vehicle was found 3 miles from your house last night?"

I shut my eyes praying for the best outcome, maybe a joyride and a dump.
"No..."
"It was found by one of our patrols ablaze in the copse..."
"Okay"
It was the most I could get out as I finally contemplated the situation and so began the 5 stages of grief.

Denial
"Where are the keys sir?"
I began to question myself, Did I leave the keys in the car? No way, I wouldn't have been able to get in the house. Maybe I had my plates swapped last night?
"They are in my hand"
"Stolen without keys okay. Does anyone else have access to the vehicle?"
"No, but evidently that hasn't been the case" I was annoyed, not at the questioning but the rather the situation.
"Okay, well thats all the info we need for now. The officer in charge of the case has now gone of shift, he will be back on at 6pm and can provide a debrief. Here is your crime reference number"

I struggled for a pen and paper cursing myself for being so naive and young to rely on my now hiding technology and neglecting tried and tested tools from the last 2000 years.

A crayon and a Avon catalogue came to my aid.
"Have a good day sir"
"Wait! What am I supposed to do now?"
"Call your insurer sir. Anything else?"
"No. Thank you"

One phone call to the insurer and a number of questions later I was left sat there on the edge of my bed dumbfounded. The radio clicked on, my morning wake up call.

"What a beautiful day it is with sun shining all day..."

The words hung in the air, bitter.

Anger
There went my pride and joy, an empty spot sat on my drive oil stains drying all that time and effort gone. I had no idea where my car was nor what state it was in. Anger didn't quite wash over me at this stage, I felt like I had accepted it already. That I should just move on, I sent a quick email to work notifying them of the situation and was offered the day off. I politely declined, after all what use would it be?

Arriving into work I was met with condolences, I am well known in my office of 500 and Dylan was far better known. News had spread fast and I began responding to wave after wave of sympathetic emails. I could feel the anger boil inside of me and in fear of lashing out at those around me decided to use it to my advantage.

I sat on the phone for the better part of the day chewing out suppliers for their late deliveries, missed shipments, failure to respond to emails that by 1pm I had completed all of my work and solved all of the problems we have had in the last 3 weeks.

Bargaining
By 2pm I was curious as to the condition of my vehicle, "Maybe the fire wasn't so bad it's mostly metal in those things", "They could have found it early and it could just be a wing thats a bit scorched" I started to feel a sense of relief.

I made my way home waiting for the officer in charge to start his shift, at 6:30pm I received a call.

"Hello, this is PC Barton [not his real name] I was told to give you a call?"
"Yes"
"......So what was this regarding?"
"My car, apparently you found it last night?"
"Oh was this the 4x4?"
"Yes" I bit my tongue knowing this man probably dealt with a number of incidents last night but nevertheless I still seethed. Didn't he know that this was my entire world. I don't have kids, Dylan was my kid.
"Yeah we found it on patrol. Completely ablaze doubt you will recover anything from it. It was pulled out by the fire service and put out. Had to be recovered." He carried on, chipper almost as if he was describing a fine meal he had "When did you see it last?"
"When I parked up last night..."
"Well tell your insurers..."
I cut him off "I have"
"Okay, is there anything else?"
"Err yeah... Wheres my car? Who did this? Have you arrested anyone? What am I suppose to do now? Do you have any photos?"
"Oh erm its at this recovery yard, we are treating it as Arson. Aside from contacting your insurer theres nothing more for you to do. We don't have photos but the recovery yard may have"
"Okay thank you"
I disconnected.


Depression and Acceptance are still to come for anyone who is interested but for now I leave it at that.

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Dippypud said:

Been there ...

It's not a nice place ... still miss mine even though we have another ...

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goonarmy said:

2 door station wagon? Is it bit of a bitsa?

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Seffy said:

LEZ, If you have windows and seats, there is a method of registering it with TFL as an estate, not a van. Basically it revolves around you sending them pictures of the rear seats and windows, however, being drop down seats may not be enough to gain that exemption. It depends what DVLA think it is, van or station wagon/estate, so you can always try changing it with DVLA. Personally I am not sure who is worse to deal with, TFL or DVLA.

Geofencing tracker? TK103, can be found for under a tenner if you dont mind the risk of import charges, or around 20 quid as UK stock. Add the prepay sim of your choice and you are good to go.

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Jin said:

Yeah it wasn't great and now my pelvis has been reduced to shattered bone from cycling to work.



Doesn't seem to be.


I will see if I can get it exempt via TFL first and see what happens. It is a CSW and it all looks original to me, even the insurer stopped the quote as a commercial vehicle and did a private one instead as soon as I gave the Reg.

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