Want your stolen car back? Bring your checkbook

By Chao Xiong, Star Tribune

Don Gunnon made his way into his home with the use of a cane to walk because of back issues caused by a bullet lodged near is spine by his sciatic nerve. After Gunnon’s car was stolen it was sent to the Minneapolis impound lot. After Gunnon’s car was stolen it was sent to the Minneapolis impound lot. Being a disabled vet, having a wife with cancer and living on a fixed income Gunnon is unable to pay the $800 to get his car.

Don Gunnon woke up one morning last month and his 1987 Cadillac was gone.

Someone stole the brown sedan in the middle of the night, a neighbor told him. A phone call later, Gunnon learned more news that floored him: Minneapolis police found his $800 car in the alley behind his house, but didn't know how to reach him and had it towed to the city impound lot. Gunnon would have to pay $138 to get it back.

Gunnon, who is 47 and on disability, said he couldn't afford it so he had to let the car sit. Now, with storage fees accrued at $18 a day, Gunnon said he'd need about $800 to retrieve his car. The car is now in danger of being auctioned off and Gunnon could be left with a $400 bill for its storage, he said.

"I would've been better off if the thieves took the car," Gunnon said.

His predicament isn't unusual. Impound fees for stolen cars are common complaints received by a crime victims advocacy group. The complaints are so common that state Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, wrote a bill passed this spring that sets aside $75,000 each year for two years to subsidize those fees statewide.

"Re-victimizing the victim by making them pay to get their car back seems grossly unfair to me," Paymar said.

The Council on Crime and Justice receives about 1,000 calls each year to its hot line; 200 of those are about impounded stolen cars, said the group's projects director, Michael Bischoff.

Paymar said a "significant" number of Minnesota cities impound stolen vehicles and charge car owners for the towing and storage. While police pointed out that insurance might pay, Bischoff and Paymar said basic insurance and even some comprehensive plans don't cover the fees.

Paymar's bill takes effect July 1. That's too late for Gunnon, who said his car is slated to be auctioned. That's standard procedure for cars unclaimed for more than 15 days in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis police officers exercise their discretion about contacting the owner first, said police spokeswoman Lt. Amelia Huffman.

"How much time should officers, particularly on the north side, dedicate to looking for the owner of a car?" Huffman said. "There are always [crimes] going on, particularly in the Fourth Precinct."I can agree with that," Gunnon said, "but when they're standing in the car owner's driveway ... and all they got to reach out is their arm and knock on the door, they should do that."

In Gunnon's case, the Cadillac was registered to his previous address in south Minneapolis and not his new house in the 4300 block of Humboldt Avenue N., which he said he moved into about three weeks before the theft. (The law requires the registration to be updated within a month of moving.) However, the 911 call made during the May 11 incident shows that the caller said he thought it was his neighbor's car.

For now, Gunnon is trying to scrape together the $800 he needs to get his car back, with the Council on Crime and Justice donating some to his fund.

"Our stuff gets stolen," Gunnon said. "We don't plan on that."

City procedure allows for people like Gunnon to appeal and try to get some of their money back, but only after paying the fee and retrieving their car.

Meanwhile his wife, Linda Powis, 45, said it can take her up to three hours on the bus one way to get to her job as a forklift operator in Mendota Heights.

Paymar said he doesn't advocate eliminating the fees, saying cities need to be able to tow abandoned cars and recoup the costs.

Bischoff, of the council, said his group supported Paymar's legislation to help with price tag for some owners of stolen cars.

"A lot of people who call us already have limited financial means," he said. "A lot of people, even if they can afford it, feel a sense of injustice."