What is police duty of care to my vehicle after a accident?

[welshsurferdude]

Hi all

Had a accident with my vw transporter van on saturday morning, police turned up and had it recovered by their contractor. Fast forwards to today, Monday 5pm and my insurance's recovery has picked it up from the police contractor and it arrives at BMW dealership for repairs and I go view it to get my property from it

Only I receive a shock and its been ransacked!

Its a camper van so it had my clothes in it, a 22" tv, bag of food, a fox racing back with work stuff, they even emptied my door pockets of my chocolate and red bull and assorted stuff, My glove box had my work documents taken and even the tax disc. even my sleeping bag!

I had a set of house keys on the key ring with the van key and they were all taken.

all that remains is a bottle of water and milk and one van key! plus bed and side unit!


Now Im in the process of calling the police and seeing whats what

but do the police remove property for safekeeping or has one of the two recovery contractors done it?

I was in shock with crashing it but im even more of a shock it was emptied of all my belongings.

[Bigends]

See if Police or the garage removed stuff for safe keeping - if not - report theft. The vehicle and contents should be safe after removal.

[lbc]

Why did the op not remove alleged missing contents?

I would have removed anything of value at time of incident.

[sidaorb]

I would speak to the 'police' recovery operator, they may well have bagged it all up, particularly if there were items of value to protect them from the elements. They used to do this with the company I worked for.

[anonymous-user]

lbc said:

Why did the op not remove alleged missing contents?

I would have removed anything of value at time of incident.

If I got a bump I doubt my head would be in the right place... Blame shouldn't be placed on the owner but whoever took the stuff without asking him or notifying him

[welshsurferdude]

I was in a state of shock after the accident and police dropped me off at a train station to get home as I was in a extremely rural area, with a flat battery on my phone and could not recall any numbers to call so left the van in the hands of the police for it to be recovered to a secure compound.

I will call the recovery company in the morning.

PS the structure of the van was intact, all doors and windows were shut and locked.

Edited by welshsurferdude on Monday 22 December 21:40

[imagineifyeswill]

Its normally part of the Police recovery contract that the recovery contractor removes all personal property from the vehicle, itemises it and bags it with a security number and puts it in secure storage for collection by the owner.

[LJTS]

I had similar done to my vehicle after an accident!

Anything that could be removed had vanished.

I contacted the ombudsman & ended up getting a payout for the missing items from insurance company

[Jim1556]

imagineifyeswill said:

Its normally part of the Police recovery contract that the recovery contractor removes all personal property from the vehicle, itemises it and bags it with a security number and puts it in secure storage for collection by the owner.

Surely, that should've been explained to the OP when he turned up asking where the fk his stuff was?

[zedstar]

Many years ago I was with my friend on a country road late at night, but of hydroplaning and we were both stood outside an upside down smashed up car with minor cuts and bruises. The police attended and called us a recovery truck, he then advised that we get all belongings out of the car. Once we did this he was looking for stereo removal rod things, when I asked him why he said 'all belongings mate, if you leave anything in they have a habit of going missing in these recovery yards...'

I assumed therefore that his duty of care was jack all once the recovery company had it, and he almost said that it was accepted that they would steal anything they wanted from it.

[welshsurferdude]

Nothing was explained to me as to where my stuff is

Ive now contacted PC who dealt with the RTC and he is going to check with WPC but reckons recovery firm have emptied it out for safekeeping so told me to contact recovery firm in morning and if any issues then get back to him tomorrow night when he's on duty.

[DaveH23]

This happened to me years ago and I had to pay storage fees to get my stuff back.

[s p a c e m a n]

Different companies work in different ways. We get them back to the separate compound, stick them in a spot and then don't touch them, to the point that if they're open to the elements then whatever is inside will get wet. Too many people over the years complaining about things being damaged or stolen when in reality the items that are missing are still in the field/embankment/garden that they rolled their car into. They're all on camera and monitored, you need a reason to be in the area, you'd struggle to nick a magic tree out of one in our yard.

[imagineifyeswill]

Jim1556 said:

imagineifyeswill said:

Its normally part of the Police recovery contract that the recovery contractor removes all personal property from the vehicle, itemises it and bags it with a security number and puts it in secure storage for collection by the owner.

Surely, that should've been explained to the OP when he turned up asking where the fk his stuff was?

From what I read he hasnt actually been to the recovery yard yet he has just seen his vehicle at the repairers. As it was picked up on instruction from his insurers I would guess they have paid the recovery and storage charges he just has to go and collect and sign for his belongings.