Stolen mg midget - must be a story behind this?

[TooLateForAName]

MG midget reported to have been stolen sometime between July 2022 and July 2023!

Its red, reg DUC 434C

https://thestrayferret.co.uk/classic-car-stolen-wh...


Classic car stolen while being repaired in Beckwithshaw
by John Plummer
Aug 3, 2023

Have you seen this car?
North Yorkshire Police today appealed for help finding a stolen MG Midget.

Police said in a statement:

“The red 1965 MG Midget, with registration number DUC 434C, is thought to have been stolen from Crag Lane, Beckwithshaw whilst being repaired at a garage in the period between July 2022 and July 2023.

“The last time the car was seen by the owner was July 2022.”

It urged anyone who has seen the vehicle, or knows where it is, to call the police on 101.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Quote reference number 12230139521.

[105.4]

The first thing that springs to mind is why a year long gap between when it disappeared?

Surely if it was at a garage being repaired / restored, they’d have noticed within a few days, (taking into account a Bank Holiday)?

[AW111]

Owner left car with garage.
Garage now claiming not to have car?

[Milkyway]

Wonder if any Storage charges or money was owed to the garage by the car owner.

[nismo48]

That's a big gap since parking up..
Something not quite right there

[Miserablegit]

Same thing happened to me during a restoration.
Restorer had worked on my fathers car so I thought he was a known quantity. After the first few weeks of keeping an eye on things I took my eye off the ball for about six months and in the meantime he’d closed down and was uncontactable. Managed to track vehicle down to another garage that had undertaken some work. Got car back but “restoration” was awful. Had to pay to have it all done again but this time found someone local so I could keep an eye on it. Original “restorer” made himself bankrupt so I was left out of pocket.

[Milkyway]

Probably ASP now...All Spare Parts.

[-Lummox-]

Miserablegit said:

Same thing happened to me during a restoration.
Restorer had worked on my fathers car so I thought he was a known quantity. After the first few weeks of keeping an eye on things I took my eye off the ball for about six months and in the meantime he’d closed down and was uncontactable. Managed to track vehicle down to another garage that had undertaken some work. Got car back but “restoration” was awful. Had to pay to have it all done again but this time found someone local so I could keep an eye on it. Original “restorer” made himself bankrupt so I was left out of pocket.

That reminds me of an experience I had with the now-defunct Vegantune back when I had my TVR Chimaera.

I took the car to them (as a supposed TVR specialist) for a service not long after getting the car, and after a few days they came back to me with a list as long as your arm of things that needed replacing or that they had apparently already replaced at a cost of several thousand pounds. They had quoted me around £250 for a full service - this was 2006 I believe - and then asked for around £4k once the service had been done. Might even have been £5k. So a huge difference between what had been quoted/agreed, and what they subsequently asked for.

They had not contacted me about any additional work and had not requested / received authority to do it (not least because the car was still under warranty at the time from the supplying dealer). I disputed the bill and said I would be taking the car to another garage for a second opinion on the work they claimed to have done / claimed needed doing, as I didn't accept that the car was in the state they claimed it was or that I owed them what they were asking.

Radio silence for a week or two, nobody returning my calls or emails, until I finally managed to speak to someone who confirmed that the company had gone into liquidation and I couldn't have my car back as it was now an asset of theirs since I hadn't paid my bill!

Suffice to say I told them to poke it, went down there immediately with a couple of mates and the spare keys and told them I was leaving with the car. I said I would pay them for the work I had asked them to do and that they could demonstrate they had done, but beyond that, no chance - I'd rather pay them nothing, drive away and get another set of keys than pay them several thousand pounds. They grudgingly agreed to give me my keys back in return for the fee originally quoted.

Turned out it had been a complete try-on. I took it to a local non-specialist garage I'd used for years on more mundane cars, they checked over the list of "faults" and the list of allegedly-completed but not paid for additional works - it was all BS. None of the faults were evident, and none of the extra bits they claimed to have changed, had been changed.

Was definitely squeaky-bum-time for a while there but was very relieved to have dodged a bullet in the end!