Hi all,
I'm looking for any advice concerning a stolen vehicle. I recently discovered that my truck was stolen. I had left it on a vacant lot I own when I had to return to the States for a family emergency. I am still in the US and my return date is uncertain but definitely a few months away. So, that is where I believe this process will get complicated - filing a police report and insurance claim from the US. I have Qualitas insurance and the
policy is very specific that I must make my claim from Mexico. And I must call from a Mexican telephone number. My insurance is due to expire very soon so I have to deal with all this from the US.
Thank you ZihuaRob for this website and board. It's a great resource.
Any advice, opinions or comments are greatly appreciated!
-M
Don't know if our experience in 2007 will be of any assistance or not, but it may.
Compared to you, we were "lucky" to have had our car stolen while we here in Zihua, (while we slept, the thieves came into our room, stole all our stuff, took the car keys, went down and loaded our car with our stuff, and drove away. But that's another story).
Of course we filed a theft report with the local police within hours. (The Federales weren't at all interested).
The car was found a day or two later, up in the mountains 50 or 80 km northeast of Zihua, totally smashed, a 'write-off". Police towed it to the pound in Zihua.
Qualitas was our insurer also. The local Qualitas rep. viewed the vehicle at the police pound and did a full damage report.
Long story shorter, it took about 5 months to finalize the settlement, three months after we had returned to Canada. We disputed their interpretation of the fair book value for the car, but other than that $1500 or so difference, we agreed to settle and we received a cheque soon after.
The real delay was in obtaining a cancellation of the original Temporary Vehicle Import Permit. Qualitas were of little help....all they would do was provide a "To Whom It May Concern" letter acknowledging that the vehicle was stolen, had been damaged beyond repair, and that the vehicle was in Zihuatanejo. Qualitas also e-mailed me the forms I had to complete and submit to Aduana in Mexico City, in order for Aduana to issue a cancellation of the import permit. That whole process took approximately a year, but finally, we did receive the official cancellation.
Prior to receiving the permit cancellation, we tried to enter Mexico with our replacement vehicle, but were denied permission to enter the country because the computer said we already had a vehicle in Mexico, (i.e. our stolen one). We had all the paperwork necessary to prove what had happened to our vehicle, but Aduana at border crossings won't handle anything like issuing an import permit cancellation: it can only be done through Aduana in DF. For awhile, it looked like we would have to turn around and drive 4000 km home. Fortunately, however, we always register our vehicle in both mine and Mrs. HolyMole's names. Since their computer records showed only that I already had a vehicle in Mexico, the work-around was to enter the "new" vehicle under her name. I then e-mailed Lewis & Lewis, (the LA broker who represents Qualitas - and who had provided even less assistance to us in the whole theft/permit cancellation process than Qualitas did), and had them change the name on the new insurance policy from mine to hers.
If the regs. require that you file a claim from Mexico, and you obviously need a police report, I can't see how you can avoid a trip to Mexico just for that purpose. But you won't be able to enter with a vehicle registered in your name until.......
If I can be of any help, e-mail me through the Board. Buena suerte.
