Items stolen from car during valet service

Juran

Has this evered happened to anyone?

I lent my 1 year old car to a friend who lives abroad, to save them crazy irish car rental costs.

Before they gave it back, they brought it to a drop off carwash & valet service. They dropped it back to me and flew home. Car looked great. Anyways, a few days later I noticed items were missing, as it is a high spec model, it came with extras in the boot space like first aid kits, triangle, umbrella .. all branded items, so a bit expensive to replace from the car manufacturer. These are no longer in the car. I asked my friend if they used them, they confirmed they didnt open the boot floor, which I believe them. I now think they got nicked at the car wash place, which I dont know where that was. And if I did, what can I do about it. I'm just annoyed as I always look after my cars, trade them in with the original contents to ensure a good trade in, and to pass them on to the new owners.

Did anyone have a similar experience in Ireland ?

Ask your friend where the valet place is, and drop your use of the word stolen.

Kimbot

Are you 100% certain those items were in the car when you gave it to your friend??

omeara1113

Maybe they forgot to put them back in after cleaning the boot area

Alkers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119674890#Comment_119674890

Exactly, this would be the first port of call

One of two things-I’d say they either genuinely forgot to put them back and the stuff is still there waiting for you or else they deliberately withhold them and hope customer won’t notice for some time and if they do, the apologise and take them out from “safe keeping”

As others have said, if you can get the address or even approx description of the place and try and find them on Google maps, you might be lucky

Juran

Thanks for all the comments / feedback.

I am 100% sure the items were present when i gave them the car, as i did a quick clean and opened the boot panel which hides the spare wheel, the triangle and first aid kit were there at that time. There were other items there untouched eg. Dog lead, shopping bags, aldi jumpleads, an old torque wrench. The first aid & triangle were skoda brand, still in their orginal wrappers.

There is no reason to go near the tyre boot pamel when cleaning the boot.

The doors have 2 hidden umbrellas, which i have never taken out or used. Nobody would see them or even know they are present, except skoda owners. The passenger side umbrella was taken, the driver side umbrella was untouched. Only someone looking for this item and know that skoda doors have these, would find it.

I am single, no kids or passengers use the car, so anything I put and remove from the car are mine.

I asked my friend if they used the umbrella (and forgot to leave it back). They said they didnt see any umbrella in the car. I dont want to offend them or upset them by telling them items were removed, as I know they would post me a cheque, and I dont want that.

feelings

Any decent friend would happily offer to replace the missing items and say no more about it. (which is what you've alluded in your last post). Problem solved.

Juran

To be honest, Its not the value of the items that has made me start this post. I can easily replace them, and they won't affect trade in value. I started the post as the princple of someone who is trusted with our cars (garage, valet service) taking items from a car.

I think most of us take for granted that our belongings are safe when we hand over our cars for a service or valet. Obviously I,m not talking about wallet, passport, laptop, mobile phone, etc. But items we leave in our cars all the time.

Do you remove all items from your car when you hand it over for a service or valet ? Eg. Coats, golf umbrella, usb keys with music, etc.

Alkers

Have you contacted the valet place? In the absence of that, anything else you're talking about is irrelevant

zg3409

Maybe ask your friend the name of valet and say they did a good job and you want to recommend them. Often they remove the panels shelves to clean outside the car and there may be debris in the gaps around the spare wheel etc.

If you don't want to try get the items back then vent away. If you speak English you are over qualified to valet these days.

mc2022B2TF

Something similar happened me - my wife left the car into a similar place. I had a very expensive BOSE mini speaker hidden in where the spare wheel is from when i'd been travelling on holidays.

It was gone when we got the car back.

Called down to them and they were like "oh yeah we have that but we didn't have your number".

2 possibilities:

a) it was a genuine mistake

b) its a stunt they pull and if you don't come back in a certain amount of time they trouser it

Tis a bit of a grey area.

walterking

Ask, but do not accuse

CreadanLady

I'd say it's a stunt. Take it and if set it aside for "safe keeping" if noone comes back after 6 months or so, it's considered forgotten about and they keep it.

Anyway OP, if you want them back - you know what to do. All else is just talking shíte.

bladespin

OP you're making some leap in assumptions tbh, you have no idea where those items are and it's only a possibility the valet service removed them, you simply don't know, it's definitely worth a call but I'd recommend climbing back in your box until after the subject is discussed.

Dirty Nails

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058265189/items-stolen-from-car-during-valet-service

Think Skodas only come with one umbrella,even though there's 2 holders. The safety kit is €35. That's beside the point though,the stuff is missing for whatever reason & it shouldn't be.

Valetors are sometimes heedless & don't often pay attention to things removed while cleaning. Lost count of how many times I've come across cars with wrong spare wheels & missing tool kits

Thoie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119676598#Comment_119676598

I wouldn't leave something like a phone or laptop in the car while being valeted, but everything else (other than actual rubbish) stays. That might include a spare jacket/shoes in the boot, and anything under the boot lid (emergency kit, etc). A busy valet service could have multiple cars in at the same time, so it's possible items get mixed up, but it's never happened to me. If something was missing, I'd just call them and ask if they have them. As someone else suggested, asking your friend where they got it done, perhaps saying you'd like to use them again, seems the simplest.

Wishbone Ash

The doors have 2 hidden umbrellas, which i have never taken out or used. Nobody would see them or even know they are present, except skoda owners. The passenger side umbrella was taken, the driver side umbrella was untouched. Only someone looking for this item and know that skoda doors have these, would find it.

Strange comment. Skoda has advertised this ad nauseum.

(...and as has been said, it only comes in the driver's door).

Hurrache

You'd be surprised how many people don't know there's stuff in their cars despite it being advertised or in the manual. I've pointed out to one person the umbrellas in their Superb a few months after they picked up one second hand.

topdecko

surely this is much ado about nothing until you contact the Valet service and ask them if they have your stuff. All just speculation really. Wouldn't be much of a business model if they take things from your car when cleaning it.

CreadanLady

I suppose the are hoping to make on the basis that the average John or Mary Murphy hasn't a notion or even the interest in what hidden accessories and bits and pieces come with a car. Sure most of the time nowadays people just call out their insurance breakdown service to change a flat wheel. So whether the tools and jack are there, it is mostly irrelevant to them. Truth be told, most women and many men wouldn't have a bulls notion of what to do anyway.

KevRossi

Happened to me with all 4 floor mats. Rang them up and they dropped them round to the office. They took them out to wet vac the carpets and forgot them. Generic no-brand ones worth about €15 new and nothing second hand.

They may have taken stuff out to vacuum it or to blow out dust. Call round once you find out where they are. If your mate paid with a card then his bank statement might help. Failing that ask him to see if he can cache his Google Maps if he used them.