Getting your car stolen is bad enough. Getting it back covered in someone else’s biohazards is worse. Then a letter from your own state government says you owe $2,398 for not having insurance. You did have insurance.
That’s where Trace Thompson of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood found himself this fall. In an on-camera interview with Baltimore’s WJZ, Thompson said he walked out around 6 a.m. on Oct. 17 and found his car missing. He called 311, and the operator suggested it might have been moved for the marathon. He asked for an officer, and police showed up two days later and confirmed the car had been stolen.
How it was found
Thompson used the automaker’s connected-car tracking to find the car at a motel and passed the location to police. Baltimore police said city license plate reader cameras also picked up the car. Baltimore County officers recovered it at 3 a.m. next to a Wawa in Lansdowne and arrested the driver, Bobby Hamlett. He’s charged with unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. Charging documents say Hamlett claimed he knew Thompson and was borrowing the car. Thompson says he doesn’t know him. Hamlett is due back in court in December.
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The break-in was low-tech. Thompson said the thief worked the rubber seal out of a small rear side window and then pried out the glass. Small fixed rear glass is often the easiest way into a car, and it’s also an annoying part to replace. It’s frequently a dealer-only piece with its own molding and adhesive kit. Inside, Thompson found trash bags full of garbage, drugs and bodily fluids. He called the car “more of a crime scene than a vehicle recovery.”
The fine that shouldn’t exist
Thompson’s mail soon brought two unpaid video tolls, charged within an hour at the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry tunnels while the car was missing. Then came the $2,398 notice from the Motor Vehicle Administration for lapsed insurance. Thompson says his coverage never lapsed. The MVA told WJZ that the stolen-vehicle report triggered the notice and that it was contacting him.
The amount itself is strange. Under Transportation §17-106, the MVA can charge $200 for a lapse of 1 to 30 days and $7 a day after that, up to $3,500 per violation in a year. The car was gone for about two weeks, which would cost $200 at most even if there had been a real lapse. Working the formula backward, $2,398 matches about 344 days without coverage. So either the system dated the lapse from somewhere far in the past, or it just sent out a number. Neither is reassuring.
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The statute also has no exception for stolen cars. It lets owners avoid the penalty by returning their plates within 10 days after a sale, an out-of-state move, a salvage title or a dealer taking the car. There’s nothing for “a stranger drove off with it.” Owners can probably get a mistaken fine like this cancelled, but the law doesn’t spell out how.
What to do if this happens to you
- Insurance proof: The MVA accepts only one document as proof of insurance, a Maryland Insurance Certification called an FR-19. Your insurance card and your policy don’t count. Ask your insurer for an FR-19 covering the whole theft period and send it to the Insurance Compliance Division right away. The Maryland Insurance Administration describes the same process for compliance investigations.
- Tolls: The Maryland Transportation Authority’s Notice of Toll Due lists “Stolen” as a defense. You have to send a police report by the payment due date. If you miss it, you’ll owe a civil penalty on top of the toll.
- Damage: The window, the interior and the biohazard cleanup should fall under comprehensive coverage, minus your deductible. Professional cleanup is worth paying for when there are drugs and bodily fluids involved, since a shop vac won’t make that car safe again. Photograph everything before anyone touches it.
- Paperwork: Keep the police report number handy. You’ll need it for the insurer, the toll authority and possibly the MVA, and probably more than once.
The bigger problem
Telematics found this car before the police did. That’s a real advantage of modern connected cars, and owners should make sure the tracking is turned on before they ever need it. But a lot of the system still assumes the registered owner is responsible for whatever the plate does. Toll cameras charge the plate. The insurance computer flags the registration. The theft victim is the one who has to prove it wasn’t them.
Thompson now parks in a garage almost a mile from home. He also had a warning for city leaders: young professionals will leave if this keeps happening. He’ll probably also keep checking his mailbox for a while.
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