Vandals broke in to my car =Advice needed

[phamy76]

My car was broken in to.
The driver side rear window (where my son sits) was smashed in, they went thru my glovebox and middle console. Tried to take out my radio and stopped, stole my GPS and stuff from the trunk. Glass all over my daughter's car seat.

This happened Tues night/Wed morning. We called the police and filled out a police report, and then called the insurance company by 10 am. Yesterday at 3:30 pm, they only approved the smashed window to be fixed since it's part of my auto insurance policy and fully covered. But, I also filled out a claim for the missing / damaged items under my homeowner's policy since the auto policy didn't cover it.

I guess I was expecting to get this fixed quickly, we're down to one car right now and my policy doesn't cover a rental.

The insurance comp hasn't even sent anyone over to take pix of the damage, nor has approved $ to fix the radio, buy a new GPS and car seat. It's just sitting here waiting.

I"ve called the ins company and they said an adjuster has been assigned but they haven't gone out yet for documentation.

I have a $250 deductible, and don't have full copy of the ins policy to see if I get depreciated value of the items or full replacement items.
This feels like it's taking such a long time.

 

[dex08]

I have no advice for you but I am so sorry this happened to you!

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

I'm sorry this happened to you - it really seems like such a violation, doesn't it?

Make sure you dig up a copy of your proof of purchase for the GPS or have something that shows it existed to help push through the paperwork. DH's cousin had to do this after a robbery for just about everything she claimed was stolen and I can see how the insurance company would need a paper trail so it makes sense.

They may not approve replacing the car seat if it wasn't actually damaged and just needs to have the glass cleaned off it. I can see how you may not want to use it if you're worried about any remaining glass slivers but my gut feeling is that the insurance company may feel differently about it. We have 3 carseats and I'm actually curious so keep us posted!

Hope things go smoothly for you and your insurance company comes through.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Who is your insurance company?

With service like that I would look seriously into changing to a better company when your policy is up for renewal.

 

[msmayor]

Well, I look at it this way: you are going to have to get a new car seat regardless, so get it. Waiting for the insurance company to pay for that isn't going to change the situation. Besides...you have a $250 deductible, so that much is coming out of your pocket anyway.

Make sure you have plenty of pictures of the car and then start cleaning it up.

You don't need a radio to drive a car. You don't need a GPS to drive the car. You don't need to get those fixed to use the car.

Get a shop vac and clean up the glass inside the car. Remove as much of the glass as possible from the window fram (or have someone else do it) and do what lots of other folks do: cover it with heavy-duty plastic and duct tape to keep the weather out until you can get it fixed.

Or pay out of pocket for a rental from Enterprise.

As for depreciated value vs. replacement cost, see if you can call up your full policy document on-line.

I'm not sure how much quicker you think they should be acting. You said this happened overnight Tuesday, called the insurance company Wednesday morning before 10. Less than 6 hours later they approved fixing the window. That's pretty fast if you ask me.

As for the homeowner's claim, that will always take a little longer because of documentation. You're about 48 hours from the initial contact with insurance. Again, that doesn't seem overly slow to me.

 

[pyrxtc]

is fixing the radio and replacing the GPS really worth the homeowners insurance claim ?

 

[minnie1928]

is fixing the radio and replacing the GPS really worth the homeowners insurance claim ?

I had the same thought....

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

First off I am so sorry this happened to you. My car was broken into years ago and cleaning up the glass is a PITA!!

That being said I would seriously reconsider filing the homeowners claim. I was a insurance agent about 20 years ago and while we would never tell anyone they couldn't file a claim we just let them know the truth which was (at the time) that insurers could and would drop people for filing small claims. The fear of the insurers was that if you did that then you would file a claim for everything and cost them money. From my own personal experience 2 years ago I lost my gold charm bracelet at disney (clasp broke and it fell off) and sadly (it still hurts now) it was never recovered or should I say I never got it back. We called our agent to inquire on a claim since the value of the bracelet and its charms was probably about $750 and our deductible was $250 so it seemed like a no brainer to us. Our agent told us that part of our current premium was based on the fact that we had not filed a claim and if we were to file we would not only pay the deductible but also an increased annual premium for 3 years so in the end we would pretty much get nothing except the aggravation of filing a claim and trying to prove what we lost - so we declined. I now look at homeowner insurance as something to cover a really big loss like house fire, tree damage (friends had tree fall on house), a robbery of my house, etc.

Also chances are the company wouldn't cover the car seat anyway since it wasn't technically damaged so you're only looking at the value of the GPS to claim. I'm also kinda confused about the radio - if it was factory installed I thought it would have been covered by the auto policy and only secondary radios (installed by Best Buy or the like) would fall under the homeowner policy.

Good luck - I hope you get your car back quickly and can start putting all this behind you.

 

[brerrabbit]

My Daughter's Jeep was broken into at her apartment and they took the radio, the GPS and some CD's. Between her boyfriend and I we fixed the dash, installed a new radio ($80 at Wal Mart with CD player) and taped up the window. We filed a police report but did not file with insurance, car or homeowners. We pay enough for insurance already without something like this driving up the cost. And when all was said and done with the deductable of two policies, one for the car and one for the homeowners we would not have received a penney from the insurance companies and our rates would have increased. So we just grimaced and paid for the repairs.

 

[Catira]

Last year my husband borrowed my car to go to an out of town conference. He decided my car would use less car than his SUV. He goes out to dinner with friends in their car, and when he gets back, the passenger door window was broken into to steal the GPS he had left attached to the windshield. They also stole his MP3 player. I called my insurance company at around 11pm, got a claim number and by 8am next morning he was dropping off my car on a Saturday morning to get window replaced. We decided not to use our homeowner's insurance for the GPS or MP3 player. As someone else stated, we didn't want to risk a price increase on the house ins. due to a $500 claim.

It was an expensive lesson, but we no longer leave the GPS attached or anything else that someone considers valuable.

 

[allison443]

My car was broken in to.
The driver side rear window (where my son sits) was smashed in, they went thru my glovebox and middle console. Tried to take out my radio and stopped, stole my GPS and stuff from the trunk. Glass all over my daughter's car seat.

This happened Tues night/Wed morning. We called the police and filled out a police report, and then called the insurance company by 10 am. Yesterday at 3:30 pm, they only approved the smashed window to be fixed since it's part of my auto insurance policy and fully covered. But, I also filled out a claim for the missing / damaged items under my homeowner's policy since the auto policy didn't cover it.

I guess I was expecting to get this fixed quickly, we're down to one car right now and my policy doesn't cover a rental.

The insurance comp hasn't even sent anyone over to take pix of the damage, nor has approved $ to fix the radio, buy a new GPS and car seat. It's just sitting here waiting.

I"ve called the ins company and they said an adjuster has been assigned but they haven't gone out yet for documentation.

I have a $250 deductible, and don't have full copy of the ins policy to see if I get depreciated value of the items or full replacement items.
This feels like it's taking such a long time.

Since the window replacement was approved, I would call/email them, tell them you're getting it fixed, take a few pictures, and get it fixed. I mean, you have a police report so unless the company said they definitely have to send someone to take pictures, why do you have to wait for that?

What happened to the car seat that you need to replace?

Sorry this happened to you. I know how upsetting it is.

 

[MomToOne]

is fixing the radio and replacing the GPS really worth the homeowners insurance claim ?

This is a good point. Do you currently receive a "no claims" discount on your homeowners? If so, you will probably lose that once they pay this claim. For several years. The loss of that discount may cost you much more in the long run than the small amount they will pay you for these items. I'd have a heart-to-heart with your agent about this.

I had a custom french door damaged a few years ago such that it had to be completely replaced. It cost over $2000. By the time I figured my deductible + the extra amount I would be paying in homeowner's premiums for the next few years due to the loss of the no claims discount, it was just barely worth making the claim....

 

[CarrieR]

If the only damage to your daughter's seat is that it had glass on it, I wouldn't replace it. You can remove the cover and wipe down the plastic with a wet paper towel, and also wipe down the harness straps with a damp paper towel (nothing more than that, no chemicals.) The cover can be vaccuumed, then washed, or you can get a new cover if you're still concerned about the shards of glass. Depending on the seat you have, a new cover will be less expensive than the seat. (And if the seat is <$50, then it's definitely not worth including in a claim, just go buy a new one.)

I'm a CPST (car seat tech,) and VERY conservative in regards to my seats and my kids' safety, but I can't see how the seat would be compromised in this instance. If you think there may have been stress on the seat or it was mistreated, that would be a different story, but if it's just having glass on the seat than replacement is unnecessary.)

Feel free to PM me if you'd like add'l advice on this topic, I can link you to threads elsewhere where others have dealt with the smashed glass in carseat issue.

(BTW, does your son not use a seat? I'd be more concerned about his, since it was on the side where the breakin happened.)

 

[phamy76]

Thanks for the info/feedback on this incident.
I've never had a car broken in to before, so I had no idea how the system works.
We've really only used our homeowners insurance once, when our sewer line backed up into our basement and we had inches of feces in the laundry room.

We only followed what the car repair shop and the police officer told us to do.
File a police report and call the insurance company.

It's just so frustrating.
But, I thought that is why you have insurance? We pay for homeowners and 2cars on our policy. With all the money I pay for insurance a year, I think it would have covered me when I needed it.

We've decided to get rid of my daughters car seat. Even if I vacuumed it, and cleaned it very well, if she ever scraped her leg because a shard of glass was still there, I'd feel terrible. My local insurance agent said to buy a new seat and save the receipt. As for the GPS, haven't heard anything yet.

 

[buckler]

Thanks for the info/feedback on this incident.
I've never had a car broken in to before, so I had no idea how the system works.
We've really only used our homeowners insurance once, when our sewer line backed up into our basement and we had inches of feces in the laundry room.

We only followed what the car repair shop and the police officer told us to do.
File a police report and call the insurance company.

It's just so frustrating.
But, I thought that is why you have insurance? We pay for homeowners and 2cars on our policy. With all the money I pay for insurance a year, I think it would have covered me when I needed it.

We've decided to get rid of my daughters car seat. Even if I vacuumed it, and cleaned it very well, if she ever scraped her leg because a shard of glass was still there, I'd feel terrible. My local insurance agent said to buy a new seat and save the receipt. As for the GPS, haven't heard anything yet.

Be warned, I think some homeowner's insurance companies will drop you after you make 3 claims. This would be your 2nd claim. One more and you could be in trouble. I wouldn't file the claim since the amount probably isn't very much over the deductible. You should probably raise your deductible since $250 is pretty low.

 

[pixiewings71]

I wouldn't bother with the homeowners claim, it's going to drive your ins. costs up and yes, it's possible they could drop you. Just replace/fix the radio/GPS yourselves, it's easier and safer.
My car (minivan) was broken into New Year's Eve last year, it pretty much sucked. lol That said I called the police and ins. company as soon as I realized it (on my way to work) and had a new window installed by noon that day. I would definitely follow up with the insurance on what's going on with that and get it fixed, there's no reason a window/windshield should take so long to get fixed. I would also look into a different insurance company, we've had to file 3 claims in the past 4 years, 2 for the car (1 accident and the broken window) and 1 homeowners for the house fire we had, in every case we've had immediate assistance and response. Except the house fire, which happened on New Years Day at 3 am....since it was a holiday over a weekend their offices were closed that following Monday so that delayed an agent coming out to look at the property, but it didn't delay us filing and when the agent came out she had a check for us so we could get immediate needs (toothbrushes, hairbrushes, clothes, etc etc). So my advice is to take care of the GPS/radio yourselves and find a new insurance company. Good luck!

 

[tinkarooni]

The answers to many of your questions can be found in your insurance policy. Your policies will say replacement cost or actual cash value (depreciated value). Your auto policy may very well exclude the GPS, many of them do. Read the exclusion section. Many of them exclude radar detectors after market steroe systems and limit the # of cds you can claim. Than you would have to file a homeowners claim. You will probably be subject to a deductible on both policies. Not worth it to turn in the homeowners claim in my opinion. (Claims Adjuster here) Good Luck.

 

[CarrieR]

We've decided to get rid of my daughters car seat. Even if I vacuumed it, and cleaned it very well, if she ever scraped her leg because a shard of glass was still there, I'd feel terrible. My local insurance agent said to buy a new seat and save the receipt.

That's absolutely your perogative, if it makes you feel better as a parent then go for it. Just wanted to give you my .02 in terms of not seeing a concern with its crashworthiness, and that for that reason it didn't *have* to be replaced -- hate to have you have that expense unnecessarily. I'm actually surprised (pleasantly so!) that your ins co will replace it for you -- insurance companies are notorious for resisting replacement after crashes, when replacement is required by the manufacturer. But if they're willing to replace it and you would feel more comfortable doing so, then go for it!

 

[Swimalie]

First off, I'm sorry this happened. Have you checked to make sure they didn't take anything like a garage door opener? We had neighbors who parked in the driveway (not the garage with the door down) and someone stole their garage door opener with the intention of coming back when they were not home. Luckily the people figured it out before they had a chance to come back and were able to change the garage door code. Also check to make sure they did take anything with your credit card info on it or any of your personal information. Too many people keep that info in their glove compartment and it's prime target for identity theft.

I'm with the others about the homeowners insurance. You don't need the GPS and radio to drive so don't make the claim on it just to replace it. It will only make them look at whether or not to cover you in the future. Is a GPS and radio really worth that? Replace those at your own expense. And don't leave the GPS in your car in the future unless your car is locked up in a garage.

 

[msmayor]

Thanks for the info/feedback on this incident.
I've never had a car broken in to before, so I had no idea how the system works.
We've really only used our homeowners insurance once, when our sewer line backed up into our basement and we had inches of feces in the laundry room.

We only followed what the car repair shop and the police officer told us to do.
File a police report and call the insurance company.

It's just so frustrating.
But, I thought that is why you have insurance? We pay for homeowners and 2cars on our policy. With all the money I pay for insurance a year, I think it would have covered me when I needed it.

We've decided to get rid of my daughters car seat. Even if I vacuumed it, and cleaned it very well, if she ever scraped her leg because a shard of glass was still there, I'd feel terrible. My local insurance agent said to buy a new seat and save the receipt. As for the GPS, haven't heard anything yet.

You have insurance for catastrophic losses...those that you never plan for or simply cannot afford out-of-pocket.

Replacing a GPS and fixing a car radio isn't catastrophic as far as a homeowner's policy is.