It could happen to you!

Auto theft hit our Dwyer staff… here’s the whole sordid story.

By Charles Letherwood,

Auto theft correspondent for Tom Dwyer Automotive

l stood at the top of our driveway on a perfect Portland morning, eager for another week of telling the world about Tom Dwyer Automotive. Everything was in place except for my ride to work. My faithful black Toyota Tacoma pickup, friend for many years, wasn’t in his usual sleeping spot on the street. I didn’t know what to do at first, but over the next days, weeks, and months I gradually learned. This is mostly the saga of a kidnapped truck and what it took to reunite him with his worried family, but there’s also a few useful tips and facts that may be useful if you ever find yourself in the same situation. We hope you enjoy it, and that you never need it at all!

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

I didn’t panic at first. This had happened once before when someone tried to steal my blue, even older pickup. I found that one because the thieves broke the steering column and they abandoned the truck just a block away when the column fell in their laps. But no, it wasn’t in front of the neighbors’ house this time. I looked around again because there’s no way MY car could stolen… I must have just parked it weird. But no, there’s only two parking spaces and it didn’t take long to search both. My Buddy was gone. Stolen. Kidnapped. Auto theft is real but always seems to happen to someone else. I’m going to tell you about my little adventure when my Buddy got swept up in REAL crime.

If it always happens to ‘someone else’, then there are a lot of someone elses out there. Nationwide, there were 850,595 auto thefts nationwide in 2024, but it’s been worse… that’s under 1,000,000 for the first time since 2021 and the largest decrease in the last 40 years! In Portland there were 5,012 auto thefts in 2024, but again there’s goodish news- that’s down over 50% from the 10,900 record in 2020.

Once you’ve accepted that this time YOU are the ‘someone else’, the first step is to call the police. A look at the stolen vehicle stats for the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) was encouraging. Of 5055 vehicles stolen the PPB shows 78% are recovered in 30 days, and 90% recovered overall! But when I called I was surprised to find there was little they could do other than list the truck as stolen. But they also recommended listing on Facebook. “PDX Stolen Cars” is a private Facebook group with over 23,000 members, and the police told me they were one of the most effective ways to actively search for stolen vehicles. You upload your VIN and pictures and thousands of people across Portland would be on the lookout. It wasn’t the SWAT team or Amber Alert I hoped for, but it was the best they had.

Next was the call to insurance. (Make the Police call first, because Insurance will need the police report.) People wonder why I still carry Comprehensive insurance on a 21-year-old truck, but it’s because the once-every-couple-years windshield replacement is worth it. I never expected to use it for theft recovery because I thought the value they’d cover would be negligible, but I’ve had State Farm insurance for over 40 years because they’ve always come through. This time was no different. A quick call to Dmitri Kondos, my State Farm rep here in Sellwood, and they had a pickup truck ready for me while we waited for Buddy to turn up.

Well, they said “pickup truck”, but what they meant was a surprise. Buddy is a 2004, 2-door, stripped down, base model small truck… what I mean by “pickup”. The one they gave me was a gigantic, 4-door, 2024, F-350 with all the bells and whistles. It was the bridge of the starship Enterprise grafted onto the hull of the Love Boat, but with a smaller bed than my Taco. You’re probably familiar with the parking down here at Tom’s, so imagine trying to park that beast around our shop! But that was a small quibble with the excellent, prompt service I got from State Farm. I settled into my new cargo ship to wait for Buddy to come home.

The search begins

I tried to do more than wait. On the first day I drove aimlessly around our neighborhood to see if Buddy had been taken for a joyride and dumped nearby. No joy. For the next couple days I religiously checked the Facebook group and surfed Craigslist and every other used car trading site to see if the thieves were trying to sell him. No joy. I checked used car lots to see if they had unwittingly bought him. No joy. As the days turned into weeks I checked less frequently and began to give up hope. When the insurance stopped on the rental we decided to call it a loss. State Farm cut a generous check for the replacement value of the vehicle, and that was it. Buddy was gone and wouldn’t be back.

With Buddy gone and no rental I was without wheels so I started looking for a new-to-me truck. I started looking at the same sources I had searched for theft replacement just days before, but still no joy. I found a Tacoma in Longview but it didn’t pass inspection. (ALWAYS GET A PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION ON ANY VEHICLE YOU PLAN TO BUY!) We tell our clients to stay away from the Dealers on 82^nd Avenue so I did, but set aside a weekend to look at all the Dealers on McLoughlin Blvd. 17 Dealers later I had learned that the small trucks ideal for me weren’t ideal for anyone else. It was almost impossible to find a truck that had a full bed, or less than 4 doors, or didn’t need a step ladder to enter. Only 3 trucks were even in the ballpark and only one had any real possibilities. Unfortunately, a few days later that truck was at a different Dealer and priced out of range. My search was not going well.

The search ends… but

And that was the situation when the phone rang well over a month since Buddy disappeared. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department had found him and he was in a Home Depot parking lot waiting for his family! I was out the door like a shot and got another call from the Sheriffs on the way. As they were putting the suspect in the car he told them the fishing pole in the back of the truck was his, and they wanted to confirm with me. “Well, I can’t say whether it’s his or not, but I know it’s not mine!”

When I got to the Depot the deputy told me they’d pulled over the truck for stolen plates. Apparently the thief had removed the original plates but put stolen ones on in their place… who knows the logic there! But he’d also made other plans for my friend in the short time he’d had him. The bed was filled with fishing gear. The cab, though thankfully free of loose needles, had a full canister of nitrous oxide buried under piles of clothes. He was right in the middle of upgrading the stereo so most of the dashboard, the old radio, tools, and the new one he planned to install were all in the seats and floorboards. He’d also apparently planned to paint it because he’d already sanded rust from the bumpers and front end and spray-painted the wheels! (And did a pretty good job, too.) None of that mattered… my Buddy was back and seemed to be mostly fine. I drove him home and tucked him into his comfortable spot on the curb.

The problems begin

My first call Friday morning was to Dmitri’s office with the good news. “They found my truck! I’ll be by this afternoon to return your check and we can all go back to normal.” But it wasn’t that easy. The local office didn’t handle the actual settlement, it was all in the hands of Corporate and even worse… it was IN PROCESS. I couldn’t just do a deal with the local office but would have to call Corporate and talk with them. Dmitri didn’t think they’d just sell me the truck back and he was right. Corporate said there was nothing they could do now that Buddy was IN PROCESS. There was a plan they had to follow for legal and liability reasons, so the truck had to go to auction and be sold. “Wait,” I said, “that’s gonna cost you money. I have no idea what expenses you’ll incur just getting it to the auction house, but you know the truck will sell for less, maybe thousands less, than you’d get from me right now. Here’s money waiting for you, today, now, with no hassle. Let’s make this easy for everyone!” Nope. IN PROCESS. Gotta go to the Auction House. If I wanted Buddy back, I’d have to buy him back from them.

So we cleaned him up and put all the loose parts (including a key; this will be important later) in a box in the front seat. The folks from the Auction House came the next day to pick him up and we waved goodbye. But only temporarily, because I was determined to rescue my friend.

The Auction House

Monday brought a call to Insurance Auto Auctions (IAA), one of the two largest auto auction companies in the country. (The other, Manheim Auto Auctions, handles wholesale auctions while IAA does salvage and insurance). The gentleman I spoke with was very helpful on how the auction worked, but not so helpful on making a trade beforehand. “Nope,” he said, “it’s IN PROCESS”. I’d have to wait for the actual auction and potentially bid against every other person on the planet to save my Buddy.

He felt good about my chances though… most people buying at auction aren’t buying for themselves but for business purposes, which could vary depending on the condition of the vehicle. Many (most?) of the vehicles at auction were smashed in accidents. These vehicles, if they still run at all, are only good for parts. If a vehicle runs and drives it becomes attractive to people to fix it up and sell. These people are in it for a profit so they’ll expect to sell it for 2-3 times the price they pay. I was surprised to find two other kinds of people interested in cheap, mostly-running vehicles, particularly Toyota pickups… farmers and terrorists. Toyotas are legendary for their toughness and reliability so farms in Mexico and terrorists in the Middle East scour auto auctions for beat up rigs that could still be useful but would never sell at a used car lot. My advantage was that whether the businesspeople were buying for parts, fixers, farmers, or shooters, they were budgeting for wholesale prices while I could pay retail.

Screen shot of one of the auction pages. (Buddy isn’t on this one.)

But the THE PROCESS would have to grind on a little longer before I could find out.

The first two auctions

When IAA takes in a vehicle they build a page for it with pictures, mileage, run/drive status, reason for auction, and every other detail you could possibly imagine. (Like whether the vehicle has a key. Again, this will be important in a moment). An auction date is set for several weeks from when the vehicle is first listed. I expected to show up to an auction in a gigantic warehouse filled with car corpses, hear the polished drone of a human auctioneer, and hear the iconic “Going… going… GONE!” at least once. My expectations weren’t even close. There were actually three auctions, all online, and humans weren’t involved.

The first auction goes on for a couple weeks after the truck was posted. Anyone is free to bid during this time but only I and two other people seemed interested. We put in our bids, raised each other a couple times, and the bid stopped with me on top. Problem was, this was a ‘reserve bid’ auction. The seller has a reserve price they’re trying to meet but it’s not shown. If your bid meets their reserve, then great, SOLD! But if it didn’t meet the reserve the seller can call the highest bidder directly to negotiate. I must not have been in ballpark, though, because I didn’t hear from anyone wanting to dicker.

There was a second type of auction, much briefer than the first, and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember how it worked now. The important point then was my truck wasn’t snapped up in this one either. There was only one more chance and Buddy was counting on me.

The Real Deal

Thursday, May 8 at 8a, I was at the front door of IAA for the Final Auction. I was the first person when they opened and rushed in to find where the auction would be held, ready to get my split-second advantage over the online suckers. Oops. There was no auction space, much less an auctioneer, the entire thing was done through the app, and there was no in-person advantage at all. Dammit.

Thursday, May 8 at 830a, I was in the parking lot of IAA for the Final Auction. I was ready… I had the auction app ready on my phone, I had plenty of coffee, and I had insider information. I knew the truck was in excellent condition (maintained for years by Tom Dwyer!) while other folks saw a questionable beater at best. I knew I could pay retail rather than wholesale and my insurance check was enough to buy the car on the open market. I had my max bid locked in. The clocked crept toward the auction time.

At 930a the auction began. (200… 199… 198…) Buddy was in a group (called a ‘lane’) with about 200 other vehicles and they started moving quickly. (189… 188… 187…) The auction app itself helps you spend your money as fast as possible. (125… 124… 123…) When you put a vehicle on your ‘watch list’ the app tells you the opening bid and you set your maximum bid. (112… 111… 110…) When bidding starts it ups your bid in $50 increments until either you hit your max bid or you are the winner. (87… 86… 85…) I watched a burnt hulk of a Hyundai sell for $100, and a front-end damaged Land Rover go for $40,000. (56… 55…) I saw bidders from Ciudad Juarez and Tripoli so though I can’t actually confirm ‘farmers and terrorists’, it was at least plausible. (29… 28…) I watched RV’s and motorcycles, (19… 18…) totaled Toyotas, (9… 8…) smashed Subarus, (4… 3…) crushed Chevys, (2…) and abused Acuras (1…) all disappear before the golden moment. Buddy was on the Block!

The app compared max bids and ousted the lowest ones. It added $50 to the second-highest max bid and gave him a chance to up his bid to beat mine. He didn’t. Going, going, GONE! The actual auction only took 7 seconds once Buddy was on the block, but I was the winner. He was coming home.

The Last Hurdle

Everything to this point was jumping through pointless hoops of bureaucratic PROCESS but here’s where things got a little difficult. They brought Buddy around with a forklift and dumped him in front of me and I eagerly jumped in. But wait, where was the key? I’d given them a key when I turned over the vehicle (remember?), a key was listed on the auction description, and I obviously needed a key to take it home, but… no key. A piece of aircraft cable attached to the steering wheel would have been a clue if I understood what I was seeing. I went to ask in the office, thinking they might hold keys until the sale was complete, but nope. The nice person at the desk told me that sometimes people cut the key off steering wheels of vehicles they’re interested in before sale. That explained the cut cable but didn’t get me a key, and the nice person nicely told me IAA wasn’t responsible. Ooopsie!

Now it was late in the day and my choices were either get the truck towed home or get a locksmith to cut a key. Even though it was almost 5p the folks at Royal Locksmith were able to send someone out at the last minute. It was a struggle since the ignition was twenty years old and very worn down, but he made it happen and I headed home.

That night, 80 days after he’d been kidnapped, Buddy slept in his own spot once again.

Picking up the pieces

Prison changes people and cars are no different. Buddy had been in the Big House with the Bad Trucks for a long time and had scars to prove it. All the parts I’d gathered up in that box for the auction had disappeared, so there were gaping holes including a stereo that needed to be filled. (Pro tip: If you ever find yourself in a situation where you plan to buy your vehicle back from the auction, KEEP ANY PARTS YOU THINK YOU MAY NEED. Don’t send them to the auction house!) The steering wheel cover and floor mats were gone, of course. A sun visor had been ripped out. The airbags were keyed off. But were there any deeper wounds? I knew how to find out… Buddy’s first stop after coming home was Tom Dwyer for a Comprehensive Inspection. They put my mind at ease, finding no new damage but pointing out a couple old-truck flaws that we quickly fixed up.

The last stop to get back on the road was a painful one with the folks at DMV. Since the truck was declared a total loss by the insurance company it had to be re-titled… a salvage title. It took a trip to DMV to get a temporary trip permit, a trip to DEQ (we can do those DEQ tests for most cars here at Tom’s, but my 2004 truck doesn’t have the computer interface to do it), and a final trip to DMV to get new plates and title.

But with new paperwork, new plates, new steering wheel cover and floor mats, and with a stereo coming soon, Buddy was reunited with his family and back on the road!