Some people don't know that you absolutely are allowed to take back your stolen property. You don't need to involve the police unless you want to. Repo folks do this all the time.<p>Keep an extra key for your car at home and put an Airtag in your car. If it's stolen, just go get it back when it's safe to do so.<p>Calling the police in most American cities won't get you far. They usually can't pursue a speeding car anymore, and by the time they get to your parked car it'll probably have moved. Their hands are tied by a lot of red tape that doesn't apply to you, the owner. Stealing it back is usually your best option.
I fortunately never had personal experience with this, but around here (central europe) car thieves often steal car and then just park it in some neutral place to let it "cool down" for couple of days - if it contains any tracking devices owner will get it and they will not reveal their garage. There are facebook groups where people post details of their stolen cars and people report if they see them parked somewhere.
If this is the case, tracking device may be quite helpful.
One note, in some cities the parking folks don't talk to police, so if your car is stolen you can start checking for tickets. This used to result in pretty quick hits. I had my car stolen 3 times and recovered it each time, unfortunately in progressively worse condition.<p>Once I found folks in it. Cops said basically nothing would happen to them if I tried to pursue anything so I didn't do anything because they were in neighborhood and I didn't want a beef with them if there was really no consequence.
Point of clarification: you are allowed to <i>take</i> it back so long as you don't commit any other crimes while doing so.<p>As OJ Simpson can readily attest, you are not allowed to <i>rob</i> it back.
> The day after Thanksgiving my parents' car was stolen out of the driveway while we were all inside eating dinner.<p>For a brief moment I thought they were all in the car while it was being stolen.
I was in jail with a guy who robbed a 7-11. This is how he got caught:<p>Goes into store, masked up, with gun. Sticks up cashier. Walks cashier back to manager's office and sticks up manager. Cashier takes moment of distraction to try to call 911 on her iPhone. Robber sees and snatches phone off her and puts in his pocket. Takes all money from store, exits out back to waiting car, takes off. Clean getaway. 15 mins later pulled over at intersection by cops swarming from all directions.<p>Immediately after robbery, manager called cops. Turned up two mins later. Showed them Find My iPhone on the store PC. Cop radios everyone in area and directs their movements. Game over.<p>Funny thing with jail is that you get to really like guys even if their crimes were bogus. He was a funny guy and I felt bad for him because the previous two times he'd been locked up for armed robbery he had got out to find his wife pregnant. He'd adopted both kids and was very sweet to them on the phone when I overheard him, but honestly, his wife is probably pregnant again now.
Interesting story, I was hoping while reading that your parents got their car back in real time thanks to your geek gear in the back seat.<p>The story about monitoring hardware and theft reminded me of this burglar incident in the UK (I once met the person involved):
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/4272041.stm" rel="nofollow">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/42...</a>
If you find this interesting, check out OwnTracks.<p><a href="https://owntracks.org/" rel="nofollow">https://owntracks.org/</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11315999" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11315999</a>