The difference is you are directly challenging them. Many thieves will respond to taking their stolen car back the same way most of us here would. Anger and it's personal -- you're stealing from them! And they're probably more impulsive and less risk adverse than the average person.

Now I'd totally hop in and drive off if it's left unattended at the curb or whatever though. Just be quick, bring friends, and avoid confrontation.

> The difference is you are directly challenging them. Many thieves...

The tricky part is figuring out if the thief is in this "many" or not. Good luck, since you can only choose wrong once! Don't forget, they know where you live!

Yeah, at least you can be prepared. Bring a friend ready to call for help, video tape everything, etc.

Despite what cops would have you believe, criminals aren't dumb. Most will recognize that it would be a bad idea to bring cops to the place they are apparently holding stolen cars. So if they know you brought an unknown number of witnesses prepared to call 911, they will probably back off. After all, it's pretty easy to get away with property crime if you stay off the radar.

Indeed, I'd assume most of them know that if you found the car and are there, it's likely that others (friends/etc) also know of the location. It's in their best interests to let you "steal" the car back and (most likely) resolve the problem for good than escalating it into more violence where it's likely to result in them not only getting in trouble for the initial theft but also the subsequent violence.

Not every criminal is great at critical thinking, long-term planning or self control. Any element of surprise danger is going to trigger a flight or fight response.

What if the car is used to store valuable and illegal goods? And a big amount of them? Now you’re the target of both the criminals and the police.

Nonsense.

My car was stolen. I made a police report. It later turned up with some heroin in it. I called the police again. They thanked me, took the heroin as evidence, and went along their way.

what if they suspected you of lying about the theft, or found the heroin before you did?

Probably just the criminals. It should be easy enough to prove to the police that you don’t have the means or motive to acquire those illegal goods.

However, if you’re mixed up in illegal activity then yeah it might look bad.

> It should be easy enough to prove to the police that you don’t have the means or motive to acquire those illegal goods.

I see you haven't had much experience with American police.

True, I’ve only had 6 or 7 interactions with police and they’ve all been quick and easy, but I am an educated middle age white male family man from the Bay Area so I get that other people have very different experiences from mine and yeah I could see how “just explain it to the police” wouldn’t work for everyone.

One of my friends posted the other day about how they dropped off their car to get an oil change. They went and sat down outside, scrolling through their phone. Ten minutes later the cops showed up and told him he couldn’t sleep there and he needed to go somewhere else.

Yeah, I’d say us middle-aged white dudes have it pretty easy.

In a few years you're sitting at a red light and a cop happens to be behind you. Cop idly runs your plates because what stopping him? Car comes back as stolen since you reported it stolen and no one ever corrected that when you stole it back. Enjoy your night in jail.

But it's your car and the name on your driver's license matches the name on the title and the DMV registration?

That won't stop them from sending half a dozen cops to beat the shit out of you before even asking you questions.

https://youtu.be/X54YNnZMq-M

No problem with the car and its owner, however "It appears you've filed a false police report; that's an offense son; step out of the vehicle with your hands in clear sight"

Right, like trying to raise venture funding for instance… :p