97 cars found in Chicago River

[Owen Lucas]

TLDW: Private dive team was looking for a couple that vanished in their car in the 60 or 70s, suspected to have driven into the river.

The search found 97 cars! Some of them were even impeding boat traffic.

These towing companies are going to be raking in the money in storage fees. I handled a few theft recoveries that were found years later. Most were being driven as they had their VINs flipped and somehow traced back as stolen. Some just showed up at the auto auction without a backstory. By the time the ins co gets wind of the recovery from the PD, it might be 3-4 weeks. That's an easy $1500 - $3000 + recovery fees to the towing company.

 

[mk378]

I assume the city paid to remove the cars from the river. Why would an insurance company bother to pay anything? The cars were written off long ago and are now worthless other than metal value. They can abandon the car to the towing company, which would then sell it as scrap.

Some of these cases are likely the result of a fraud scheme where the owner intentionally sank the car in the river then reported it stolen to get insurance money.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I assume the city paid to remove the cars from the river. Why would an insurance company bother to pay anything? The cars were written off long ago and are now worthless other than metal value. They can abandon the car to the towing company, which would then sell it as scrap.

Some of these cases are likely the result of a fraud scheme where the owner intentionally sank the car in the river then reported it stolen to get insurance money.

That will probably be the case for the vehicles that were not insured. I doubt the tow yard will bother to track down the owners of a potential junker and will have to take ownership of the vehicles and auction them off asap.

The insured cars are technically the property of the insurance company and they have to take possession of them including paying the towing and storage bills. In some states insurance cos aren't allowed to abandon cars and have to resolve the claim unless the customer doesn't cooperate.

They will likely get very little for these cars at auction, maybe even less than scrap value due to the condition they are in.

 

[Kira]

Actually, a case-by-case look at these cars would be interesting.
Let's assume some will still have license plates on them AND that any car's VIN can be traced.
What insurance companies have to do, state by state, would be interesting to start with.

C'mon, it's only 97 cars. They could make a mini-series.

auction them off asap.

You think? Ohhhh asap is a contraction of "As ScrAP".

Personal guess:
Since these cars are covered with river slime, auto shredders will reject them because they'll foul their machines.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Let's assume some will still have license plates on them AND that any car's VIN can be traced.
What insurance companies have to do, state by state, would be interesting to start with.

The only time I couldn't have a VIN traced was a claim on a federal vehicle. IIRC it came back as the blue slip aka factory title. And by running VIN, I can't run the vin myself, it's the title girls at IAA / Copart that have access to the state database. The police will have no problem finding the registered owner. Maybe if it was a very old car and the registration was never digitized? Even then, maybe there are paper records somewhere? That's more of a law enforcement question.

C'mon, it's only 97 cars. They could make a mini-series.

I agree, great YouTube videos!

You think? Ohhhh asap is a contraction of "As ScrAP".

There are statutes that regulate how towing companies manage abandoned vehicle. There is usually a sign displayed outside of the tow yard with storage rates, the statute / code, and other details. Some states require documented effort to track down the owner and then after 30, 60, 90 days the vehicle can be considered abandoned and must be auctioned to the public with an announcement in the newspaper with year, make, model, trim and VIN. Maybe some areas allow a mechanics lien, I'm not 100% sure.

I've tried to inspect cars at tow yards on auction days, oh man, it's busy. "Come back after the auction".

Personal guess:
Since these cars are covered with river slime, auto shredders will reject them because they'll foul their machines.

I've seen the crusher operate, usually IAA has a mobile tractor trailer crusher. It appears they put cars in there without stripping them out. Doesn't make much sense to me, but I never had time to sit and watch the carnage, would have been fun!

 

[97prizm]

TLDW: Private dive team was looking for a couple that vanished in their car in the 60 or 70s, suspected to have driven into the river.

The search found 97 cars! Some of them were even impeding boat traffic.

These towing companies are going to be raking in the money in storage fees. I handled a few theft recoveries that were found years later. Most were being driven as they had their VINs flipped and somehow traced back as stolen. Some just showed up at the auto auction without a backstory. By the time the ins co gets wind of the recovery from the PD, it might be 3-4 weeks. That's an easy $1500 - $3000 + recovery fees to the towing company.

Not too long ago I want to say outside Chicago a dive team found 24 or so vehicles. I wonder if the mob was involved? You'd think that someone would notice vehicles being stuffed into a river. Unless you had a barge and were purposefully pushing vehicles over the back wouldn't 97 cars stack up?

 

[Owen Lucas]

Not too long ago I want to say outside Chicago a dive team found 24 or so vehicles. I wonder if the mob was involved? You'd think that someone would notice vehicles being stuffed into a river. Unless you had a barge and were purposefully pushing vehicles over the back wouldn't 97 cars stack up?

I agree, how did they jam so many into the water? Maybe they floated for a while and the current moved them down stream?
The car in the thumbnail, being dragged by the tow truck appears to be a Kia, so its most likely disorganized crime.

I think the mob was more into chopping cars for parts.

"Hey Tony, I need a door from a blue Caddy"
"I'll find one for you tonight, get the sawzall ready and bring your swimsuit"

 

[wsar10]

The modern vehicles don't interest me, I suspect mostly joy riding car thefts from the neighborhood boy scout troop...

Its the classic cars that would be interesting to hear talk. Stuff like this has always fascinated me and I cant understand why in this day and age they have been left go this long. Obviously I understand the cost of recovery, but lets face it things much much more absurd and complex have happened or moved due to environmentalists. (not a political statement)

 

[Kira]

People ditch a car in water under the cover of darkness. Come sunrise, what's to be seen?

Actually, getting a vehicle to roll all the way into the water is something I bet a lot of joy riding fools can't do.

 

[Blagoje]

"It would be too bad if your car ended up in the bottom of the river because you didn't pay us ________."