Car theft: what to do, how to behave, sample application

A statement about the theft of a car in most cases does not imply the fact of theft, but the fact of theft of the car through theft, robbery or robbery. Files in .DOC: Application form for theft of a carSample application for theft of a car

The fact is that the everyday word “hijacking” means taking possession of a car without the purpose of stealing it. Simply put, “hijacking” is driving around for a bit and leaving the car somewhere on the side of the road.

What to do if your car is stolen

Theft or hijacking involves taking possession of a vehicle against the will of the owner or other legal owner. To bring to criminal liability, the method of the theft (secret or open taking), the cost of the stolen car, and other factors are important. However, when faced with a missing car, the owner does not think about future punishment for the culprit, since the first task is to find the car.

If your car is stolen, we recommend taking the following steps:

remember exactly where the car was left - in large parking lots, even the most attentive driver can lose orientation;
make sure that the car was not taken by one of the relatives or persons with a power of attorney - persons who have a power of attorney to drive can take it without additional permission from the owner;
if possible, interview other drivers or persons at the scene of the loss of the car - the information obtained may be useful in a subsequent search, especially if the fact of the theft was captured by a DVR or mobile phone camera;
contact an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the scene of the theft or call the duty station - each call must be recorded in the logs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for subsequent response measures.

All these actions can be completed within the next few minutes. Trying to find a car on your own makes little sense, and valuable time may be lost.

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If possible, immediately provide the police or the duty station with your passport and title documents for the car (if they were not stolen along with the car). You not only have to confirm your identity, but also the fact of legal ownership of the car. Only in this case can one expect to initiate a search case and send information to stationary or mobile points of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Difference in qualifications

There are three ways to notify the police about a missing car:

calling the police to the crime scene;
writing an application;
verbal notification to the police station on duty, who will enter the message in the register and issue the appropriate registration coupon.

A call to the crime scene may be appropriate in the event of a forcible seizure of a car, if there are traces at the crime scene.

In such circumstances, police officers will inspect the scene of the incident, draw up a report, interview witnesses and invite the owner of the car to write a statement. Moreover, they will dictate the best version of the events in the statement.

If the car just quietly and unnoticed disappeared from the parking lot, then it is better not to waste time and go to the police station yourself. Whatever method you choose, try to avoid the word “theft” in the statement, because the classification of the crime is a matter for law enforcement agencies.

You should know that the investigation always follows the path of excessive qualification when initiating a criminal case. That is, the disappearance of your car will be classified as theft in 99 cases out of a hundred. If an attacker actually stole your car, that is, drove it for a drive and abandoned it, then the qualification for theft will be softened.

It would seem that the wording of the statement in this case would have no meaning. But that's not true.

Professional vehicle thieves always have a prepared legend in case of arrest, something like “I didn’t steal it, I just decided to go for a ride because I liked the car. He left it on the side of the road on Gvardeyskaya Street and left without stealing anything from it. I don’t know how the documents, owner’s wallet and tires disappeared from the car. Probably some thief stole it." If the statement contains the word “hijacking,” lawyers will certainly seize on it under various pretexts.

Therefore, write in the statement “the car was stolen.” Let a criminal case be opened for theft. If the car is found safe and sound, the investigator will reclassify the actions of the criminal.

What to do if the car was stolen along with its documents

The situation will become noticeably more complicated if you left all the documents in the stolen car. Depending on the type of document, the following points may arise:

if your passport is lost, you will be issued a temporary identity card - an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be able to check your data through registration cards directly when submitting your application;
if the title documents for the car are lost (vehicle registration certificate, PTS, etc.), the relevant data will be obtained from the traffic police register;
if you were driving the car by proxy, and this document was stolen along with the car, only the owner will be able to file an application - you will have to call him to the police department and explain all the circumstances of the theft.

Note! If a new car is stolen, which you did not manage to register in your name, information about the legality of the purchase will be requested from the car dealership or from the previous owner. This will take more time than a standard check using the traffic police database.

The fact that documents have been stolen is not an obstacle to filing a complaint about theft or theft. You need to tell the police in detail when and where the car was driven, and what rights you had to it. The Ministry of Internal Affairs officer will be able to obtain the remaining evidence on his own.

Police actions

You should not immediately expect a copy of the decision to initiate a criminal case from the investigator. On the day of your appeal, it will not be initiated, since the law provides the investigative authorities with 3 days to resolve questions about the existence of a crime. So the only document that you will be given is a crime report.

If necessary, you can ask the investigator or the duty officer to issue a detailed certificate of your application in order to submit it to the tax authorities and your insurer, although a coupon will be quite enough.

Subsequently, your insurer will ask the police for a copy of the decision to initiate criminal proceedings.

Contacting the tax office is not necessary, but can save the car owner from having to pay tax on a stolen car.

Contacting the police to report a stolen car

In case of theft, it is necessary to file a report with law enforcement agencies. Only in this case can you count on quickly carrying out search activities and searching “hot on the trail.” Delays in filing an application will allow criminals to resell the car using fake documents, dismantle it for parts, and cause other damage.

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Crimes, including vehicle theft, can be reported in writing or orally. This can only be done at the police department. When communicating verbally, all information will be recorded in a protocol, which you must check and sign. The written application must reflect the following points:

name of the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to which the application is submitted;
full passport data – if your passport is stolen, this information will be verified based on your words;
information about the stolen car - license plate number, make and model, color, other significant characteristics;
circumstances of the theft - time and place of discovery of the theft, circle of eyewitnesses, other facts;
a link to evidence, if you have it - camera or phone recordings, eyewitness testimony, etc.;
please initiate a search case, establish the location of the car and bring the perpetrators to justice;
date and personal signature of the car owner.

Note! Anonymous messages are not grounds for initiating cases. The identity of the complainant will be verified when making an oral or written crime report.

The application must be registered in the KUSP (Crime Reporting Book). You must be informed of the registration number, which can be used to control the timing and procedure for searching for the car. A sample statement of theft can be found in the appendices to this article.

Contacting the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate to deregister a vehicle

What to do after a car has been stolen if search efforts have not brought results? To avoid charging transport tax, you can submit an application to the traffic police to cancel the vehicle registration. To do this, you need to obtain a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirming the termination or suspension of the criminal case. A certificate is issued if the search for the car does not allow you to find it. Upon your application, the record of ownership of the car will be canceled in the traffic police register. A sample application for deregistration of a car after theft can be downloaded in the appendix to this article.

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Is it possible to reconcile with the hijacker and withdraw the application?

According to current legislation, it is impossible to withdraw a submitted report of the theft or theft of a vehicle. Even if the thief turned out to be your relative or offered to simply return the car and compensate for moral damages, you will not be able to withdraw the complaint about the theft. You can only apply to terminate the case, since you have no claims against anyone. It will be taken into account during the trial.

From a legal point of view, car theft is considered a matter of public prosecution. The victim himself cannot stop it. However, if the car thief can be found and he compensates for the damage, reconciliation with the victim will play a positive role and lead to a reduction in punishment. The victim can apply for a reduced sentence. If he receives full compensation for car theft.

Receiving payment from the insurance company

If your car, which is insured against such an event, was stolen, you can contact the insurer and receive CASCO compensation. To do this you need to do the following:

immediately after filing a statement with the police, you need to notify the insurer about the fact of theft;
during the period of the official search for the car, payment of compensation will be suspended;
Having received a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the termination of the search and suspension of the criminal case, you can contact the insurer for compensation.

Note! If your car is stolen, the amount of compensation will depend on the terms of the policy, the amount of insurance coverage and other factors.

If the car is subsequently discovered, the insurance company will be able to take it for itself, since it has settled with the owner for payments.

Drawing up an application

There is a form for citizens to contact the police. It cannot be called strict, since it does not involve a strict presentation of events. In fact, the application form is not even a strict reporting form, and its only task is to make it easier for the citizen to draw up an application.

The form contains lines “to” and “from”, and a series of lines to contain the essence of the appeal.

The application form also contains a standard phrase stating that the applicant has been warned of liability for false denunciation. There is no need to be afraid of this line.

A false denunciation will only occur if you consciously decide to slander an innocent person. In all other cases, there can be no responsibility, since when you contact the internal affairs bodies, you, firstly, report a crime, and secondly, you apply because of your own convictions, which have the right to be erroneous.

No one requires the applicant to include references to articles of the Criminal Code in the application, since the qualification of actions is not his business.

What to do if they don’t give your car back after it’s stolen

If the culprits and the location of the stolen car are identified, it may not be returned to you immediately. The car will be recognized as material evidence, and its storage will be carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs until a verdict is passed. It is also possible to transfer the car to the owner for safekeeping. In this case, a ban on sales and other registration actions will be established.

If the car is not returned after the completion of the criminal case, you have the legal right to file a complaint with a higher official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office or the court. Law enforcement must prove the legality of the vehicle's lien or return it to the proper owner.

Preparatory stage

The first thing you should do after discovering something missing is call the police. Firstly, the sooner you notify the relevant authorities, the greater the chance that your car will be found. And secondly, this way you will be sure that it was stolen and not evacuated, for example, due to improper parking.

After you call “112” or “02” and report the theft, law enforcement officers are required to quickly respond and take the following actions:

announce the “Interception” plan;
inform traffic police posts and the traffic police information about the missing car.

Your immediate contact with law enforcement agencies will help you find the criminals faster.

Even if you reported the theft verbally over the phone, you still need to submit a written report within the next 2 days after discovering the theft. This cannot be done online; you only need to be present in person, where you will confirm that the car was stolen and hand over documents that certify ownership, as well as an additional set of keys.

Do I need to report the theft of my car to the tax office?

Every year, all car owners pay transport tax for the past year. Employees of the Federal Tax Service determine its value based on legislative norms, information from the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and Gostekhnadzor, which are responsible for issuing a document on state registration of a vehicle.
Having determined its size, they send a tax notice to the owner of the vehicle. This algorithm of actions is prescribed in paragraph 3 of Art. 33 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

A person who is not knowledgeable in matters of law will think that information about the theft was received by the Tax Committee automatically, and will not do anything.

Attention! The car owner himself must inform the tax authorities about the crime committed by contacting the Federal Tax Service at his place of residence and supporting the verbal story with a certificate from the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Department of Internal Affairs or Department of Internal Affairs.

This is the only way to exempt him from paying taxes.

How to do it

In order to seek help from the nearest duty station and report a stolen car, the owner must prove ownership of the stolen car.
The evidence may be a power of attorney, agreement or other document confirming ownership. Naturally, you will have to take these papers with you. However, situations can often arise when the car was stolen along with the documents. In such situations, there is also a solution. To do this, you will have to write an additional explanation, in which you should indicate the fact that there are no papers confirming ownership. In addition, a citizen has access to drawing up an official appeal. When conducting a dialogue with a representative of law enforcement agencies, it is necessary to explain to him how the owner learned about the fact of illegal seizure of the car.

Drawing up a contract for the purchase and sale of a car by proxy

Selling a car by proxy is a common situation these days. This is due to the fact that the owner cannot or does not want to deal with the process of complete transfer of rights himself, or because the car was received by the previous owner also through the execution of a power of attorney. This method of selling was often practiced in previous years.

A sample contract for the sale of a car by proxy can be downloaded from the link below. It takes into account the specifics of the procedure and fully complies with the requirements of civil law for the participation of a representative in commercial transactions.

Selling a car under a purchase and sale agreement by proxy

In order for a person who is not the owner of the vehicle to dispose of the vehicle at his own discretion, the owner must issue a power of attorney for it . The document is drawn up by a notary. The owner's representative can be an ordinary citizen , a legal entity or an entrepreneur .

The maximum period for which a power of attorney is issued is three years . If the validity period is not indicated in the document, the document is valid for one year (Read the article on the legal portal www.consultant.ru, clause 1, article 186 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The power of attorney lists all operations that an affiliate can perform. To sell a vehicle, you need permission to alienate (sell) the car, remove and register it with the traffic police, and re-register the MTPL agreement. The owner can draw up a document with a notary without a representative, but he must have with him the data of the authorized representative (preferably a photocopy of the passport).

Based on the received document, a contract for the purchase and sale of a car by proxy is drawn up - the form is filled out in triplicate . The owner's representative and the buyer sign it after the transfer of transport and funds. One copy of the contract remains with the representative, two are transferred to the buyer for registration of the vehicle with the traffic police.