Hello,
I am a new member and am turning to all of you for help please. I am from Orange county and I don't know what to do and I thought maybe you guys could help I always read stuff here about my car Its a long story so get comfortable.
My car is or should say was very clean. Its been garage kept and I am pretty much the original owner as it only had 6,000 on it when I purchased from the dealer. I have always washed it myself and taken good care of it. I accidentally left my hood unlatched one night as I was called away from it while looking under my hood as I had smelled gas on my way home from work and didn't completely latch is as I was planning on going back out but got involved in something else and forgot Anyways next morning going to work all okay on side streets then hit the fwy ramp got up to about 45 and wham the hood flew up smashed into my wind shield and scared me to death I couldnt see to pull over and at the same time realizing I forgot to latch it the night beforee and then cried and cried and then called AAA because my car had no dents no scratches had never been hurt and here I went and hurt it bad and I was so mad at myself for so long! It dented up my hood and cracked up my windshield but not busted out I could still drive with the windshield and my boyfriend banged on the hood so it would close and latch and man was I mad at myself. I replaced the glass about 2 months after it happened in Jan of 2016 I don't have extra monies. Sorry this is a long story but I need to explain why I am asking what I will ask of anyone and everyone whom can help me. So this Christmas my X husband said he would buy me a new hood for my car for a Christmas gift and have it painted, he's still my best friend and always will be and he loves Christmas more then anyone I have ever known and spreads his joy. He works for a heavy equipment rental yard and he called the paint and body place they send all there stuff to as its local and real close to where I work. I thought they would buy the hood, paint it the Chevy white because my paint is like new still and then just put it on my car. No that's not it. They said they would need my car for 4 days and came to my work and took it when I had transportation for myself worked out. On the 3rd evening of it being gone I had told the contact the day before I actually went there that I needed to go by and get my glasses out of my car as I needed to drive at night. So when I went there
my car was the only one in the big warehouse of this place and there were some old beaters sitting around outside the place and I noticed they painted my perfect fenders as well and now they had orange peel and runs and I said you didn't need to paint my vendors, why did you paint them and he snapped back at me saying its blending we have to blend. I said but now they have runs and orange peel and he said we are not done we have to blah blah blah still. I left upset I didnt know they would do that. The next day was the day my car would be given back and I was so excited I had tears in my eyes I couldn't wait for it to look all fixed and pretty again. Well they delivered it about 4:30 in the afternoon and the guy got out and got in the truck of the car that fallowed him and they left. So I of course checked it all out the hood and paint job and that's when it all started. First I noticed all the runs and orange peel where still there. Then I noticed a ding in the new hood on the passenger side up by the windshield and then noticed a small dent on the passengers fender that wasn't there before and then looking at the front of my car something didn't look right and it hit me that it wasn't my bumper and grill assembly as mine had a gold Chevy bow tie and this one was silver maybe originally gold but not anymore and my chrome had no scratches this one had a lot the rubber part on the passenger side on mine had a scuffed up area on one corner where the rubber actually stuck up a little in the 3 small scraped areas, this one didn't and I said this isn't my bumper. Then I began examining my car and found my back glass window wasn't mine either as mine had lots of scratches in the tint from hauling my kids bikes around when they were little and even though you couldn't tell from the outside I know they were there as I have been washing my car inside and out for 18 years the defroster still worked on mine but this one that's on my car now has no scratches in the tint and the defroster doesn't work. I called the guy as soon as I noticed the dent and the orange peel, before I realized my parts where swapped and said that the paint has orange peel and drips and a dent and he said he would come by the next day and take a look. I told my X husband about the paint he came by to look at it and that's when I started noticing the other items being swapped for crap parts! my ex husband wasn't much help and of course I felt awful complaining when he was doing something so very nice for me but on the other hand I didn't feel I should accept what they had done. When he (EX) was acting like there was no way they would swap my parts his company he worked for had been using them for like 36 years and he wasn't backing me I couldn't figure out what was up with him and then my daughter told me that hes having issues with his place of employment already and cant make waves this is a whole other unfair story that I wont go into and he had already paid the place when they called him and said they were taking it back to me $600.00 no less, really gave him a deal huh?. So now I had ruined my ex husbands Christmas as he had called the guy regarding the paint job and the guy told him to tell me to take it back and he would fix the paint but by then I had noticed my parts being gone and no way would I ever leave my car with him again. So the next day instead of waiting for "him to come check it out" I went to his shop (no notice) and went in the office where he would be and another manager was sitting at his desk and I asked for the guy I needed to see and this guy couldn't even look me in the eye so that told me something. Then the guy whom did my car came into the office and said okay lets take a look at this and we walked out to the street where I had parked. He looked at the hood and fenders and said he would order a new hood I hadn't said anything yet and when he said that I said what did you do with my bumper and back glass the ones on here are not mine in a very calm normal voice and he shot back at me yelling and calling me crazy and saying hes calling my Ex and walking away back to his shop and I said I have a picture of my obvious gold bow tie bumper right here on my phone look, but he kept walking calling me all kinds of things I'm not. Now I am in customer service and if a customer where to tell me he got his equipment back with other parts then what he sent it in with, knowing I personally didn't swap any parts but knowing I have other employees that maybe could have I would have to at least look into this and not just start yelling and calling my customer a crazy person. So this told me instantly he was involved and guilty of the crime. Now it is only a week before Christmas and I have ruined Christmas for my Ex and all around him as hes under the impression this paint company may contact his place of employment saying there's a crazy lady blah blah blah. So I promised him I would do nothing until after the holidays in an attempt to try and fix the mess and stress it caused him and this also gave me time to figure out what to do after all I really had no way of proving they took my parts other then I know my car like the back of my hand and they did take my parts!!!. The picture I had on my phone did not include my license plate unfortunately and my home had been broken into 2 years ago and they took my video camera that was in its case along with all my tapes in the bag and I had videos of it and my children growing up all gone now I will never get them back. All my photo albums are boxed up and stored so my son and wife and grandchild could stay there for a year and I moved into my boyfriends, shes a slob I'm not so I couldn't stay at my home.
So I really have no pictures I can get to and certainly no detailed ones like I need and I am telling you every day I noticed something else they took and go home crying. I mean here is a list of some of the things. Bumper,back lift glass, my whole dash, radio, ash tray, all my door instrument panels and all plastic molding around doors, every emblem on the car. My gear shift, my break and gas peddle, all my seat belts but the back middle one they forgot I guess, my center console. my carpet is all cut up under the peddles now and I have a big gap between the dash and where the side part is my door a fixes to. I cant have the driver door open and the back door open and then shut the front door without it hitting the back door now. Jeez I could go on and on. My glove box. and whats stupid is you can see the difference in colors of the plastic pieces they took compared to what it should be. They actually cut the inside top door trim pieces to make them fit!!! okay so anyways my boyfriend says "you no proof" ( real supportive huh) and its awful driving it around the seat belts that touch me are all gross and dirty and frayed and I feel just like I did when my home was broken into so violated.
My car has or had the Grey Graphite interior the outside is white I have the back door that folds down and the glass goes up but the way you open the bottom is from the inside a handle lever it is not on the outside of the gate. I have been all over the internet trying to find pictures of the original parts and close ups of the door interiors and seat belts and have found nothing. Now the one thing I thought I had today was because they missed taking the center back seat belt and I know its the original because when my daughter was little she wrote her initials in pink on the belt part and that's still on there. Well I noticed that the metal part of the belt you buckle into the slot has numbers on them. The back middle one still there has TC348 while all the others that were swapped have TF556 and the backs TF583. So I called Chevy to see what ones really go to my car and they were no help as they buy these from some other vendor.. .... so now I am back at square one.. These ugly gross seat belts they put on have a big white label affixed on the belt down at the bottom that says assembled in Mexico... mine didn't have those... Is there anyone out there that has the same model and year as me that could look at the seat belts and see if all the belts have corresponding numbers like all start with TC ???? can you take pictures sitting in your drivers seat where the dash ends and the door frame starts to show there's not a 12 inch gap there? a picture of when you are bending down by the break peddles and look at the center console that you can not see all the crap that should be hidden by the console and not see a bunch of engine stuff. A picture of the molding around the insides of the doors that they are not cut, a picture of the outside gaps between the front fender and the front door and gap from front door to back door and back door to the back fender, the front bumper and inside the back glass when its up and the tail gate when its down where it attaches to the car and the inside of the wheel wells and the suspension? yes I think they even took my suspension as my car rides so ruff now and it didn't before its never ever been off road... A picture of the engine up close as they took something that has to do with my heater because it no longer works and when I turn it on I can smell like electrical burning and the vents are all gross and nicotine stained and my engine looks all different too..... I know its asking a lot but I need to show the police when I go that this is not how my car was and these pictures are how it was and is supposed to be and they need to be punished and I want my car back the way it was. Obviously one of them owns one to have so many parts to just slam onto my car while stealing all mine even though as he was yelling at me and walking away said "no one even has one and I'm the business of selling parts". The selling parts part was so dumb all I could say was exactly!!!! that's why you took all mine!!!!! After I got my car back from them the engine light came on and it was running very bad like struggling for gas on streets not so bad on hwy. The only major thing I have ever had to have done to it was the fuel pump once so I took it into the shop. It ended up being the spider (great) so I had to have that replaced for 800.00 didn't have the money had to charge it and putting 800.00 you don't have into a car that doesn't even feel like yours anymore sucked, pardon my language but truly. My car only has 172,000 miles on it and its a 98 and it lives in my garage and always has had a garage for its home, no rust anyplace I even clean inside the door jams when I wash it, of course not the greased areas but all the rest. So its been very well taken care of I love my car and everyone that knows me knows this and I'm the only one to ever drive it, its not been shared with my Ex or kids whom are all grown up now. I would really love these detailed pictures as I have decided to go to the police department and tell them what happened and even though I have no actual proof they did this to my car I have not washed it since I got it back and its rained like crazy but it hit me the other night that the gross stupids finger prints have to be all over the inside of my car and putting on a new hood doesn't require touching every place from front to back up and down the whole inside of my car and you can tell that all the nuts bolts and screws have been tamper with or drivers been in and on them I don't know the proper description for that. Any advise would be greatly appreciated and in my dealings in the past with police officers they have not been real helpful or eager to do their jobs. When my house was broken into I had to practically make them take the obvious finger prints on my glass wardrobe and I had to tell them to look outside the window at the shoe print that was left and basically I had to do all the investigative work and the fallow up officer told me most break ins if solved are solved by the victims investigating and not the officers. I'm not saying all police are like this but they gave me the feeling I was inconveniencing them when I thought this is their job, their duty, guess I was wrong. Thanks for listening this has made me feel a little better and by the way I never refer to my Ex husband as my Ex its just I don't want to mention names of the people and place involved, my luck lately they will read this..

Thank you,

 

Too bad you joined under these circumstances. Sorry to sound like, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, How did you enjoy the play?" But welcome to the forum. I believe your blazer was stolen and a worn out blazer that's similar to yours was returned to you. You hand washed your blazer for 18 years, that's all the proof I need. I'm the same way, I KNOW my car.

There's a lot of money in stolen cars and parts. GM countered that by hiding vehicle specific tags and numbers on parts that are easy and not so easy to change. Don't worry so much about not having your pictures. The proof can be seen by someone who knows where to look. Trust me. The thief missed something somewhere.

Talk to the auto theft specific part of the police dept. Bring them your registration and the vehicle they gave you. Realize, if you stir this up, there may be consequences. Like your ex husband could lose his job. You mentioned he's not treated fairly, but still, they could counter with a bad reference. I'm always up for throwing rocks at a wasps nest, if you are too afraid to post on an open forum, private message me, I have friends that are in law enforcement.

 

I am so grateful for your reply thank you and I will see if I can get in to the right department as you suggested for help at the station. maybe I should phone and see if I have to make an appointment? I have not familiarized myself with this site yet and don't really know how to maneuver around but I want to thank you and hope I will be able to ask for more of your advice. I am a little disappointed so many views and you were the only one to offer help and advice. I did ask for a little much from a lot of people that owe me nothing and don't know me but anything is was worth a try. Thanks again and I would like to private message so I can get more help I have lots of questions but don't know how to. lol.. and I think I'm not aloud to as well?