Marigot/Philipsburg:--- Owners of vehicles that are bearing French number plates that were stolen and recovered by Police on the Dutch side of the island are calling on KPSM to make contact with the Gendarmerie or the various insurance companies when they recover any stolen vehicles bearing French number plates. The vehicle owners told SMN News that on several occasions the recovered vehicles which most of the time are stripped are handed over to the various towing companies by police instead of seeking the vehicle owner. On Monday, the distraught owner of a vehicle that was stolen on the French side said that their car was stolen on Friday night and by Saturday morning the Police on the Dutch side recovered the vehicle and handed it over to a towing company. The owners said when they contacted Philipsburg Police Station an officer told them that the vehicle was impounded and it is being stored at the towing company since there is an ongoing investigation. "The officer told us on Saturday that he cannot release the vehicle until Monday and he could not provide us with a report to take to the Gendarmerie the same day. On Monday when we went to the Philipsburg Police Station we were given a report on the description of our vehicle and we were told to pick up the car at a towing company in Sucker Garden. When we reached there the owner of the towing company demanded that we pay him $250.00 for towing and storage. I started to cry because I have three small children, all our documents including passports that were inside the car were all stolen and I pleaded with the owner of the towing company not to charge us but he insisted that we must pay him $150.00 before the vehicle can be moved. We paid the money but with a heavy heart."
When SMN News was contacted we immediately contacted the Police Management Team and we were told that the towing company was not supposed to charge the owners of the vehicle for the towing and storage because the cost will be paid by the police since they are the ones that impounded the vehicle pending an investigation. Commissioner of Police Carl John made contact with the tow truck company and instructed him to return the monies to the owners of the vehicle because he was clearly double charging for his services.
Fortunate for the owners, the tow truck company returned the monies ($150) without any dispute. However, they claimed not to have known that they could not charge the owners and the police for the same job. When SMN News contacted the towing company they told us that the police normally don't pay for the services and therefore they have no choice but to bill the owners of the stolen vehicle.
French Insurance Companies crying for help.
At least two insurance companies that are registered on the French side told SMN News that they are in a worse predicament. The two insurance brokers who preferred to remain anonymous said that when vehicles bearing French number plates are stolen they are obliged to pay out the owners of their vehicles one month after it was reported stolen. One of the insurers said that in most cases the vehicles are recovered the next day or two after it was stolen by the Dutch side police and these vehicles are turned over to the towing companies. The insurers said that no information on the vehicles that were recovered is ever turned over to the Gendarmerie or to the insurance companies. They said that the towing companies know the French insurance law so they would keep the vehicle for two or three months before they contact them and when that is done the storage fees they have to pay is far more that what the wreckage is worth. "Most of time when we are contacted we have to leave the vehicles with the towing companies because we already paid out the owner for the vehicles and to pay storage fees for a wrecked or stripped vehicle does not make much sense." The insurers said they believe that the police are in cahoots with the tow truck companies. "Somebody is paying somebody here because the police and the gendarmes work closely yet they do not send information on stolen vehicles that they recover to the Gendarmes, we do not know if the Gendarmes turn over information to the Dutch side police either when they recover stolen vehicles with Dutch number plates but what we know every vehicle has an insurance sticker indicating which insurance company the vehicle is insured with. If the police is not in the rip off business with the towing companies then they would at least make an effort to contact the insurance companies. All of the towing companies both French and Dutch side sell car parts. These parts are from the vehicles that were stolen and recovered by police and turned over to them." One insurer told SMN News that towing companies sell parts as if they are auto parts dealers but they don't buy parts overseas neither do they buy scrap cars.
