A San Francisco woman spent nearly 15 hours over two days waiting to pick up her stolen vehicle from an impound lot, highlighting inefficiencies in the city’s recovery process.
Elizabeth Shipley discovered Tuesday morning that her 1994 Ford Ranger was missing from her Bernal Heights home and reported it stolen to the police. She didn’t realize it had been gone for two days as she rides BART to work. She was informed that the truck had been towed after the thief left it blocking a driveway in Potrero Hill.
Shipley went to the 7th Street impound lot around 10 a.m., expecting a quick recovery. Instead, she waited until nearly 7 p.m., hoping for an officer to arrive and process the vehicle as recovered. No officer arrived that day.
“I was required to be present at the impound lot … and wait in the hopes that an officer would become available,” she said.
On Thursday, Shipley returned to the lot and waited five hours before officers processed her vehicle and allowed her to take it home.
Shipley believes the delay stemmed from a city policy requiring vehicle owners to be present while officers verify and process recovered stolen vehicles. A federal employee, she expressed frustration with the inflexibility of the process.
“They need to be able to say, ‘OK, obviously, we can’t ask this person to spend an indefinite period of time here, so maybe we can make an appointment for somebody to come meet you to deal with this problem,’ ” Shipley said.
While praising the efficiency of the staff at the impound lot, Shipley called for policy adjustments to prevent similar situations, especially given police staffing challenges.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency deferred questions to the police. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“The idea that I’m just going to have to every day get up and go to the tow impound yard and compete with whatever crisis is happening in San Francisco until they have time for me — that doesn’t make any sense to me,” Shipley said.