Stolen Tahoe recovered stripped. Please advise.
 

Tahoe was recovered completely stripped of everything inside and battery. Here's my dilemma. Tow yard won't let me test a battery to see if the engine is still good unless I pay their fee. I don't want to pay the fee and the engine is no good and I decide to leave it. Please advise on what you would do. Should I get it towed and fix it back slowly, sell for remaining parts b/c body is still in good condition or just call it a loss? I couldn't post pics but here is a link to the stripped car. Thanks in advance.

IMAG0177 (1) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It really depends on how much Storage Fees have accrued against it, and it depends on if they stripped engine parts off of it as well.

I'd say if the charges were over $750, then forget it.
You probably could "part out" the remainder of the vehicle for more than that (which is what the Storage Lot is hoping you'll do), but, that takes time and resources.

Do you have the resources to take the rest of the vehicle apart (engine/transmission, fenders/front end, differential) and sell those individually ?

I don't think it will be worth your time/money/effort to refit the vehicle.
Why don't you call up a Wrecking Yard, and ask them what they'll give you for the vehicle, then make a more educated decision.

Test battery will not help you. If ANY of the electronic modules have been stolen or damaged, it won't start.

...sad that you have to get robbed again by the towing company.

I didn't think about that, this is a really good point...

It might just be best to walk away from this mess, unless you know there are parts you can part out and make coin from, its not going to be worth the trouble having the carcass sitting in your driveway for months...

Thanks to everyone that responded. I really appreciate it. I'm going to yard with mechanic today and will start calling salvage yards. The tow guy asked for my key in case I don't want it. He seemed really interested in the truck as I'm sure he has a pal that can fix it up for cheap. It's all been so stressful but I must look at the bright side and no one was hurt. We can always replace material things. Thanks again!

Looks to me like seats and door panels. If that's all that they took (besides battery) might be easily brought back.

No insurance?

tell him you will sell him the key for the same cost as the tow fee.

Plus any Storage Charges ! ;)

They also took cadillac converter, switched new tires with their own old tires and some other pieces were missing from underneath the hood. It did start but made a terrible sound. The truck had minimum insurance as it was already paid for and adding theft didn't make sense (at that time) b/c I would have purchased vehicle within a year or so paying the additional cost. Right now to repair everything is in the thousands so I'm going to let salvage yard give me some cash for it and look for something else that's not "popular" in my city.