I know identical story from here, Canada. Only it wasn't valet but oil change place. Mechanic molded the key, got the address and sold it to another group who grab the car from friend of mine house. So my question is...how to avoid this? Don't go to mechanic or dealership....?
Pinio

 

Do whatever you have to do to ensure that these people have no access to knowing your physical address. That's the key. If you must give them an address for whatever reason then give them a work address or the address of a close friend or relative. The part that makes the whole scheme work is they have to know where they can get the car when it's parked and unguarded all throughout the night...the most likely place is your residence.

 

Hey, I worked as a valet when I was a kid. Let me tell ya, don't do it if you can help it. I had joy rides in some nice cars. I got a chance to experience Porsche, Ferrari, etc at a young age. It was wrong but at least I didn't dog anyone's car. Some of the other guys would really dog the cars...wheel burnouts, drifts (we didn't call it that), eat food, etc. If an owner left the car overnight, omigosh, the guys would take it home overnight. There were all types of damage but the owner would stick up for the guys.

 

wow!!!....what a story that was, man!!.......
thy're bunch of amateurs i shud say. for some reason, i never attemped to a vallet prkg.
lots of things can go wrong, espclly the ones thy show on tv. either thy drive yr car fr fun or
start snooping around inside the car.

well guys..........no more vallet fr everyone!

 

Thanks everyone. You guys are the best!!!!

You wouldn't believe what they left in the car. I had a really expensive tire gauge in the glovebox and part of a funny cigarette in a film can in the console storage along w/ all kinds of receipts insurance papers and registrations.

 

Another helpful hint...... don't keep your registration in the car. Keep it with you (PITA) but the valet / parking people will not have your address. If the car gets stolen & the theives are pulled over they cannot even guess who "lent" them the car.

 

i dont even live where my car is registerd at so if they decided to come get the car they wont find it.

 

Blah ha ha ha ha ha, hilarious!!

 

So where did you valet the car at?

Glad to hear you got the car back in one piece. Its rare that a stolen car is returned without half the car already missing.

 

Glad to hear you got your car back.

Sometimes, you don't have much choice but to valet-park your car. At a restaurant, I would just park it myself, but if I have to head out to the city, almost all the places require you to valet park it.

 

I'm glad you got your car back. I had a 3000GT VR-4 stolen in front of my house a few years ago. Not a trace of it ... it's gone. Probably to the chop shops in the Bronx or on a boat to eastern Europe.