Back in 2010, the municipal police in the city of Granada towed away a car and impounded it after finding that it had no insurance. So far, nothing unusual.
Some days later, the owner of the vehicle asked permission to recuperate valuables and other items from inside the car, which was granted. She signed for a list of items taken and that was the last that the police saw of her.
Article 86 of Road Safety Law states that a town hall can keep a vehicle after it has been left for two months in the municipal police pound, providing that the owner is informed and notice given in the official provincial gazette as to the intentions of the town hall, and a further month has elapsed after publication. However, the ‘acquired’ vehicle can only be used for official police use.
As you can imagine, with the crisis in full swing, the amount of cars that have been ‘abandoned’ at the police vehicle pound is growing.
Anyway, the City Hall carried out all the necessary requirements, changed the ownership documents for it to figure as a police car and handed it over to be used as an unmarked police car; a role that this blue Peugeot fitted perfectly.
And then, about a week ago, the hitherto owner had been skipping gaily down the street and had come across her blue Peugeot. She thought, “hang on a moment,” checked the number plate and, lo, it was her car that should have been sitting in the police compound, she reasoned, so she phoned the Policia Nacional and reported it stolen.
Two policemen from this police body came round, checked the number plate and saw, effectively, that it had been reported stolen (by the woman a few hours earlier.), so they phoned her to tell her to come and collect it.
In the meantime, along came two Policia Local and started arguing with the two other policemen, pointing out that it was now an unmarked police car. When the two ‘blue’ policemen showed the two ‘brown’ policemen the new car docs, where it stated, unequivocally, that it belonged to the City Hall, the ‘brown policemen,’ conceded the point and phoned the woman, telling her not to bother…
And the moral of the story is: a police vehicle pound is not a permanent car park until you can come up with the money to retrieve it – if it’s been there for three months or more, you might well have lost it and the only way to get a ride in it after that is to get arrested.
(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)