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Cars Disappear from Valet Parking Lot.


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Cars disappear from Riverside mall's valet lot

Monday, March 31, 2008

At least two vehicles were stolen from a valet service at the Shops at Riverside on Saturday night, one of the victims said Sunday.

Dorothy Cosimano of Oakland said she used the valet service to park her Cadillac Escalade while she and her sister's family dined at Maggiano's after a day in Manhattan.

"You think you are planning a nice family day ... and you end up with a nightmare," Cosimano said. "[The car] was going to be a year old next month. And I'm pregnant. I have two boys, that's why we have the big car."

Hackensack police declined to release any information Sunday, saying it would violate a department policy that allows only the chief to speak publicly.

The operator of the service, Central Parking System Inc., based in Nashville, Tenn., is the world's largest parking provider, with 2,700 lots holding more than 1 million spaces, according to its Web site. Company officials could not be reached Sunday afternoon for comment.

According to Cosimano, she and her sister, Tracey Ingrasselino of Mahwah, and their husbands had taken their three preschoolers into New York City to see the "Go, Diego, Go Live!" show at Radio City Music Hall. On the way home, they stopped at Maggiano's for a 5 p.m. dinner, handing over Cosimano's Escalade to the valets.

When they came out a few hours later, the valets at first brought them the wrong vehicle, the women said. When Ingrasselino and Cosimano protested, they were told that Cosimano's Escalade was gone — and with it, three strollers and three children's car seats.

"They pulled up a Range Rover and tried to pull one over on us," Ingrasselino said.

Ingrasselino said that as this was going on, another couple from Leonia tried to retrieve their car from the service, but it also had disappeared.

Ingrasselino said the valet service had left the keys in the Escalade, making it easier to steal.

"We were basically stranded," said Ingrasselino. "We had to call neighbors to get three car seats together. Ultimately, we didn't get home until 1 in the morning."

When Hackensack police arrived, Cosimano said, they wrote down a report and put two of the valets in a police cruiser and left.

Cosimano said she also tried to activate the OnStar system in her car, but she was told by OnStar that the connection had been severed in the vehicle.

Cosimano said the manager of the Shops at Riverside bought the families three car seats Sunday to replace the ones that were stolen.

Still, she said the theft will make her change her habits.

"I know if I valet, I will say, 'Give me my keys,' " she said. "That way, if they are going to steal it, it will be harder."

If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans.

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I originally got OnStar more for it's anti-theft provisions than for any other reason. However, they've discontinued installation of new systems to replace my old OnStar and cut me off. In the process of adjusting to this, I researched LoJack, which can't be easily "severed in the vehicle." Their web site:

<a href="http://www.lojack.com/" target="_blank">http://www.lojack.com/</a>

I paid $1500 for OnStar plus the subscription fee and cell phone fees. Pricing from memory (check the web site and call them about your car or motorcycle) is that LoJack is $750 for the base system, another $250 for the theft alert that calls LoJack if your car is molested, as OnStar does with its home base. There is a subscription fee after the first year or two for that.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Lojack is excellent. It's a one-time installation fee, not a subscription like Onstar. Here in New Jersey the police are tied into the Lojack system. Lojack makes it easier to recover a vehicle.

Edit: I should say, the STATE police are tied into the Lojack system. I wouldn't count on the town police departments to activate Lojack in the case of a theft. They might simply throw the police report into a pile and get around to it "eventually".

If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans.

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By the way, Riverside Mall is located in Hackensack, New Jersey. It's a VERY upscale mall. Only the most expensive shops are located in that mall.

If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans.

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I once registered a motorcycle in RI and went to the local state police barracks to get the vehicle inspected. They politely told me that the RI State Police don't inspect motor vehicles for registration anymore. I asked him why, and he frankly told me that they found too many stolen ones. It seemed pretty clear to me that RI was a clearing house for laundering stolen MV titles into the 1970s at least, like Tennessee. I guess somebody has to do it.

The thing about LoJack is that once you file a police report and call LoJack with your VIN, your car goes out as stolen to the entire LoJack network. There is no chance that your case won't be pursued unless your local police don't call LoJack and you don't follow up with LoJack. If my car had LoJack and was stolen, I would be all over it until LoJack assured me that my VIN was in the system.

The extra $250 gets you an alerting system like OnStar's that doesn't wait for you to find out that your car is gone and report it. That service does require a subscription fee, but the first year or two comes with the $250. I think that's a good idea to have it. If I used public parking for a new Cadillac in or near NYC, or had a nice Harley or a Suzuki Hayabusa and parked it in the open on a college campus, I would have the LoJack self-alerting option. An Escalade with this, Bluetooth and a nav system has everything you need from OnStar except the call-on-airbag-deployment and OBD readout, and you get to carry the cell phone on your belt or in your purse.

Of course, without OnStar you don't get the intelligent person answering the phone, with instant transfer to Cadillac/Buick/Pontiac/Chevrolet customer service on request, explanation of your dashboard messages and such. I'll always miss that.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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