My car was stolen and recovered totaled, what now?
 

This happened Sunday night around 11pm. The police recovered the vehicle at 2am Monday morning, so the thief only had it for approx 3 hours. The passenger front end was damaged by collision into a parked van. The drivers side door was also pushed in. It appears that the cop who stopped the thief, he was arrested btw, rammed my car from the drivers side door as the thief was trying to escape. This also caused the car to skid and hit the parked van and caused the collision that totaled my car. Is there anything I can do at this point to recoup my loss? It seems pretty clear that the officer caused my car to get totaled and since the thief is going to jail, I doubt he will pay me if I decide to sue him. I currently have the car at a friends garage and since I only had liability for insurance, so I had to pay for the towing $250. I know the cops were just doing their jobs and they were actually very courteous but now I have no car and I had to pay for towing. The only thing I can think of to do right now is to part the car out. I have everything that isn't damaged on the for sale section on this site. Has anyone ever been in this situation and can give me some advice?

Sue the low life but he will probably never earn a dime and he will never pay you. The cops did their job and you can't touch them.
You will have to spend your money if you want it fixed and I suggest you add theft to your insurance for as long you live in philly.

What kind of insurance do you have? I'm assuming you don't have comp/collision??

You can also find out if the person who stole it had any insurance (just a blind chance but it never hurts to ask) ... outside of that you can only get a judgement against the person who stole it, then take a lien on their future income thru the state ... that's about it.

sorry to hear that man. It its only body damage just go to junk yard and see if u can can find parts to replace it. u have a nice car in hand. Unless theres engine or transmission dmg. Fender, hood, is easy to replace. Plus Honda accord 94 has a radiator Support u can buy, you can just replace the whole front for like $100, thats if u have to time to do so of course. if u can take some pic of the damage, i can give u some details and where to find parts man.

Oh man! That sucks. Suing the guy is really your only solution. What a bummer!

Possibilities, What I did. File against him in small claims court ($3000.00) max in some states, costs about $100.00. File a IRS1099 against him, if he has a job??? Get his paycheck garnished. I hounded a jerk here in Alabama for a couple of years but I did finally get my money.