It could have been stolen but I work nights in the downtown of a major city and it's amazing how many people forget where they parked their car. I've seen people who were totally despondent and exhausted from looking for their car for hours.

I parked in that deck roughly 4 times per week, so yeah initially I thought maybe I just got confused on where I parked and mixed it up with another day. So I searched the parking level twice and even went up a level and searched. No luck.

By this point I knew something was wrong so I went to security. A security guard and I went around in a golf cart and searched EVERY level of the parking deck (even though I told him I'd never even been above level 5 of the deck). Returning to the security office, we filled out some paperwork and I called the LV police dept so they could come down and look at the security video.

In the meantime, ANOTHER security officer and I went around in the golf cart and did ANOTHER search of all levels of the parking deck. Again no luck. But as an aside it was interesting to see how many people just hang out in parking decks. Even saw one guy who was obviously living out of his car.

So back to the security office. The police eventually came, I filled out more paperwork, was asked some questions, got an event number, and they told me to go home while they reviewed 8 hours of footage of where I told them I parked my car.

I will be calling back today to ask about the results of the security footage. According to the LV police website stats, they recover roughly 75% of all stolen vehicles within 7 days and there is a list of vehicles they recover on their website, so I'm still holding out some hope. So chances are actually NOT good that "it is already across the border", but the exact opposite, that it will be recovered.

I didnt expect this to become a discussion about insurance (I originally posted this so people pay more attention to their surroundings while in Vegas). But yeah like a few other people said the reason I didnt carry comp on a $1500 vehicle is because it's not smart. I havent carried comp (or collision) on that vehicle for years and while at the beginning of doing so I was taking on slight monetary risk, I have saved more than $1500 by not paying for comp as it's been over a decade since I've paid comp.

As an observation, what I find interesting from all the responses on here, only 1 or 2 had any type of empathetic response (not that I was looking for one) or tried to be helpful. It was either trashing my vehicle, making fun of me for forgetting where I parked, or falsely criticizing my insurance that I carried.

America 2018.

I agree with your decision not to carry collision, and I'm not criticizing you for your decision not to carry comp, but if it has been approximately 10 years from when you discontinued coverage (not sure exactly what 10+ equates to) then there is absolutely zero chance that you've saved $1,500 ($150/yr) by not carrying comp itself. Comp coverage isn't that expensive; especially for a car that's only worth $1,500.

I'm currently paying $170 per year for my comp coverage in Miami on a 2014 Jaguar XJL that was $85k when new and is currently worth about $35k. And the cost of my automobile insurance went up when I moved from Las Vegas to Miami a few years ago.

That aside, my condolences on the loss of your car. Even though it wasn't a painful financial loss, it's always a pain in the ass when you have to unexpectedly replace a car and have to go out and buy a replacement vehicle as quickly as possible. I went through that last year when my wife totaled one of our cars.

Is this at a casino? Which one?

I actually took the time to check the cost of comp where I had been living for the past 12 years. For my 1996 vehicle, it's $64 a year. for my same vehicle but the 2006 model, it's $144 a year. So yes, in all likely hood I i did not save $1500 over that time span so thank you so much for correcting me.

As far as if I should have been carrying comp all these years, I did some research on the internet. One line of thought said not to carry comp if you vehicle was over 10 years old. Another line of thought said to only carry comp AND collision if the combined rate was less than 10% of the vehicle value. So I still think I made the right decision.

So to sum up it looks like I would have come out a few hundred dollars ahead by carrying comp assuming I would have gotten $1500 from the insurance company. At this point $1500 doesnt mean very much to me either way, as it wouldn't allow me to fully purchase a vehicle or even pay a significant amount towards a vehicle in my price range.

Due to the fact that at this point I would be faced with purchasing a vehicle with between 50k-100k miles on it due to cost, I would be faced with the same proposition of having a vehicle that I would be more than likely having to dump money into for repairs and maintenance all while it's value is diminishing, I'm pretty certain that I will not be purchasing a new vehicle at all. Or at least trying out other options ie walking, public transportation, uber and see how that goes. I'm used to using public transportation even when I had a vehicle, so that won't be too much of a lifestyle change ie I know the level of inconvenience it can cause. I can always rent a vehicle for trips/vacations outside of town. The one big downfall will be not being able to go to areas not covered by public transportation that I frequented once or twice a month. So I guess over time I'll have to weigh the pro's and cons of not having a vehicle. That is, assuming my vehicle isnt recovered....

It happened at the Miracle Mile Self Parking deck. Miracle Mile is connected to Planet Hollywood.

Does security look the other way at people who live in their cars? Interested to hear how the review of the tape goes.

Using a ride service for your rare local trips that aren’t reachable by public transit, especially if you take transit to a nearby location should likely be cost effective.

Hope your car turns up dude. It would have to be a pretty stupid thief to drive a 22 year old car far out of Vegas as it's very possible a car that old could break down on a moderately-long trip. Hopefully they find it somewhere abandoned locally.

Did you happen to have an alarm on it? Not that it makes much difference, just curious about how little it might matter to that thief as far as cars with alarms.

So you got what you wanted but still are disappointed? That's more American than not being helpful.


He doesn't need to save $1,500. He needs to save $1,500 multiplied by the probability that his car is stolen over that time frame.

Where did I say I wanted empathy? What I DID say was I found the ratio of responses that were empathetic to those that were something other than helpful interesting. Like I said in at least one previous post, my point of posting this was to make people aware of this possibility that this stuff happens on The Strip. So I wasn't actually looking to get anything out of my initial post. But of course I'd rather read a response saying something empathetic than someone saying the car thief did me a favor.

Good point on the $1500....I wasnt thinking of it like that either. From what the other guy is saying, he's assuming my car gets stolen 100% of the time in that time frame.

Yes, I had a factory alarm on it. However reading about the alarm system, evidently on this era of Maxima, the alarm only works on the front doors and the trunk. The alarm is not activated for the 2 rear doors. Which is really weird Nissan designed it like that.

Cool I'll look into that....thanks!

I park there from time to time. Guess I better figure out where the cameras are and park near them.

^ Might want to use The Club on your steering wheel if you don't already, and there's also a brake pedal lock that's around the same price as The Club at auto parts stores. They're not thief-proof, but a deterrent at least.

This thread just gave me the green light to start opening up car doors looking for valuables. Clearly security won't do anything to stop me.

I actually use the club! Thought I was the only one. If I make a quick stop I'll leave the car running and throw the club on there...takes 5 seconds and gives me peace of mind. Or if I'm going out of town and leaving the car.

I park at PH occasionally so I appreciate the warning OP. It would be interesting to see the number of car thefts in that garage compared to other garages on the Strip. All the other garages nearby charge for parking and have cameras pointing at cars coming in and out.

I noticed at MGM properties that in the last few weeks I have to use my players card for a second time when I leave the garage. In the past the system would just read my license plate and let me out. The system taking longer to let cars out would be a bit of a hassle for car thieves (but they could still get out of course).

Well, then, sorry you got your car stolen. I think you did everything right.

If you are talking about future car insurance, yes we need to factor in the probability.

Here he is talking about what has happened already.... the probability of his car being stolen is 100%.

You're being results-oriented. The most important question is whether he made the right decision (years ago), and the question of whether the right decision led to actual profit is relatively meaningless.

I know that people made the claim that he actually made money (that he saved more than the value of the car times 100% probability). I don't know if that claim is true or not. But it doesn't really matter.

Why is that the most important question in the context of this thread?

The guy who originally addressed this (and you quoted) was talking about it from a historical perspective... i.e. based on the fact that it had been stolen, the guy saved money. You want to change it to whether the decision was right at the time that he stopped the insurance.

I would be surprised if there was any rational person who did not believe there was a risk of theft or damage in a parking lot in Las Vegas (or ANY city in the United States).

Situational awareness is something that many people lack, but generally people are going to be aware that the risks of loss are reduced, but not eliminated, in a better garage as compared to parking in a less desirable part of town.

Why would you leave the car running if it will be unoccupied ?

Because it's hard to start? Been there.