FERNDALE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Imagine your car is stolen right out of your driveway. You report it and after a month, you count it a loss and settle with insurance.
Months later, you find out the car was never really "missing" at all.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report below:
It happened to a woman from Ferndale.
On Sept. 14, 2025, Sharon Crane's 2015 Hyundai Sonata disappeared from her driveway. Surveillance footage captures a car pulling up, someone got out and stole it in a matter of seconds.
"I came out and I was in shock and disbelief," Crane recalled.
The 64-year-old retiree said Ferndale police came over right away and took a police report.
“And I hadn’t heard anything, no sightings or anything and I called them a couple times and they hadn’t heard anything either," she recalled.
After a month, her insurance counted it as a loss and paid her $8,900 in October. About two weeks ago, Crane said she got an unexpected call from Ferndale police.
“They said that my car had been found in Detroit,” she said.
Six months later, Crane learned her car had been found on Griggs Avenue near 7 Mile Road in Detroit, about 2 miles from her home.
But when she looked at the Detroit Police Department's investigative report, the bittersweet relief turned to pure disgust.
The police report shows DPD recovered it the same day it disappeared from her driveway.
“Why did it take 6 months to let me know?" Crane asked. "They knew about the car, they had the car before I even knew it was stolen."
While her insurance rates were likely spiking, her car sat untouched in a Detroit police impound lot. Her belongings were still inside. The car was in perfect condition. But because six months had passed and the insurance company had already paid the claim. Crane no longer owned her car.
"Now it goes to auction. Cause I called my insurance when I found out they found it, seeing what I could do and she said now it goes to auction," Crane explained.
“And I have to bid on it like anybody else if I want it back.”
So, where was the disconnect? Ferndale police took the report, but Detroit police recovered the vehicle.
"And that's the reason I reached out to you is if it happened to me, how many other people did it happen to?" Crane said.
7 News Detroit reached out to DPD. A spokesperson said systems and processes are in place to make sure owners are notified the moment a vehicle is recovered. The department is looking into this situation to see how it was handled.
