Shock: Surfer loses $12,000 insurance claim after car stolen with “Surf Lock” attached!

The price of convenience… 

An Australian surfer has discovered, at the cost of twelve gees, that shoving car keys in a locked box shackled to the bumper bar voids your insurance if your ride gets stolen. 

The unidentified Volvo-driving surfer lost the dispute with his insurance company who had denied his claim for $12,202, which covered external and internal damages of the recovered car, hire car costs and personal effects.

See, if you were to actually read the conditions of your policy, all of ‘em say you gotta remove all keys from within, on, or in the immediate vicinity of the car while unattended. 

Locked box or no locked box.

Surfer said he wasn’t “clearly informed” of the policy deets. 

The court disagreed.

“There is a clear causal link between the act of leaving keys within, on, or in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle and that of the vehicle being stolen,” the Australian Financial Complaints Authority ruled. “Whilst the complainant took steps to lock the vehicle, the keys were still attached to the vehicle by being in the key safe on the towbar when he went surfing. On this basis, the insurer is entitled to decline the complainant’s claim as he failed to comply with the full conditions of cover under the policy.”

A quandary, yes? 

Man can’t put a immobiliser key in his wetsuit; getting a non-immobiliser key for wetsuit don’t work either, ’cause you still have to leave the immobiliser key in the car. 

Read the ruling here. 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
125 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Joe Deal

Like we say in Makaha- It no matter if you lock your door … the boys will still score … Oh Makaha is nice and free, as free as can be …

grumpy local

Key in condom, up your clacker… problem solved!

BrooklynBarrelDodger

here in the states if you drive a stick shift you can pretty much leave the keys in the ignition without worrying about the car being stolen. i do worry about the spare surfboard sometimes though.

ValiantScorn

He’s a San Fran hooman. He’s trying to distinguish between *OB that’s worth surfing, and OB in that dump called SF.

James Bickerton

The best way …. leave it open with nothing inside … maybe a dollar
I did the same at my old inner city house …. we had no cash , no bling bling , no drugs , no hi tech shit
What the fuck were they going to steal ?

ValiantScorn

GOOD! Start stealing more cars(or whatever those clown car looking things are)! You candy a&$ millennial came lately surfers are nothing but soft, girls! Yes, when you hide your key in your “safe/hidden spot”, somebody sees you do it. This is a part of Surfing. Welcome to the uncertainty in life,….riskville. Daddy/Mommy didn’t put bubble wrap around your car, or hire you a security guard? Guess you have bigger problems than me stuffing you, EVERY WAVE!

Antipodes

I remember going to Aussie pipe years ago with a mate and being paranoid about having the car robbed. We left the car unlocked and 10 bucks on the dash along with a full pack of smokes as a small bribe for any thieves that might be around. We returned from the surf and were surprised to see everything untouched.

James Bickerton

Our mate , a semi pro surf photographer , lost his cameras from the car there in the 80s but then made a killing taking photo of body boarders in the 90s .. so somehow nature balanced itself out ….

Ricky Spanish

Had the same experience there, always wondered if it was luck or if there was actually honor among thieves

madmaxmedia

You can please some thieves some of the time, but you can’t please all thieves all of the time.

Jordy's pout

Is this the first nail in the surf lock industry’s snapper rock coffin?

James Bickerton

Car Parker Coffin may hold the key to this inquiry ?

Eddie Haiku

My mate’s car got nicked
From 13th Beach just last month
Unlucky for some

Phat-wan kerr

where the fuck is Chas? be careful Dezza, he might be planning on leaving you and beach grit with empty pockets and no shark stories. looks like he might be cashing in on virology.

Shark Allies, a California-based advocacy group, claims five COVID-19 vaccine candidates are using squalene – a natural oil produced in shark liver.

Chief Hot stuff

He’s in Cabo getting body packed.

ValiantScorn

Never disturb a cook, when fresh pseudophedrine has entered the market.

SSD

“mate, Ive got the perfect solution to your upside down situation with the Violvo that needs a new motor!”

Where do bogans disappear cars to? Drive em into the bush and set on fire? Urban chop shops? Ship em in a sea can to an island?

Waterproof Polo

Bush is littered with burned out post joy riders stolen whips. It’s sad when riding through and you see all that junk uglying up the place.

Gino

Um..nah. I like to make life easy on myself.

Lemoore Surfing Club

I got my car stolen at OBSF during a quick dawn patrol. Had my keys stashed under the tire. Got a full insurance payout!

SSD

Did you report leaving the keys hidden? I’m assuming the car ended up in TJ? Totalled out is the best. Sucks if they find it and it’s all beat to shit.

Lemoore Surfing Club

My insurance agent surfs with me all the time and coached me through the claim. Car was found a week after the payout in a grocery store parking lot. Didn’t take it back.

madmaxmedia

Can you give us the short bullet point version? Might come in handy for us sometime…

Beef & Beer
Uneducated

Dam fool beefy…coffee would be charging 200 bucks for that

SSD

He won an insurance claim and got a custom dick stick

Uneducated

My mum just accidentally started her car when it was in gear, and it went through the front wall of her house

Wall has to be replaced but it was a filled in garage door…so damage was all superficial.
She put a claim to her house insurance. I am a carpenter so planned to put in a quote

Insurance company sent 2 builders out to quote…mum spoke to insurers and said she would like to get her own quote, they were happy

I spoke to a mate who does insurance work and he said…dont hand in a quote, just tell her to ask for a cash settlement

I had already worked it out and planned to quote it at 9k…which i thought was very generous…maybe 4 days work, 4k in materials

The insurance company…comminsure…paid her 26 500…which was the amount of their lowest quote

If they spent as much energy just getting genuine prices on repairs…maybe they wouldn’t have to spend as much trying to weasel their way out of paying claims

Happy days for the uneducated one

Chief Hot stuff

That’s it, I’m upping my rates!!

Uneducated

You could never charge what your worth bex

Chief Hot stuff

That’s either a compliment or a slap

Waterproof Polo

Surplus Value Bexy. To get all Marxist on ya!

astro

Bex is millennial- he’s been brought up to feel special.

Chief Hot stuff

I do have special needs.

Uneducated

Nah thats a high compliment. I used that line once on this nice single mum i knew many years ago…she was doing it super tough and was seriously considering doing a bit of sex work on the side

SSD

I trust you did like any self respecting BeachGritr and parlayed some of that dough into new boards?

Uneducated

Blew it all on coffee

Can you just lend me another ten bucks…thats all I need now

NEGATRON

Hey shut the fuck up! don’t you dare ruin my gig.

Chief Hot stuff

I just charged a lot more than usual today and they didn’t blink, thanks to the uneducated

mine.mine.mine

similar here. i am a builder as well, car driven into a building i own, prices were insane for the repair from those insure companies, insurance guy had a different price, I guess they negotiate on the total. I said to a buddy, you want the 8k, he said hell yes. I said fix my building and took the insure quote.. I couldn’t fuck them any harder than that. it was a 3k$ job. crazy how stupid, plus we are all paying for it, to get those insurecomm guys rich. The bid guys, the foremen, the driver, the former fireman that gets a job because the other firemen call that guy when property accidents happen… it is such a fucking racket.. costs us all in fucking premiums

Uneducated

Yep
I saw the details of the quote…the costs were covered

They included scaffolding (the wall is 2m high, on flat ground)
Asbestos inspection and removal. There is not even any fibro in the wall, just gyprock
Engineering report
Slab inpection etc etc

Its was 3 pages long

mine.mine.mine

my buddy got more work from the insurance co because he was so good and quick and “affordable”. he said man, I will do these jobs all day.. at half the insurcomm prices.. fuck it is so wrong

SSD

Going through that right now with fire burnout insurance quotes. “Hi, our well pump equipment burned, can you get me a written estimate to replace everything remotely close to it with the most expensive parts and labor you can come up with?”. I try to help the folks that truly got fucked by the fire but there’s a lot of people that barely had any damage and want a $50k quote to replace the whole shiteree that will never get replaced even if the insurance pays out. They’ll most likely buy a new Polaris Razor or boat with the dough.

mine.mine.mine

right.. fuckers

Capt Sensible

I leave nothingof value in the car and dont lock it with windows down , cunts think its not worth touching

Waterproof Polo

I’m ocd as fuck with locking my car, have to check it three times for some reason. And feeling for my key in my leggie cuff or wettie constantly between waves. And, well, I’m generally racked with compulsive behavior including reading insurance contracts, just not digital ones.
Never thought lock boxes looked too trustworthy. Here mr thief, this is my key spot. Behind the door mirror used to be favorite of mine.

Uneducated

I am the complete opposite…fucking hopeless. I am lucky if I remember to take the key out of the ignition

At least three times i have paddled in from a surf and found my car gone. Each time it was a mate who took it, and said “the car door was wide open and keys in the starter…how could I not take it?”

Jordy's pout

I’ve left doors unlocked a few times before so I’ve trained myself to do a 360 locks and lights check before I leave the car. It avoids the “did I, didn’t I? ” stress in the lineup.

In the past I’ve come back to find I’d left my keys on the roof of the car, but everything still there and intact. Another time I went surfing on my motorbike (board rack fitted) and I left my keys hanging in the topbox. The bike was still there with keys still hanging when I got back, but the topbox was empty.

ValiantScorn

Here’s what I know from the investigation into an area back in the 90’s(Torrey Pines). The thieves hide, and watch where people reach before a surf. If they can’t find it, (2) of them will shake the vehicle, and key’s tend to fall and cling-cling-cling.

James Bickerton

Locks only keep honest people out .

SSD

That’s when they we’re on the East county biker meth, spun for weeks straight, seeing menehunes

grumpy local

Under the tyre, long as no one sees you stash it, can’t beat it.

Beef & Beer

Box
Lockers
Matter

SSD

Good cause

Otto

Can’t believe he let his attorney argue the “wasn’t clearly informed” theory, first used by Wilbur Kookmeyer and now rarely brought before any court of competent jurisdiction.

SSD

Totally! The fact he took it to court is so ridiculous. Pro bono bozo lawyer?

Tomas' silky smooth arms

It didn’t go to court. AFCA, a complaints authority made the decision. No lawyers would usually be involved in that process and it’s done on the papers after the insurer declined the claim. He could appeal the determination to a court if he wanted.

SSD

Speaking of fucked up car shit. How ‘bout Neuslums latest edict? Fuck man, all electric by 2035 and the state can’t produce enough electricity during a heat wave as it is. Of course cars will be unlocked with RFID chip implants by then so keys won’t be a thing. Unless the carjacker, fearing no police or laws against grand theft auto, could just cut your implants out of you to steal your $980,000 Tesla

Chief Hot stuff

When people say
Renewables
Do they mean wind and solar?
They don’t really believe that’s viable do they?
Theyre kidding right?
Millions of cars running on wind and sunlight.
Plus factories industry.
What’s the deal SSD?
Sounds like another Coffee situation
All talk and no electricity

SSD

It boggles the mind. They are literally shutting off power- rolling blackouts because the demand outweighs supply and somehow there’s going to be enough to charge everyone’s cars?
Id like to find out if the Leemore wave has been shut down because of it.

shootsthen

i bet most people, 20 years ago, had no idea theyd be shopping on the internet. We’re not going to be the jetsons anytime soon but it’s inevitable that we transition from fossil fuels; the writing is on the wall……… i wonder what they did with complainers back in the day? Complainer Bjorn in 900AD: “did you hear what Harald is planning? Taking ships across the sea to raid monasteries is the craziest thing ive ever heard. we can’t even feed everyone as it is!” William the conquerer in 1066: “thank goodness my great great grandfather Rollo was a fucking fearless visionary (Rollo, the bad ass viking who attacked Paris and was granted Normandy).

Chief Hot stuff

It’s not that
Of course we’d all like no pollution, its just that saying
Renewables dosent mean anything.
They current Renewables are not up to it.
It’s not viable.
China’s build g hundreds of coal power stations cause that’s the only reliable source.
I dont like it but there’s nothing else that’s reliable
I drove past a wind farm the other day and counted 60 not turning.

SSD

I get your point but we’re talking fearless visionaries vs Gavin Newsom. We’re also taking massive energy shortages which is going back on advancement.

Chief Hot stuff

You know how I know that climate disaster is total bullshit?
If things were really so dire we would be using nuclear regardless of the hazards.
It’s all ready proven to be risk manageable.
This is the proof of a scam

SSD

Good point. The problem with nukes is the oil solar/wind energy grabblers can’t make fortunes off it

Otto

I don’t know where Newsom thinks he’s going to get all the electricity from. He can’t even get PG&E to keep the lights on during fire season. And yet somehow he thinks he can “fuel” millions upon millions of vehicles with electricity. Such a fuckwit.

SSD

He’s the ultimate in vapid politicos. Just a shill for the green energy scam. Shutting down SanO plant is so stupid. My brother in law is out from New Hampshire for the decommissioning project and said it is in the best shape of all the plants he’s worked on across the country. Was totally surprised we aren’t using it. You should hear all the insane material removal requirements they have to comply with. Even just removing a lightbulb or fixture takes a mountain of paperwork and must all be shipped out of state instead of local recycling centers. Basically hauling it in semis to Arizona and Nevada. Real green thinking!

Gino

Have never surfed a place where I couldn’t hide the key as I walked from the car.

SectionSB

I used to surf into the evening.
Stashed key under rock in daylight though.
Realized my “landmarks” for which rock I had stashed key under where no longer available for viewing. IE dark. Man I fumbled around for a long time trying to find that key. Forget why I had it with me, maybe a borrowed “nice” car. I normally put it in the bed of the truck with whatever junk is back there for that purpose.

Gino

Never said I didn’t have trouble remembering which rock I stuck it under..haha
I usually look for something big and obvious.


125
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x