A B.C. carjacking victim is speaking out about a “totally frustrating” experience with ICBC after his car was stolen and retrieved by police.
Trevor Clunn left the truck running as he ran a quick errand in Surrey, B.C., on April 1, and said he returned to find a man pointing a gun at him, urging him to, “Stay right there.”
The suspect drove off with his truck and shortly afterward, Surrey RCMP tracked him down. An altercation reportedly ensued, and officers shot him near the intersection of 142a Street and 87a Avenue.
The man’s death is now under investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of BC.
Clunn, however, is now in a battle with ICBC to get compensation for about $600 worth of electronics and other items that he said were in the truck after it was stolen, but not when it was returned to him from the ICBC Claim Centre in Coquitlam.
A bunch of “weird stuff” people would not “normally steal” was missing, he said, including dash cameras, a medical kit, a towel, thermal water containers, a floor mat, and a power adapter. An axe that was in the truck was later found discarded in the weapons bin by cleaners, Clunn added, but he feels ICBC is not taking any responsibility for his missing belongings.
“I feel like I got victimized more by ICBC than when I got my truck stolen at gunpoint,” he told Global News. “It’s just been so frustrating to deal with and having them feel like they’re almost blaming me for stuff that’s missing — I just want my truck back the same way that it left my possession.”
Neither ICBC nor the Surrey RCMP returned a request for comment on this story by deadline.
Clunn said ICBC has provided him with about $140 in compensation for some missing items, including loose change, a life straw, a medical kit and water containers, but is not covering any of the “more expensive” items are not covered.
Clunn said he was told by ICBC that cleaners might have thrown some of it out, and the towing yard where his truck was kept is regularly broken into.
ICBC’s website provides users with literature on what to expect when their car, or permanently-attached car parts are stolen. The website states a recovered vehicle “will be towed to a claim office or ICBC facility for a damage estimate,” but does not address any items that go missing afterward.
Clunn said he has asked the RCMP for photos from inside of the truck after they retrieved it, to show his items were there after the theft, but not after the vehicle went fell into ICBC’s hands. As of Tuesday, he said the Mounties had not answered him.
Clunn’s truck was in good condition when he received it, he added, apart from some wear and tear on the brakes during the police chase.
He added that he feels sorry for the suspect’s family, which is grieving, and he “wants everything to go back to the way it was.”