BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Waking up and not finding your car in its usual spot is a gut punch. One felt by thousands of drivers in WNY over the past year. Including Jeffrey Hinton.
"They just wanted to go on a joyride and then causing me all this financial burden, emotional burden. It's not fair," said Hinton.
In a matter of minutes, thieves broke into his 2020 Kia Sportage and drove away, he caught it all on his Nest doorbell camera.
"I didn't do anything wrong, they picked the lock, my doors were locked and now I'm out all this money," said Hinton.
But even though he did nothing wrong, the car theft paper trail will stick with him for years.
"When we run someone's auto history, we see for about 5 years if they've had tickets, if they've had accidents," said Douglas Benz, President of New Buffalo Insurance Agency.
He says it's already tough to get car insurance these days, so now companies may charge you more or may not insure you at all.
"Some might take some activity a little more easily than some that are like listen, we really just want a certain type of individual that's got no activity and maybe a high credit score," said Benz.
Even if you ditch the Kia and go with a new make and model.
"Because that history sort of lives with you," said Benz. "A carrier might look at it and say 'We know it wasn't really your fault, we know that you weren't really at fault, but we still laid out all this money,' so there's gotta be a little equity in the system there somewhere.
So what can you do? Benz recommends shopping around different insurance policies and not making any more claims if you can avoid it.
