Minneapolis man gets his stolen car back - with drugs, weapons, and a man's ID left inside
MINNEAPOLIS -- For Sahil Nandwani, having his 2007 Dodge Charger stolen was just the start.
Someone took the car from near his Uptown, Minneapolis apartment earlier this month. He's one of 980 people to have their car stolen in Minneapolis this year. Statistics show on the day his car was stolen, 21 others in the city had the same thing happen to them, too.
"Oh my god, I was going insane," Nandwani said. "I was like what am I going to do next?"
But just a few days after he reported his car stolen, he got a call. The Minnesota State Patrol found it, abandoned, along Interstate 94.
To get it back from a Brooklyn Center impound lot, he owed $390.
"My heart was, it just sank. I was not expecting that much of a cost," he said.
When he opened the car door inside the impound lot, he truly got a sense of the gravity of the situation.
Inside were hundreds of pills, a half-dozen knives, a ski mask, multiple license plates, tools and other drug paraphernalia. Also inside, someone else's ID, phone, wallet and keys.
"We were freaking out," he said. "We called three different lines, being 311, 911 and then the sheriff. And they all just told us the same thing, just to throw everything out."
Nandwani said he couldn't believe it. How could he dispose of drugs and weapons? Let alone drive out of the impound lot with them in his car? What would he say if he got stopped by police?
"I was just so upset and so confused," he said. "I was honestly super scared to throw it out. I thought anybody seeing me throw out all this suspicious stuff would probably call the police on me."
Eventually, he says he disposed of the pills. As for the other things, he says he threw in bags and tried to throw them away.
Days later, he found a new clue. Someone had installed a dash camera in his car. There was footage of the person, which matched the ID, making alterations to the car's interior.
Nandwani called police again, along with his girlfriend's dad.
"They have all of the evidence, right, to put this together," said Ken Iverson, Nandwani's girlfriend's dad. "And you're like OK, this seems like a no brainer."
Minneapolis police say they took in the evidence from Nandwani and have plans to investigate. The burden on police was clear, however, he says, by the way police interacted with him during the process.
"I guess I was kind of expecting to go through this process with the police," said Nandwani's girlfriend, who asked not to be named. "I was very confused honestly that they didn't seem to care at all."
The couple says they were given no indication as to what would happen next, or if police had intentions to confront the person who they believed stole the car.
"[This person] knows where we live and he knows that we have things he wants back," Nandwani's girlfriend said. "Can you do anything? And they tell you 'no.' It pisses me off, because they're here to protect you. I don't feel protected."
Police say they're continuing to investigate the case. Nandwani says he's out thousands of dollars in items stolen from the car. He estimates the car has thousands of dollars of damage that insurance won't cover.
He says while police investigate, he's considering finding a new place to live.
"I don't feel comfortable," he said.
