Woman’s Car Gets Stolen And Crashed. Then Cop Tells Her The Thief Won’t Be Charged With A Crime: 'Yet My Car Is Totaled'

A woman whose car was stolen, crashed, abandoned, and vandalized with her own lipstick says police told her the five people who took it would face no criminal charges because they had just been “joyriding.”

The 34-second clip framing the experience as a discovery about US criminal law has drawn responses from lawyers and victims of similar incidents that conflict with what she said the officer on her case told her.

The video was posted by Piper (@its__piper), a TikToker whose channel mostly logs everyday incidents and alternative beauty content. Her caption is “can’t make this up.”

The Crash And The Conversation With Police

Piper sets up her unfortunate experience as a public service announcement and a vent.

“Did you know that if someone steals your car and they claim that they were just joyriding, that they’ll face no jail time and possibly even no fine?” she asks. “Because I didn’t. But five people broke into my car last night, stole it, crashed it, and abandoned it. And they will face no punishment because they were just joyriding.”

The clip then cuts to green-screen photos of the car’s interior. Whoever took it left graffiti written in her lipstick on the dashboard and the inside of the windshield. “Yet my car is totaled,” she says. “And they were writing messages in my favorite lipstick. Nice. Spread positivity.”

Piper also clarified in a reply that she only had liability insurance and her car was worth roughly $8,000 before being totaled. Replacing it will come out of her pocket.

Is Joyriding A Crime?

Piper’s version of what a police officer told her appears to be at odds with the law. Cornell Law School’s legal information institute defines joyriding as “the unlawful taking of a vehicle without the consent of the owner, without intent to permanently deprive the owner of the vehicle,” and calls it “a criminal wrong” that “is typically classified as a misdemeanor rather than a felony.”

State criminal codes give it various names: Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, Unlawful Driving Away of an Automobile, or the local equivalent. But the act is criminalized in every state.

The penalties increase when there is damage. A survey of state laws maintained by CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, notes that joyriding convictions typically carry up to a year in jail for a misdemeanor, and up to several years’ imprisonment as a felony when the value of the vehicle is high or when the joyride caused damage. Texas treats it as a felony with up to two years incarceration and a $10,000 fine. Pennsylvania’s misdemeanor goes up to two years and a $5,000 fine. Joyriding charges in California can be filed either way.

What separates joyriding from grand theft auto is intent: the prosecution has to prove the defendant intended to permanently deprive the owner of the car to charge the more serious offense. The joyriding statutes exist precisely to cover the cases where someone takes a car for a temporary purpose.

Is There Another Way To Hold Joyriders Accountable?

Many comments focused on the gap between what the statutes say and what Piper says the officer told her. Jimbo posted the standard statutory definition under the video.

BusDriverStu, who said they had been through something similar, pointed out that even if criminal charges are not pursued, civil remedies remain: “Just because there’s a conviction loophole doesn’t mean they are not liable. Feel free to sue the occupants for destruction of property—all of them, even the passengers, are liable.” Breakfast added a procedural note. “You have to press charges,” they said. “The system doesn’t do it for you. If they’re minors, you press against the parents.”

Several commenters, including nicklchil and Echo Bear, said police had declined to pursue similar cases against them.

Whether the officer Piper spoke to was describing local prosecutorial practice, the limits of what the local district attorney’s office tends to file, or simply giving incorrect legal information is not something the clip resolves.

The practical paths open to her include requesting that the police forward the report to the local prosecutor’s office and ask in writing whether charges will be filed, which builds a paper trail; filing a civil suit against the identified occupants and, if any are minors, against their parents, which does not require a criminal conviction to succeed; and filing an insurance claim, though liability-only coverage will not pay for her car.

Motor1 reached out to Piper via TikTok direct message for additional comment. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.